someUnexpectedSparks @someunexpectedsparks@librem.one
I'll use this to toot a bit about linux phones, primarily the Librem5 from Purism. I hope to pass on some information that I'd be interested in if I was thinking about buying one.
I am not, in any way, affiliated with Purism beyond being a customer.
If you find any of this interesting or helpful, great. If not, well most of social media is moronic anyway, what did you expect? :)
Joined Aug 2020
Podcasts (2/3)
You must set the audio output manually
- At first, it was playing like a phone call
- In the settings app under “Sound” I selected “Speaker Phone” & things got a bit louder. Not actually loud. Underwhelming
- I tried wired headphones. Not great. A few seconds of headphone audio, then a split-second burst of phone audio. Over & over. That was a week ago. Now, after a couple updates, still there but less often
- A Bluetooth headset worked fine – that’s the keeper!
#librem5 #dogwood
Podcasts (1/3)
I installed gnome podcasts from the flatpack ref from https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Podcasts I assume that's the way to do it, wasn't in the software app
It imported my OPML from my Android app fine
I don't think I like the app.
- video doesn't seem to work
- there doesn’t seem to be a view that only shows unplayed podcasts
- playback speed won’t go above 2.0x (I got used to 2.5x – don’t laugh)
Calls work
Mobile data works
SMS/Texts work
Does what it says on the tin, mostly
There are some quirks worth tooting for all of that, but not tonight
fwiw, I'm running on Consumer Cellular from the Washington DC suburbs. I have nothing to do with them, they just seemed to be most useful to me when my patience for reading phone company marketing BS ran out.
#librem5 #dogwood
There seem to be 2 types of crashes:
- small: pressing power brings things back
- large: simple reboot resistant. The long-presses in https://docs.puri.sm/Librem_5/Troubleshooting.html that are supposed to be only for birch seem to help. Or it could be random and I’m https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/
I need to take better notes, but it has been a few days since I’ve experienced a large crash. Maybe an update helped?
#librem5 #dogwood
Is the Librem5 crashy? Yes, the Librem5 is crashy.
Did they warn us Dogwood was crashy? Yes, they did warn us https://forums.puri.sm/t/dogwood-shipping-out-today/9920
I took delivery anyway and don't regret it. I'm having fun here and a lot works.
Where did my wi-fi hardware go?
It has been working more or less fine since I got it. Occasionally it would drop-out, but a cycle of the kill switch or power would bring it back. Basically, a nuisance.
Today. It seems gone and I can’t figure out how to get it back. Bummer.
I wanted to play with it today, but all my plans involved wi-fi. Gonna hope a full charge and some time off sorts it out. I don't want to try to debug this.
Cellular is working fine.
I got so excited tooting about modifier keys, I forgot to mention that there is
- no spell check
- no type-ahead suggestions
- no swipey typing
There is an emoji keyboard for some reason.
At first I thought there wasn't a phone number keypad - but the entering a phone number in contacts brings one of those up.
The screenshots I included last toot ago are from the "terminal" keyboard.
A quick note on squeekboard, the librem5 on-screen keyboard
When I first started playing around with the phone, particularly in the terminal, there was no [Ctrl] key. WTF?
That's a problem. It actually put me off wanting to play with the phone. It felt like a Fisher-Price phone or something.
Then one day I see this...
Modifier keys. Arrow keys. They just appeared one day. Very cool!
Software updates ftw?
#librem5 #dogwood #squeekboard
By the way, I realize attempting to read a PDF on a phone is a stupid thing to do regardless of OS or hardware.
Stupid on a desktop too for that matter.
Let things reflow!
Gave evince (gnome document viewer) a try (2/2)
I went landscape to get wider & bigger text, but the side panel wouldn’t go away- wasted space.
UI toggle wouldn’t work. Keyboard shortcut wouldn’t work.
2 screencaps, one should have the sidebar, one shouldn’t. Can you see a difference?
The toggle worked in portrait mode, and on a different laptop, so I’m pretty sure it should work here too.
To me this kind of nuisance stuff is expected given where linux phones stand today.
Gave evince (gnome document viewer) a try (1/2)
Purism gives a "fully optimized" rating on https://tracker.pureos.net/w/pureos/mobile_optimized_apps/ so … high hopes.
For work, I sometimes read these https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/sp800 so that’ll be my real-world test case.
I downloaded it from the gnome browser w/o trouble.
In portrait, it worked well. Rendered fine. Pinch-zoom fine. Full-screen fine. Responsive.
About as good as you can expect for reading a pdf on a phone.
I don't plan to produce a traditional phone review, but every few days I will toot if I think I have a toot-worthy observation.
Based on Purism's shipping pace, this approach will be fine.
I think context matters, so you should know I
* support the free software folks
* think you should fully control your devices
* do not consent to your surveillance
* cannot wait for a viable alternative to iOS/Android
* run GNU/Linux on all my machines
* am happy to support the creation of a GNU/Linux phone
* understand the Librem5 is a work-in-progress
* work in software development, though not anything mobile
Keep this in mind. My approach to technology may be different than yours.
I'll use this to toot a bit about linux phones, primarily the Librem5 from Purism. I hope to pass on some information that I'd be interested in if I was thinking about buying one.
I am not, in any way, affiliated with Purism beyond being a customer.
If you find any of this interesting or helpful, great. If not, well most of social media is moronic anyway, what did you expect? :)
Joined Aug 2020
