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3 weeks ago
1
I just saw this announcement about the Librephone from the FSF. The idea is to provide a replacement for the Android smartphone operating system that would be free and open and not vacuum up everything you do with your phone the way Google’s Android OS does.
It’s easy to dismiss this. We’re always seeing some startup claiming to be producing the latest iPhone or Android killer but these “killers” always slip beneath the waves unfulfilled and never to be seen again. At the end of the day, we’re left, as always, with the iPhone and the Android phones,
On the other hand, I remember when the GNU project was announced and thinking that it was a pipe dream that would never succeed. We all know how that prediction turned out. GNU has eaten a large part of the software world and even the parts that it hasn’t swallowed whole still depend on software from the GNU project.
GNU really did change the world so only a fool would dismiss their efforts. In a way, they’re perfectly positioned. They don’t have to worry about developing hardware, dealing with cell carriers, and government agencies, or any of the other hard stuff. Their idea, as I understand it, is to provide a drop-in replacement for the existing Android operating system.
To be sure, the entrenched surveillance industry that abuses the Android system will resist these efforts just as Microsoft and others strenuously resisted Linux and the free software movement. Still, it would be foolish to dismiss Librephone’s efforts out of hand. It will be interesting to see how things play out. The FSF has recruited some very talented people to work on the project so the technical aspects are probably well in hand. I’d guess the major problems will be political and marketing. Unlike GNU, Librephone is aimed at a wider market than just the nerds and that may require winning over the man on the street.
