I don’t think this is it, a lot of people were ok with that. The problem is drivers, they seemingly never matured enough to get the device to a usable state. Why?
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Except it absolutely did. Sure, it got hardware in the hands of developers, but that effort didn’t amount to anything. Pinebook paved the way for Pinebook Pro, which made good on company’s promise of an open, affordable, low power laptop for Linux enthusiasts.
This never materialized with Pinephone, it didn’t even mature enough to satisfy most of the early adopters, who for the most part only wanted reliable calling and texting.
It absolutely failed. Pinebook succeeded, they wanted to build a cheap Chromebook alternative for Linux enthusiasts and they did it. Pinebook Pro was a functional product and it was well received.
Pinephone failed, it made some progress but it never reached a point where a Linux user with basic needs could daily drive it. It seems like Linux phone space moved on to Halium at this point.
I hope Raptor Computing sticks around. If I manage to get a well paying job I’d love to move on to the POWER ISA on desktop and a Fairphone with Ubuntu Touch.
I know it’s exteremely expensive (I mean the POWER desktop) but with the recent Android news I believe the time for compromise has passed. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to do so should adopt fully open hardware whenever possible.