Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera(catcrafts.net) |
Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera(catcrafts.net) |
From the PMOS wiki: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairp...:
> No internal speakers or microphones are currently working. Media sound (not calls) is working if connecting a Bluetooth or USB audio device.
I got a Fairphone 6 last year, after having a OnePlus 7 Pro which I bought in 2019 and still worked flawlessly, apart from not having received an update in several years.
The Fairphone 6 works. It's slower and more buggy than a 7 year old flagship though. I'll probably use it until it dies in however many years time, but my overall experience with Fairphone has been that I've paid a huge amount for a below standard, poorly supported, but apparently fair phone. The Fairphone forums are a trainwreck too.
I really, really wish Fairphone was better, but the entire company experience is so janky for how expensive the products are.
A prime example: I thought I lost a few eclipse pictures because they weren't showing in the gallery after I took them. I'm pretty certain it's this same bug from over a year ago: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-6-camera-pictures-mi...
Me and my partner both got our oneplus 7 pros at the same time, and hers also lasted. She upgraded at same time and just wanted/needed a phone that works for work, so she opted for the Pixel 9a instead. It's cheaper, faster, more reliable and better supported.
Sorry to rant - it distresses me a lot when good intentions take a lot of money and deliver a relatively subpar product and service. I guess this is the price of principled tech. It's really not great, unfortunately.
I have played around a bit with pmOS, originally on an early Pinephone (the "Braveheart" model, which was plagued with hardware issues) and more recently on an ASUS MeMO Pad 7 (which at the time was in the "Community" support category but appears to have since been archived by pmOS). Even on devices where it "works", it tends to be slow, buggy, very heavy on battery and some peripherals like GPS and camera very rarely work.
This is absolutely not intended as criticism of the Fairphone, Pinephone or pmOS teams - on the contrary they are doing fantastic and important work. I think the problem is just really hard when you're working against the interests of some of the wealthiest corporations on earth (and governments seem to have zero interest in helping solve it).
Fellow Fairphone user here & I don't really understand this comment. Why did you buy a Fairphone?
As far as I can understand, the main reason anyone would buy a Fairphone is because they want a fair(er) phone. That "fairness" involves reducing profit-driven exploitation - there's an implicit understanding there that that massively increases supply chain cost, right?
It just feels like you're trying to have your cake & eat it too here. Nobody should be comparing Fairphones to a flagship of any era.
I'm not trying to have my cake and eat it, to extend your analogy, we both had the cake, we've both eaten it - it's the same cake. I'm saying I appreciate the cake was fair, I appreciate the staff were paid well, I appreciate good fair ingredients were used, I'm glad I bought the cake, I know why I did, because it aligns with my ethos.
All the necessary things that went into an average cake - and more - have been put into this cake. My point here is I don't understand why it tastes worse than the average cake. Based on my view of the world, it should taste at least as good as a regular cake, because it has more money, at least similar quality materials, and should have higher quality, more passionate labour involved.
I feel like you don't understand my comment because you've taken personal offence to me providing critical feedback about the taste of your favourite cake. I like your cake vendor, and the cake vendor cause. This is why I want them to succeed, which is why I provide the honest feedback.
If you say you can do something well, it just needs money and fairness, and people give you money and fairness, and you don't do the thing well... that's not really fair.
See the other blog posts by the same author in the story posted.[1] He's added support for these and other hardware parts for the FP6, currently being upstreamed directly to the Linux kernel.
If that happens, the resultant hardware/software/freedom combo could be well worth the cost. I hope Fairphone make some big donations to PMOS if this happens - it would not be very fair for the people responsible for a buggy phone get all the money whilst the PMOS people who make it great, fair and open get nothing.
Fairphone does focus on having a better social and environmental impact, this comes as part of the price. It does also focus on repairability which also comes as part of the price. If those are things you do not specifically value (which is fine), that definitely makes their products too expensive in comparison with other manufacturers. The support side could definitely be better but as a small company, I personally thinks it's okay.
I have a Fairphone 4 and I'm happy with it, it's fast, takes good pictures, and just works. It has great support in communities as well. I was able to easily change a part of a Fairphone 3 (dead usb c port) and the experience there was just great, they really made repairs super easy.
FWIW, my understanding is the FP6 seems to be notably less successful and "just works" compared to earlier models.
It isn't really slow. It takes average pictures, and sometimes loses them. It regularly does annoying little freezes and bugs.
The FP6 has average spec, average performance, more bugs than average, worse/slower support than average (at least on their own forums) and a higher price than average.
I believe fair stuff done right should be at least as good as average, and I'm fine to pay more than average for that. When I pay more than average and get less than average, and looking like they're ignoring/avoiding problems in their own forums, that feels as though someone isn't being very fair towards their customers.
I'm flipping it as soon as Motorola releases their GrapheneOS compatible phone. I hate that I have no other decent options, and that phones are getting bigger and bigger, but I don't really have a choice.
If Apple would be so kind as to release an SE-sized phone again, I'd jump right back. iOS 26 is horrible, but they at least seem to be on the right track to improve things again.
Where did you get this impression? It seems to be the opposite:
Things like running a distributed database for a community on top of the devices they own, hopefully also running true mesh networking.
What I'm looking for is an 8GB phone that I can run Docker on, to host apps like DHIS2 & OpenMRS3 (so a JVM). I have the impression that this isn't easily possible with Halium-based kernels, but I'm not an expert.
Edit: oh and full access to the radio chips, so I can set up mesh networks (and a cherry on top :-))
Also, choosing the OS means freedom to choose the interface you like or develop your own (or to pay somebody to do that for you). Freedom to not be in walled gardens.
Running Firefox with uBlock.
Installing any app I want, not just the ones Apple allows.
Faking GPS data to hide my location from spyware that "requires" location permissions
(To be fair, you can do these on Android "for now", but Google is actively working hards towards the more locked-down Apple "experience")
I wish alternatives like Fairphone or other linux phones step up a game. They have too high a price and too low specs.
Check out the FuriPhone FLX1S, Jolla C2 and the Volla Phone Quintus - they all have decent specs for the price (relatively; the reality is that Linux phones will never be cheaper than mainstream Android phones due to the way the market forces work).
As in, Mobile NixOS? How was that?
Does this HW have access to PDAF pixel data?
He doesn't want to create an LLC because he doesn't want anyone to question his motives.
Also this is the Netherlands not Germany :)
I don't know if it's standard for other business types as well, like in a BV (afaik that's what you call LLC). If you're not the only shareholder, it might help prevent legal issues when you make some mistake and it just gets paid from insurance. That's the purpose of it in a stichting anyway (negligence claims; getting into debts where you could allegedly have foreseen that the foundation can't afford it)
My advice would be to not take the frustrating and useless road of a non-profit structure for some things that you do for pleasure.
The for-profit will be simpler and give you more liberties, and if, in the end, you have the good mindset that you want your creations to be shared freely, you can do it anyway. It is a state of mind.
We had Librem 5 which had real OS support that didn't have to rely on third-party volunteers, I wish they released something more modern..
Is there any precedent to believe that such a thing is in fact possible?
> and volunteers have to use hacks
I have terrible news for you about how the official firmware works.
> to unofficially implement basic Android 1.0 functionality years after a device was released?
Conversely, in other places it's far better than Android 1.0. But yes, if you can only start developing against the device after it's released, then your software will be released after the hardware ships plus development time.
> That's sad to see. This is just lame, drivers should be implemented by those who work on them..
My general understanding of the Android ecosystem is that they do write drivers, and you don't want those drivers. I like to imagine that somewhere that out there somebody must be making phones with high quality software, but I've never heard of them.
> I have terrible news for you about how the official firmware works.
I've seen some e-waste ODM (Tinno) code and their freestyle philosophy on modifying the kernel code.. however they at least have to fix this so that basic functionality works as there's QA and serious bugs will affect certification and they'd not get paid. But here if you report a bug to PostmarketOS (but well, even LineageOS), nothing will happen unless you fix it (and if you submit a patch, it will sit there forever, welcome to FOSS).
> My general understanding of the Android ecosystem is that they do write drivers, and you don't want those drivers
What's wrong with pixel drivers for instance? I'm of course not talking about those written by e-waste ODMs like Tinno who can't even release GPL kernel sources properly.
Where did you get this idea from?
I don't think a lack of hardware and software technology is what is lacking, but rather a vision, a dream, a call to action and corresponding courage to act while facing down an invisible enemy that can only been seen by its effects on the world.
Thank you for articulating it clearly. It inspires me to take a step back from building, and consider what I'm building and why.
A couple of issues , back from my sailfish os porting days (haven't touched it in half a decade so things might have changed):
1. You would still need to run a lot of Android user space to make use of these drivers. We had a separate second init system that runs a stripped down version of Android init, starting enough services to make use of these drivers.
2. These binary drivers are tied to the kernel and Android versions that were released with the phone. So if you wanted some of the newer kernel features (back then it was like better container support), you're out of luck.
Usually, all this means you rely on a lot of hacks to fix some bugs... And porting takes a lot of time and effort.
For the Pixel specifically, Google actually is working to upstream its hardware drivers and enable devices to boot off mainline. [2]
[1] https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/kernel/gen...
Even in the day to day, like for him to pay himself a salary or do expenses, things could be tricky as administration could easily consider as personal abuse of funds of a non profit.
Seriously, you can run the windows version of GTA V on a phone. It runs pretty ok as well.