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
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
