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The Free Software Foundation just gave humanity a final shot at salvation by announcing the Librephone, one of the most ambitious open-source projects of our time. But can this project really topple iOS and Android? Let's find out...

#tech #iOS #Android

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- https://www.fsf.org/news/librephone-project

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🔖 Topics Covered
- What is the Librephone?
- Free Software Foundation
- Is Android really open-source?
- Richard Stallman hires Rob Savoye

Fireship is a YouTube channel created by Jeff Delaney that offers quick tutorials and explanations on web development, programming, and tech trends. Known for the “100 Seconds of Code” and “The Code Report” series, the channel breaks down complex topics in a short, engaging format, covering everything from JavaScript frameworks to emerging technologies.

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The Free Software Foundation announced the Libriophone project, led by Rob Savois, aiming to create a fully open-source smartphone by replacing all proprietary firmware, drivers, and binary blobs with free software alternatives. Unlike existing solutions like LineageOS that still contain proprietary code, this initiative seeks complete software freedom through reverse engineering. The project faces significant challenges including the massive technical undertaking of replacing closed-source components, limited historical adoption of similar efforts like Replicant, and the dominant Apple-Google duopoly that controls mobile ecosystems.

Apple and Google won’t like this...

As a scientist, I hate using the word “never”. But, I don’t ever seeing this happening. Not mainstream that is. Sure, there might be a cult following like the old school Blackberries and flip phones. There is just to much hardware that goes into building a smartphone and then having to keep it up to date each year, adding new features to keep the so called “wow” factor. An open source company competing with Google and Apple in both hardware and software. It’s a pipe dream. And then having software that runs on devices like a Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, iPhone, never gonna happen. There is just to much “new” patented, proprietary technology in each new released phone. In Amateur Radio, we have radio kits where you can build your own radio. I can see where you have kits to where you build your own smartphone. But, it’s not going to be like an iPhone that is a few millimeters in width. It’s not going to have the latest and greatest camera chip. As I said, there could be a cult following like Flip phones but competing with Google and Apple, Apple and Google are not scared at all! It’s not even a joke to them.

More like, Apple and Google wont care about this?

lets rally back behind the saviour! Lets pour in our contributions!

A great idea that no hardware vendors will ever implement