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.
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.
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?
Sorry just saw this. Standby is 15 hours or so. If I am active with it, it drops closer to 4-5 hours.
It's reasonably stable. The 3 GB limitation is kind of annoying, because a lot of apps like to use 400-500 MB each, so I really can only have one app open at a time.
I don't use too many apps (the only social media I have is Mastodon), so there isn't much tradeoffs to me. Ironically, most of the tradeoffs I used to have to make, I helped fix. I made a meshtastic app, I helped to get GPS working with geoclue for navigation, I made a voicemail app. The main tradeoff for me is the battery really. But in a day to day scenario, I do sit in an office or at home, so it really just sits on one of two chargers.
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.
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.