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fsflover | karma 8037 | avg karma 1.36 · 2022-11-28 16:27:42

> I think it's a pretty futile effort to make a completely open phone.

No, it's not: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5.

species9606 | karma 96 | avg karma 2.91 · 2022-11-28 16:30:16

If you can afford one, which most people can’t.

oneplane | karma 6399 | avg karma 2.47 · 2022-11-28 17:41:38

I don't think you can call anything with GSMA IP in it "open". Same goes for systems that won't run without their closed binary blobs loaded at boot or runtime to enable hardware.

So far, there has only been 3G-ish experimental SDR-based true open hardware, but it's the size of a shoebox, not a phone.

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kube-system | karma 21374 | avg karma 2.36 · 2022-11-28 18:09:47

The Librem 5 is not completely open -- neither the hardware nor software. https://puri.sm/faq/

The Librem 5 is the best effort to this date, but the wifi, bluetooth, and baseband software are proprietary, as well as much of the silicon, and part of the boot chain.

There simply aren't any open source options that exist for these components, and due to regulatory constraints, it's unlikely that an open source baseband will exist any time soon.

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fsflover | karma 8037 | avg karma 1.36 · 2022-11-29 04:20:40

You are right. For the ultimate openness, you could have a look at Precursor, but it's not really a phone.

kube-system | karma 21374 | avg karma 2.36 · 2022-11-29 08:18:58

The silicon on it is also proprietary. The wifi radio is fully proprietary, and while the FPGA is programmable, the silicon is proprietary.

It does solve the mobile radio problem though, by not having one :)

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