The author didn't even one of the worst abuses: Google pushes features like Safetynet and Web Environment Integrity, which use Hardware DRM to ensure software is running on certified hardware and OS. Even passkeys come with remote attestation to make sure the user can't control their own authentication keys.
I feel like we need another system. Proprietary is great, as long as it's not the only choice. Open source is another great choice.
They are both a marriage of technology with quite different economic systems. With different pro's and con's.
But a technological/economic system that highly incentivized suppliers of fine grain pick-and-choose modularity (in the form of both modular systems and individual modules), over bloat/irreversably-integrated products would be an incredible boon for choice.
Because modularity = choice, maximum competition. Non-modularity = lack of choice, reduced competition.
Then vertical proprietary systems could still compete, including leveraging integration when it provides benefits (performance, simpler choices, lower user-side complexity), but they would be competing with viable modular substitutes with a different benefit: they do what users want, and only what they want.
Not saying I have a realistic economic model for how a very strong modularity incentive happens, but the question has been on my mind the last couple decades!
Note that both proprietary and open-source provide haphazard modularity, but neither is pervasively modular today. Although the latter is reliably malleable, sort of atomically modular. But we the option for modularity at all levels clearly has huge untapped/unrewarded economic value.
Genuine question - my impression of the Librem phones is they’re not particularly usable as phones - is a Librem an actually viable smartphone right now? Like, if I want to do all the normal stuff - use maps, message friends (say, text and signal), maybe even catch an uber - is a Librem a viable choice for normal phone use?
I have been using a Librem 5 on Mobian for 3+ years, and the answer is yes. I can use sms/mms, have Signal Desktop installed, i can use Pure Maps for maps and navigation, and i can use Android Apps via Waydroid (though that is admittedly cumbersome).
Interesting - I've looked at them before, but have always been hesitant. What kind of battery life are you getting, and how stable is it? What are the primary tradeoffs for you?
Got a Librem5 and sold it immediately. Too large, too heavy, shitty, buggy software and the battery was terrible. This was admittedly a few years ago but I wouldnt touch them.
The author didn't even one of the worst abuses: Google pushes features like Safetynet and Web Environment Integrity, which use Hardware DRM to ensure software is running on certified hardware and OS. Even passkeys come with remote attestation to make sure the user can't control their own authentication keys.
> Over the years, Google has moved many crucial features [...] push notifications, from the open-source project to its closed-source black box.
Haven't push notifications always been part of the closed Google Play Services?
I feel like we need another system. Proprietary is great, as long as it's not the only choice. Open source is another great choice.
They are both a marriage of technology with quite different economic systems. With different pro's and con's.
But a technological/economic system that highly incentivized suppliers of fine grain pick-and-choose modularity (in the form of both modular systems and individual modules), over bloat/irreversably-integrated products would be an incredible boon for choice.
Because modularity = choice, maximum competition. Non-modularity = lack of choice, reduced competition.
Then vertical proprietary systems could still compete, including leveraging integration when it provides benefits (performance, simpler choices, lower user-side complexity), but they would be competing with viable modular substitutes with a different benefit: they do what users want, and only what they want.
Not saying I have a realistic economic model for how a very strong modularity incentive happens, but the question has been on my mind the last couple decades!
Note that both proprietary and open-source provide haphazard modularity, but neither is pervasively modular today. Although the latter is reliably malleable, sort of atomically modular. But we the option for modularity at all levels clearly has huge untapped/unrewarded economic value.
There is purism with their librem phones, I wonder why the author didn't mention them in the end of the article.
Genuine question - my impression of the Librem phones is they’re not particularly usable as phones - is a Librem an actually viable smartphone right now? Like, if I want to do all the normal stuff - use maps, message friends (say, text and signal), maybe even catch an uber - is a Librem a viable choice for normal phone use?
I have been using a Librem 5 on Mobian for 3+ years, and the answer is yes. I can use sms/mms, have Signal Desktop installed, i can use Pure Maps for maps and navigation, and i can use Android Apps via Waydroid (though that is admittedly cumbersome).
Interesting - I've looked at them before, but have always been hesitant. What kind of battery life are you getting, and how stable is it? What are the primary tradeoffs for you?
Got a Librem5 and sold it immediately. Too large, too heavy, shitty, buggy software and the battery was terrible. This was admittedly a few years ago but I wouldnt touch them.
Can you record your own conversations on those?
An alternative could be https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-community-phone
I read that as Google Keep, don't you dare.