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New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones.

Added by til sam almost 6 years ago

Replicant developers, your work is valued. I assume
technically the task is difficult and that you
have limited resources.

Right now replicant provides software for some discontinued phones. To
my knowledge because no new phones can be made replicant compatible
which meet replicant developers requirements to hardware.

When you have installed replicant on a phone, you get a phone which has several
not working devices. If you do not have a 3g data plan your only option is to
connect an ar9271 usb wifi card. It is unhandy. The wifi card will work
about 15 minutes then the battery will make it stop.

This is unsound.

To make it clear, if I go to replicant's homepage I want everything to be
about libre software. I do not want the replicant homepage to change
its policy.

However I am not going to use a phone if the internal wifi card and
the hidden caller function does not work. I would like all devices
on the phone to work too.

Counter to replicant rules I asked about these matters because I did not
know where else to ask. In short I was answered, go find out
for yourself. Which I did to no avail.

In result I have a replicant phone I do not use.

How many use replicant? Likely not many. Which is no surprise due
to the phones in question and little support if you want more than
libre software replicant. Had there been many replicant users
another homepage on how to install non libre drivers on
replicant phones may have come to light.

A workaround could be if the replicant homepage would display a
message saying: When you have installed replicant you will
notice that several devices do not work because unlike this
other homepage we will not tell you how to get non libre
software on your phone.

Pressing 'homepage' would then direct you to another homepage
which tells you how to get working devices.

Those of you who know how to get the non working devices
working, do you not want to tell because you resent to
deal with non libre software or because preparing non libre
software is one more difficult task?

Is replicant going to introduce newer replicant phones?

https://www.eelo.io/
is going to try to negate the android surveillance
software. Eelo will be installable on current
phones, by that accepting the presence of
non libre software. Should eelo succeed on their
task, I will reluctantly make use
of this option, like I reluctantly use a x86 non libreboot
computer.


Replies (10)

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Andrés D almost 6 years ago

I understand how you feel, but I don't agree with you about what the problem is.

Replicant is an Android distribution based on LineageOS without proprietary drivers and firmware and a little bit more concerned about privacy/security. If your plan is to install it and then reintroduce what it was removed, why not just use LineageOS in the first place? Modern devices could be supported but with most features non-functional, so what will we get with that? If you want functional phones, the best choice is using the best supported ones: S3 (i9300) and Note2 (n7100) until a good candidate arrives.

In the case of S3 and Note2, both phones nearly have linux kernel mainline support (forkbomb's work) and the GPU free drivers are WIP (yuq's driver for Mali-400/450). Even some work has been done for the LTE versions (i905 and n7105), with the forkbomb's kernel and wiewo's initial code for the modem. About WIFI/BT and GPS, everyone can write documentation about how to install their drivers/firmwares on a device, do it if you want, but Replicant's policy is not to host that documentation in the project's web.

About eelo, I don't think that they will provide anything interesting to the project: the problem of is lack of hardware support without proprietary code; and they only concentrate in what Replicant already does: removing problematic software for privacy/security. I have more hope for Librem 5.

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Yo Neda almost 6 years ago

Anyone who has tried to install linux on some crapware that is now around (low-cost laptops, tablets, 2-in-1 convertibles) based on proprietary SoC, knows that it's already a great result to make all basic features working on it. For ICs whose you don't have drivers or firmware to study, reverse engineering takes away a lot of time, and when you have managed to get something, in the meantime that technology has often become outdated.
If we want to have a real smartphone platform on which to run only free software - from bottom to top, totally - IMHO it's useless to waste time: we must join forces and define a common platform that allows developers to port our beloved Replicant on it. Otherwise, as with many tablets, convertibles, etc. we can only use the crapware we have, even if not everything works on it.
The problem is still hardware with proprietary firmware, that's what we should get rid of, IMHO.

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by til sam almost 6 years ago

I ask people in charge of replicant to comment. My post is about pointing at shortcomings of replicant and to get to know what are the plans about
replicant? I believe replicant is diminishing. Only a select few will accept to use outdated phones having several devices not working.

little bit more concerned about privacy/security.

Sure about that? I rather think replicant actively tries to remove any kind of surveillance software. If they can find it.
why not just use LineageOS in the first place?

Does lineageos have a stated policy about removing any piece of surveillance software? Please point me to such source should it exist.
If lineageos comes with google services, google play included, we know the matter of surveillance software is not a priority to
lineageos.
Modern devices could be supported but with most features non-functional, so what will we get with that?

Two things.
You are speaking from the trenches. What you have to accept is, some people would use replicant if they could buy a new phone and
get all devices working also if it required to use non libre software to run the devices. You know replicant has already made
a compromise because the modem runs non libre software? That fact alone may compromise the entire phone. https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php. You are right, adding more non libre software to the phone may compromise the phone further. We cannot tell.
I say, let the phone owner decide.
Having a new phone which is replicant complient is very important. I believe people refrain from replicant when they discover
the which replicant phones there are. New replicant phones do not appear because replicant cannot find
modem separated phones?

you want functional phones, the best choice is using the best supported ones: S3 (i9300) and Note2 (n7100

I disagree you get a functional phone.
everyone can write documentation about how to install their drivers/firmwares on a device, do it if you want

Common phone users are not able to recompile the image such they get
the devices working.
Replicant's policy is not to host that documentation in the project's web.

I repeat
A workaround could be if the replicant homepage would display a
message saying: When you have installed replicant you will
notice that several devices do not work because unlike this
other homepage we will not tell you how to get non libre
software on your phone.
don't think that they will provide anything interesting to the project

I agree if you are saying eelo cannot do much for replicant. I think replicant can do something
for eelo. If replicant wants to and it does not go against replicant's policy.
I assume replicant has a lot of knowledge about identifying and removing surveillance software
and compiling software after having removed pieces of software.
The main question is, if replicant can contribute to the main eelo software repositories, which
will be libre software knowing that the libre software will be compiled together with non
libre pieces of software? Because eelo wants to provide phones where all devices are working.
hope for Librem 5.

You do know purism mislead people about their notebooks regarding the possibility of getting
a notebook which would run entirely on libre software?
About their phone they could more specifically explain why several devices on the phone
likely will not be able to run on libre software.
reverse engineering takes away a lot of time, and when you have managed to get something, in the meantime that technology has often become outdated.

I have not read that eelo will reverse engineer anything. Instead they will use available non libre software.
If we want to have a real smartphone platform on which to run only free software

My suggestion is about giving people an option to get all devices working on a replicant phone. Eelo
is not about an entirely libre software phone.
we must join forces and define a common platform

I agree. Until then we should provide as many options for people as possible. Also partly non libre software options.

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Andrés D almost 6 years ago

First I have to say that I'm not a Replicant developer neither a user right now. Actual developers please feel free to discredit my words.

til sam wrote:

I believe replicant is diminishing. Only a select few will accept to use outdated phones having several devices not working.

Only a few accepted it in the past, and I think that it is now more usable than ever before.

I rather think replicant actively tries to remove any kind of surveillance software. If they can find it.

Yes, within very important constrains: if you use broadband network you can be easily under surveillance, including position tracking, and if using GSM/GPRS your calls and sms can be decrypted and impersonated.

If lineageos comes with google services, google play included, we know the matter of surveillance software is not a priority to
lineageos.

It does not, they just document where to get google apps from and how to install them. They were distributed inside the roms only in the first months of Cyanogenmod, until Google asked to stop it. Google only allows distributing google apps for approved devices. They license end users that download google apps themselves, and I think that in the near future they will require user registration and a maximum number of devices per user.

I say, let the phone owner decide.
Having a new phone which is replicant complient is very important. I believe people refrain from replicant when they discover
the which replicant phones there are.

You are asking for LineageOS phones but saying that are Replicant compliant. If current phones were Replicant complaint and with all the features supported, what would the owner had to decide? They now need to decide between a phone fully supported or a Replicant one. As I said, if you want to document or distribute the drivers and proprietary firmware for using the unsupported features in Replicant supported devices that's great, for the rest (the current models you are asking for) you would mostly get LineageOS with Replicant artwork.

Common phone users are not able to recompile the image such they get
the devices working.

Kernel modules and binary firmware could be installed by Recovery from a zip file, just like LineageOS users do to install google apps. But except for the already supported devices that have some closed source replaced (for example for the intel modem in the supported samsung phones) you will end with a nearly stock LineageOS. If I remember correctly, LineageOS/Cyanogenmod has previously accepted open source replacements for proprietary code that could apply to its supported devices, why don't you instead ask them to do it again if there is some code that they could use?

When you have installed replicant you will
notice that several devices do not work because unlike this
other homepage we will not tell you how to get non libre
software on your phone.

I believe that linking to web pages that explains how to install proprietary software is against Replicant's goals and policies.

I think replicant can do something
for eelo. If replicant wants to and it does not go against replicant's policy.
I assume replicant has a lot of knowledge about identifying and removing surveillance software
and compiling software after having removed pieces of software.

Removing surveillance software is supposedly the only work they are going to do, and supposedly their expertise. That's the only reason for Eelo to exist.

The main question is, if replicant can contribute to the main eelo software repositories, which
will be libre software knowing that the libre software will be compiled together with non
libre pieces of software? Because eelo wants to provide phones where all devices are working.

It sound as if Replicant were a big community with a lot of active developers. Replicant uses LineageOS as a base because it reduce work for the couple of active developers that do it as an unpaid/free-time-allows job. It would be more reasonable if Eelo used Replicant as a base and contributed to it. About contributing to Eelo, developers can contribute to whatever project they want, forkbomb for example contributes to LineageOS (he is a Head Developer and Device Maintainer).

You do know purism mislead people about their notebooks regarding the possibility of getting
a notebook which would run entirely on libre software?

I agree, that table with every aspect of librem in green and other laptops in red was a parallel reality. At the beginning they proposed a crowdfunded laptop that had specially bad hardware for free software (even for Intel laptops) and used free software as a misleading marketing strategy. They latter changed the specifications for components just average for openness. But now librem are the only x86 laptops that can be bought running coreboot and mostly deactivated ME (and of course Linux).

About their phone they could more specifically explain why several devices on the phone
likely will not be able to run on libre software.

Anyway they can very easily make a phone much better than anything we can buy right now, and probably the best option for Replicant.

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by George S almost 6 years ago

Hi,

The issue til sam is raising is (I think), important but I would like to put forward a slightly different viewpoint.
All discussions here are about technicalities and the fact that Replicant is developed by a small team and has a small
user community. Porting Replicant to new devices is (I think) a painstaking process that can not keep up with the
rate at which new phones come out.

To port Replicant to newer devices in a more lasting way requires more. Specifically I think that
(a) vendors should be pushed to give more info so that developers can write libre drivers for phone hardware, and/or,
(b) structural support and funding for projects that develop free hardware phones (like GTA04?) that can run Replicant.
This requires public awareness that freedom & privacy are only guaranteed by free hardware and free software. This
point has not been made and is also missing from the recent Facebook discussion. FB, Google, Apple etc. are seen as unavoidable
entities but they are not. There are libre alternatives, they are just not promoted by multi bilionair marketing machines.

The most practical way to facillitate either (a) or (b) is to increase this public awareness and to push law makers
to act along either of these lines. Politicians seem to have no clue what freedom in the digital age means, but we
are in a position to reinvent it for them, and thus make them have a different attitude towards "Big Tech". With
regards to (b) I think this means getting funding from a governmental organisation (I think of the EU), the
motivation being that this is an investment in digital freedom which (after all) is a primary task of democratic
governments.

This is, by the way, not a task for the Replicant team. But it is something the FSF, EFF and various privacy organisations
and "pirate parties" could pick up. Replicant is there to show that things are feasible. Does the Replicant team have any
such connections? After all, this project was (is?) supported by the FSF...

Meanwhile I have no problem to keep my S2 up and running, hopefully followed by an S3 G4. The lack of functionalities
(Wifi, Bluetooth) only make me wonder "why can't that be libre". I only hope the Replicant team will last.

Just my two cents worth...

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Fil Bergamo almost 6 years ago

Hello everybody. It's Fil here, one of the few developers actively working on Replicant at the moment.

First of all, I'd like to underline a key point which is to be kept in mind in this discussion:

Andrés D wrote:

Replicant uses LineageOS as a base because it reduce work for the couple of active developers that do it as an unpaid/free-time-allows job.

To further explain why it is so important to keep it in mind:
Today, I can afford to post in this thread just because the work I'm currently doing for Replicant is stuck on a hard point and I need to take a pause from programming.
I've been allocating around 90% of my free time to Replicant-related programming during the last month, and still it's not enough, and still I'm struggling to be able to answer people on the forum. The minute I finish writing this post, I'll get back to programming a bugfix for RepWifi.
Normally, I can't always afford to join this kind of discussions, because it takes time to elaborate answers in a sensible and comprehensive way.
It also takes time to repeat things that are explained in the official documentation, beginning from here

I am joining this discussion because I feel it is important to give feedback to users and to always clarify the base principles behind Replicant as a project.
I also understand that people can get frustrated about maintainers and developers not answering.
As I said, it mostly depends on the fact that we have very little time we can spend on Replicant-related work.
So if you ask yourselves why the heck devs and maintainers are not joining forum threads, keep it in mind.
I know it sucks, but it is the sad truth and we must live up with it.

That said, I think it is important to put focus on what Replicant goals are:

Replicant is a fully free Android distribution running on several devices, a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and privacy/security. It is based on LineageOS and replaces or avoids every proprietary component of the system, such as user-space programs and libraries as well as firmwares.
Replicant aims to be an ethical system: it does not ship nor recommend the use of non-free software.

What this all means, is that Replicant's scope has nothing to do with popularity or having a huge userbase, nor to feature the most up-to-date devices at all costs.
What Replicant aims to do, among other things, is to help the biggest possible number of people use mobile devices with the least possible number of threats to their freedom. It is all about users' freedom (as in the 4 essential freedoms).
If we compromised users' freedom in favour of users' comfort than we would fail the foundational philosophy behind the project, and Replicant's existence would become useless (If you don't mind compromising your freedom LineageOS already does a much better work than Replicant could possibly do in that field).

Talking about privacy and security:
another key point to be kept in mind is that there is no provable privacy or security within proprietary software (https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary.en.html).
This means that using free software only is prerequisite number zero for any project that claims to be focused on security and privacy.
Of course, insecure free software exists and few cases of free software that was spying on users were found too. This is why a little part of Replicant's job also includes the removal or "sanitisation" of pieces of free software that is problematic under the privacy/security field.
But the main part still remains giving users the opportunity to make their devices functional without using nonfree software.
This is what most other privacy-focused project fail to realize, including eelo.

If we were to actively promote the usage of non-free firmwares or drivers, we would simply fail our mission in the first place.
This is why Replicant does not officially give any hint about using or maintaining non-free software on its supported devices.
For the same reason, Replicant does not include any non-free firmware or driver in its distribution, and that in turn causes some hardware to not work with Replicant.
But all of the missing features are clearly represented on the offical documentation (like here), so users should already be conscious about all the limitations when they choose to put Replicant on their devices.
For these reasons, I don't think that our website is lacking transparency on that side.
If a user chooses Replicant, she should have received all the relevant information already, and she should do so on a software freedom perspective, first of all.

Indedd, til sam did express this:

To make it clear, if I go to replicant's homepage I want everything to be about libre software. I do not want the replicant homepage to change its policy.

If anybody values comfort over freedom, that's legitimate.
But they shouldn't turn to Replicant for that scope. More importantly, they shouldn't blame us for not giving them the features they're searching for.
They should instead put the blame on hardware manufacturers that don't release their firmware under free licenses.

As George S put it:

The lack of functionalities (Wifi, Bluetooth) only make me wonder "why can't that be libre"

Replicant's policy is to educate users about why proprietary software is bad rather than evade the issue and give it up by distributing non-free firmwares or drivers.
It is much more valuable to do so, and to raise the users' awareness on the topic, than to silently put blobs in our distribution. If we did, most users' would never realize the existence of the issue itself.

If a piece of software is missing in Replicant, preventing a piece of hardware to work properly, it is not because Replicant developers like to make users suffer and struggle. It's because we don't want to silently push non-free stuff on users.
Moreover, if Replicant started giving technical advice on how to reinstall those very same non-free pieces of software, it would be terribly contradictory and it would annihilate all the efforts that were made in the first place to remove that software, because Replicant as a project would be passing the message that "non-free software is ok", and that would lead our users to accept more proprietary stuff, which is contrary to our initial goal. Last but not least, this would violate Replicant's agreement with the FSF.

I hope some of the points I made help people get a clearer view of the situation.
I know the matter is much more complicated than I have expressed, but I tried my best to condense the main discussion points in this post.

I will continue to read this discussion but I can't guarantee I will be able to write back.
In the meantime I wish you all a good time with Replicant.

Happy hacking,

Fil

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Fil Lupin almost 6 years ago

Hi Fil Bergamo, thank you for giving this point of view.
I think probably there are some misunderstandings due to fuzzyness about where to get an answer.
I think one of the issue is that several pages give several different informations (for example the devices supported by Replicant, see https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/27/topics/14642?r=14841).

There are several solutions which could be reasonable answer:
- forum
- ticket
- IRC
- mailing list.

At first sight, ticket should be used for bugs but my experience shows that one has more chance to get answers through forum (probably because more competent people read forum and so are able to propose solutions). Personnaly, I choosed to take time to submit tickets for bugs I encountered to help listing the bugs and their solutions but I wonder if this is really helpful.

IRC could be useful but accessing to logs is PITA and I can't currently connect permanently, so when I ask a question, perhaps I got an answer but I'm not anymore here to get benefit of it. :(

Mailing list is a passive media and like 90% of us, I already am registered to 100 mailing list I do not have time to read. I would like to, I already hear people saying then, I am probably not really interested in Replicant but it is not the case. I share my time between work and several other initiatives so I do not have a lot of time to read and filter mails.

Then remains forum, some questions get answers, some other don't. I did not do some statistics and I do not affirm that a majority of questions do not have answers.
But I think if you got an answer to your question, then you will have a positive image of Replicant.
If not, you will have a slightly different perception, could be "they don't mind users" or "this forum is dead" or even "there is no answer but they do not want to say".

Of course, it is perfectly understandable that developers prefer to give time to some tasks they sense they're better at and which seem to add an immediat value like... developing.
However, some people could help if they got answers.
For instance, I saw a question a few month ago (https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/33/topics/14003) asking how to help and ready to give time. He did not seems to get a detailed answer on the forum (apart of a list of technical tasks, insufficient in my sense, for the developers who are not familiar with replicant/android). Either he got a private message, or he insisted through other media, or he abandonned and Replicant loosed a possible active participant.
In both case, newcomers reading the forum will get the impression that help is not welcome by Replicant. It's sad since I think it is not the case and that majority of Replicant developers would like to increase their forces.
I insist on the fact that I do not think a majority of messages do not get answers.
However, I think communication could be increased. For the cases when people got private answers, it can be by answering publicly that some user got a private answer (giving the reason why it remains private to avoid giving the impression there are some informations which are to negociate), or by
For questions where there is already answers, it can be by redirecting to the web page(s) where is the answer.
For proposition/correction already done, a simple message saying this could be sufficient.
For question with not enough information, it could be asking for specific informations, and giving a link on the page explaining how to get these informations.
etc.
The spirit is to not let think a question remains without answer. At least I think it is important.

For instance, I asked a few months ago a question (https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/27/topics/14642?r=14841) and proposed a solution which did not get any answer. I tried to reformulate my question, to enhance my proposition, but I do not know if I did not get an answer (and it is not the question here).

To finish my point, I would like to insist on the fact that in 80% of my questions, I got an answer so I thank again the few ones which give their time to help the community for free.

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Yo Neda almost 6 years ago

Fil Bergamo wrote:

That said, I think it is important to put focus on what Replicant goals are:

Replicant is a fully free Android distribution running on several devices, a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and privacy/security. It is based on LineageOS and replaces or avoids every proprietary component of the system, such as user-space programs and libraries as well as firmwares.

Replicant aims to be an ethical system: it does not ship nor recommend the use of non-free software.

IMHO, this is the fundamental reason why Replicant is such an important project

I personally thank the team of developers for the fantastic job they are doing, especially because they give me the chance to use a smartphone which only the software that I choose runs on!

  _____ _   _    _    _   _ _  __ __   _____  _   _    ____  _______     ______  _ 
 |_   _| | | |  / \  | \ | | |/ / \ \ / / _ \| | | |  |  _ \| ____\ \   / / ___|| |
   | | | |_| | / _ \ |  \| | ' /   \ V / | | | | | |  | | | |  _|  \ \ / /\___ \| |
   | | |  _  |/ ___ \| |\  | . \    | || |_| | |_| |  | |_| | |___  \ V /  ___) |_|
   |_| |_| |_/_/   \_\_| \_|_|\_\   |_| \___/ \___( ) |____/|_____|  \_/  |____/(_)
                                                  |/                              

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Fil Bergamo almost 6 years ago

Fil Lupin wrote:

I think probably there are some misunderstandings due to fuzzyness about where to get an answer.
I think one of the issue is that several pages give several different informations (for example the devices supported by Replicant, see https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/27/topics/14642?r=14841).

I answered that thread, giving my personal advice.

There are several solutions which could be reasonable answer:
- forum
- ticket
- IRC
- mailing list.

At first sight, ticket should be used for bugs but my experience shows that one has more chance to get answers through forum (probably because more competent people read forum and so are able to propose solutions). Personnaly, I choosed to take time to submit tickets for bugs I encountered to help listing the bugs and their solutions but I wonder if this is really helpful.

Of course, the tracker is the right place to point out possible bugs, either technical ones or "general" ones (documentation, website, etc..)
And please let me assure you: opening a ticket helps a lot as it pins different issues on a single searchable place that is specifically meant for the purpose, so that contributors can easily search for open tickets and pick tasks to work on when they are able and feel to do so.
IMO, the forum should be used for asking questions that are not caused by a specific and clearly definable "malfunctioning" or technical problem.

As I said previously, it is a time-consuming activity to scan through the fora, and give precise and sensible answers each time.
Sometimes, questions need complex and articulated answers; to build such answers one needs time to be spent thinking, researching, writing and re-writing.
My personal case is that I simply (and sadly) lack time to do so very often. As such, I personally chose to pick a very restricted set of questions that I'm sure I can answer consistently, and dedicate my scarce time to them, rather than wasting time giving generic and useless answers to all questions that are asked.

I really suffer for this state of things, as I would really really really love to be able to contribute much more to the community.
Nonetheless, this is a concrete reality, that I cannot change.

IRC could be useful but accessing to logs is PITA and I can't currently connect permanently, so when I ask a question, perhaps I got an answer but I'm not anymore here to get benefit of it. :(

Mailing list is a passive media and like 90% of us, I already am registered to 100 mailing list I do not have time to read. I would like to, I already hear people saying then, I am probably not really interested in Replicant but it is not the case. I share my time between work and several other initiatives so I do not have a lot of time to read and filter mails.

I understand your situation, but I think this one is an issue you have personally with your own style of managing support channels.
It is not your fault, but it is not Replicant's fault either.
You could possibly try to reach other users and ask them how they manage different support channels from a user's perspective.

Then remains forum, some questions get answers, some other don't. I did not do some statistics and I do not affirm that a majority of questions do not have answers.
But I think if you got an answer to your question, then you will have a positive image of Replicant.
If not, you will have a slightly different perception, could be "they don't mind users" or "this forum is dead" or even "there is no answer but they do not want to say".

I'll be repeating myself on this, but I think it's worth it.
All of the above is related to five main factors:

1) Replicant features very few active contributors.
2) Active contributors usually have very little time to be spent on Replicant.
3) People expect every question to have a defined answer: this is often not the case.
4) A big number of questions on the forum are either too general or completely out of scope. Some questions are duplicates, some others may find answers in the official documentation that very few people read before writing a forum post.
5) Simply, sometimes nobody has any answer to give. Answering "I don't know" every time would be an enormous waste of time. And a useless thing to do.

To sum up:

I do understand the frustration that you and other users have expressed with the current situation, and I think you (and others) have done a big favour to the project by saying that loud, but still in a respectful and constructive way.
The issue is relevant and undeniable, and discussing about that does help pinning some key-points so that we can keep them in mind and possibly reason about that.

My personal wish (if at all feasible) is that the project finds one or two people that have a broad enough knowledge about general Replicant-related questions.
Those people need not be developers or technically skilled ones.
Their task would be to look after the forum and, generally speaking, the information provided by the official website, in order to answer the majority of questions that are not-so-technical and to help provide a consistent experience for users that come here in search for simple and clear information.

This would help avoiding that feeling of abandonment that some users have legitimately expressed here, while still leaving time for developers to concentrate on technical tasks.

This is just a wish I expressed.
It's up to those hypothetical people to show up and apply for the role.

Happy hacking,

Fil

RE: New phones? The matter of not supported phone devices on current replicant phones. - Added by Fil Lupin almost 6 years ago

Thank you for this answer. :)
I totally understand that the project lakes of forces and hope I can help.

Currently, I am not enough fluent with replicant and android dev to help into developing. However, if there is somewhere some ressources helping increasing my understandings about android, I hope I will be in capacity to help more (a dedicated thread would be much more adapted, see https://redmine.replicant.us/boards/33/topics/14851).

Anyway, it is really a pleasure to discuss this topic with you guys. :)

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