Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Some might find it interesting that all of the work to turn a bunch of disparate articles into a properly-formatted book, from the additional writing and formatting work (VIM + LaTeX plugin), digital page proof review (Evince), LaTeX research and integration with the self-publishing platform (Firefox), cover photo tweaks (GIMP), happened not only with FOSS tools, but all on my personal computer, which happens to be a Librem 5 phone attached to a lapdock.

#Librem5 #lapdock #convergence #foss

Due to all of the news around our Lapdock Kit, I was recently reminded of this Linux Journal article I wrote almost ten years ago (wow...) about my desire for what we now call convergence--using your phone as your main general-purpose personal computer.

Back then the best I could find was docking a Droid 4 on an Atrix lapdock, and running local Linux apps in a chroot over VNC.

How far we've come!

#convergence #librem5 #lapdock

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/whats-dock

One use case for a phone+lapdock as a personal laptop that I didn't consider when I wrote this blog post last year (https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/) was that because you can swap between docked and undocked states without powering off the phone or closing applications, you can also swap between *lapdocks* without losing state.

Where would you use this? Maybe at conferences? Imagine if you owned more than one lapdock and swapped to a fully-charged one when the other one drained. #Librem5 #lapdock

When we say the #Librem5 is a mobile computer in your pocket, this is what we mean.

One of our customers (@primalmotion) hacks on custom versions of #PureBoot firmware for their #Librem14 which always runs the risk of temporarily bricking your computer.

When that did inevitably happen, they were able to connect their Librem 5 to their hardware flashing equipment and run the same tools you'd run on your Linux laptop to re-flash working firmware.

Phosh has a new optional feature that uses the light sensor to switch to a high contrast theme whenever it detects you are in direct sunlight. Very cool, especially since it also applies to the lock screen and all GTK apps too. #Librem5

I did many #Librem5 convergence demos with my #Nexdock360 at #scale19x. It's so fun to watch the moment when people *get* convergence after seeing me drag a known Linux desktop app between screens and have it morph based on screen size.

I've been doing a lot of anti-interdiction orders for #Librem5USA recently and realized not everyone may know we offer the service for our phones. I did a quick write-up on how we have adapted the process for the #Librem5 https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-on-the-librem-5-usa/

I guess my habit of turning off WiFi/BT on my #Librem5 with the hardware kill switch when I leave the house isn't just good for battery life: https://gizmodo.com/bluetooth-tracking-iphone-airtags-1849042375 #privacy #security

Someone in chat challenged me to write a parody based on swiping the #Librem5 "all night long". Challenge accepted:

It's hard to believe it's been a year since I replaced my personal computer with a #Librem5 and laptop dock. In this post I talk about my impressions, the docks I've tried, and using my Librem 5 as a tablet. https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/

I just sent and received calls between my SIP account and landline phone using my #Librem5 and the native Calls application, and it was pretty exciting.

Signal is one of the last things I use my old Android phone for. I've been trying out the latest axolotl Signal client on my #Librem5 and while it isn't feature complete and it's an Electron app, it's functional enough for the basic chatting I do that I don't need to go back.

This extensive and thoughtful post by a member of the #Librem5 community does a good job of explaining the past and present mobile Linux ecosystem and why Purism's approach with phosh makes strategic sense long-term. https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2020/08/05/advantages-of-phosh/

One of the most interesting things to me about NSA's document on cellphone tracking is that all their mitigations rely on software features they admit are flawed and could be hacked. This is why we rely on hardware to prevent tracking on the #Librem5: https://puri.sm/posts/how-librem-5-solves-nsas-warning-about-cellphone-location-data/

I discovered http://cardgames.io games work great on my #Librem5 as a Gnome Web local app with its own launcher icon. While I already had solitaire and other games, this adds games like cribbage that don't have a native Linux app.

We are continually disappointed by false promises of mobile convergence. My thoughts on why: real convergence means taking your desktop computer with you wherever you go. Fake convergence is the opposite: stretching a phone to fit a larger screen. #Librem5 https://puri.sm/posts/investing-in-real-convergence/

I'm digging the new boot splash screen that made it in the #Librem5 Dogwood PureOS release. I especially like the graphical feedback during system updates.

To the best of our knowledge, the #Librem5 is the only smartphone around with a OpenPGP smart card reader. In this post I talk about why that's such a big deal: https://puri.sm/posts/your-own-personal-enclave-the-smart-card-reader-on-the-librem-5/

I was able to install @micahflee 's dangerzone package on my #Librem5 and w/ some QT tweaks the main screen fits (other screens need more work). It uses an amd64 Docker image so I need an arm64 image to actually clean docs, but it was nice that I got as far as I did without much effort.

It looks like the latest #Librem5 kernel update reduced active power consumption by another 100-140mA based on my own measurements. I hear there are a lot more improvements in the pipeline once we switch from 5.3 to the 5.6 kernel.