LibrePlanet: Conference/2010/Hacking/Free phones workshop

Please remember that this event is focused on free software, not open source. We have a set of guidelines for speakers, but we ask everyone to be mindful of the power of words and the importance of framing the issues being discussed and worked on in the best possible terms.

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Everyone who attends gets a free t-shirt too

The following is a dump from our previous free phones event in September.

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We will go over the following:

General overview of free / partially free smartphones available in the US market

List of free/mostly-free phones:

OpenMoko
Prē (on freesmartphone.org) (webos-internals)
- NEW 2009-09-25: Palm Pre One Month FSO Voice Call Challenge
G1, MyTouch (Android)
ADP (Android)

Note: On some phones, Android can be replaced by Replicant:

Replicant: http://trac.osuosl.org/trac/replicant/wiki
http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:LibrePlanetItalia/replicant
First Replicant libre firmware image for HTC Dream: http://gnutoo.homelinux.org/android/images/

See Talk:Future Phone Freedom Workshop#Are they trying to screw you? for why this might be a good thing to do.

Moral Abstraction Devices^[1]:

Novatel's MiFi 2200 portable EV-DO router

To be released soon:

N900 (Maemo 5) http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer
HandyPC S101 (Not DRMed, choice of Android or QT Embedded) http://road.de

Criteria to be counted:

available for purchase
ability to make phone calls
ability to let users develop software for it
not required to void phone warranty to benefit (in some way) from freedoms provided. Eg. sure you can install Debian on an iPhone, but that doesn't mean the iPhone counts.

Usability vs. Freedom

OpenMoko is completely free, but not really usable. Usability should be graded as follows:

can be used as a phone reliably (includes address book)
can be used for common smartphone tasks, such as calendaring and web browsing
can synchronize with external services
...

Developer freedom

Ability to develop on the phone using a free development environment. (I think all of them can be developed using only free software. [look into Android]).

Stack freedom

Go over, for each phone, what parts of the phone stack are [not] free. Maybe a chart to show all of the phones in comparison (there's bound to be something online that compares this already; if not, let's make it).

Hackability freedom

Ok, so you want to "root" your phone (if it is not already rooted). What can you do with that power? How hard is it to gain this access?

What cool things has this given to users? (I suspect there are a lot of interesting hacks in the OpenMoko world)

Community

Is there a community around the phone? How healthy / vibrant is it?

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisedroid

Carrier freedom

If the phone is locked to a carrier, what is that carrier's attitude toward exercising your SW freedom and what are the potential repercussions of going against their stated desires?

Going forward toward a usable, free phone

What parts of the SW stack are missing to make each platform entirely free and usable?

Comparison Table

	Freerunner (Openmoko)	G1, G1 ADP, MyTouch (Android)	Prē (WebOS)	N900 (Maemo 5)	iPhone
US Carriers	AT&T, T-Mobile	AT&T, T-Mobile	Sprint	AT&T, T-Mobile	AT&T
Usability (ugh, meh, woo, yay!)	meh	woo	woo	unk	yay!
License	Free software	proprietary and apache2 for userland; GPLv2 for linux	proprietary and various free for userland; GPLv2 for linux	proprietary and various free for userland; GPLv2 for linux	all proprietary
Base applications	free (varied)	free apart google apps	mixed	mixed	nonfree
Purchasable	yes	yes (contract subsidy)	yes (contract subsidy)	yes	yes (contract subsidy)
Ability to install custom OS	yes	yes (exploit or downgrade)	yes ^[2]	yes^[3]	maybe (exploit only; actively discouraged)
Radio Firmwares(GPS, GSM, Wifi)	nonfree, nonfree, free^[4]	All nonfree^[5]	All nonfree	unk, unk, nonfree^[6]	All nonfree
OS	GNU/Linux	Android/Linux	GNU/Linux	GNU/Linux	nonfree
GUI layer	free (varied)	free (Android)	nonfree (WebOS)^[7]	free (Maemo)	nonfree
SDK	free	mix^[8]	nonfree	free^[9]	nonfree
SDK runs on Free Software	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Hacking voids warranty?	no	yes	unk	unk	yes
App store	none	non free but hackers are working to get SlideMe 1.0 usable (beware later versions are not gpl)	nonfree by default; free version available^[10]	unk	nonfree

References

↑ nonfree but lets you use non-phone mobile devices as phones via voip
↑ SHR already compiled, first call made - installed OS is OpenEmbedded variant
↑ It remains to be seen if/how subsidized versions will be locked down - if indeed they appear at all.
↑ John Sullivan, Operations Manager at the FSF writes: I was correct -- there is no linux-loaded proprietary firmware for the wifi. There is of course proprietary firmware in flash on the chip, but it is not upgradeable. See for example this mailing list post - "---2 The 2nd best option would be that all software on the main CPU is Free Software, and other firmwares are not user-upgradeable, do not have to be loaded at boot time, and can thus be considered to be part of the 'circuit' of that chip, a black box. Some people find this option laughable, as it looks like someone not wanting to know the truth, but for a number of reasons the FSF and Richard Stallman believe this is the right way to protect freedom. GTA02 is at this level, let's call it the 'FSF level' :-)". The proprietary firmware on the chip has been a source of problems (because for example it is compiled with debug options on), so that's presumably why people are saying otherwise. root@om-gta02 /lib/modules/2.6.29-rc3 $ find . -name *.bin doesn't return anything, fwiw.
↑ There are 4 CPU,The Arm9 CPU controls the modem+gps(mDSP),the audio(aDSP),and the mDSP and the aDSP are all non-free,the application CPU is an arm9,not much is known about the msm architecture
↑ GSM/GPS firmwares may be stored in rom, however, they are almost certainly upgradable
↑ Can also run directfb GUI without WebOS GUI, however no one has written tslib module for touchscreen yet so limited usefullness
↑ Official SDK requires nonfree Sun Java,can be liberated if you compile your own and use a patch
↑ Toolchain is all free, to run the device emulator you need nonfree Nokia binaries.
↑ You do not need to access the GNU/Linux command line or "root your Pre" to install or use Preware (which is the GPLv2 app store client). However you install it with "WebOS Quick Install", which is nonfree software, under a provision that allows "WebOS applications that are in-testing, which under section 4.2 of the Palm SDK License Agreement allows for such unapproved applications to be installed on Palm devices" [1]

[1] ree but lets you use non-phone mobile devices as phones via voip

[2] SHR already compiled, first call made - installed OS is OpenEmbedded variant

[3] It remains to be seen if/how subsidized versions will be locked down - if indeed they appear at all.

[4] John Sullivan, Operations Manager at the FSF writes: I was correct -- there is no linux-loaded proprietary firmware for the wifi. There is of course proprietary firmware in flash on the chip, but it is not upgradeable. See for example this mailing list post - "---2 The 2nd best option would be that all software on the main CPU is Free Software, and other firmwares are not user-upgradeable, do not have to be loaded at boot time, and can thus be considered to be part of the 'circuit' of that chip, a black box. Some people find this option laughable, as it looks like someone not wanting to know the truth, but for a number of reasons the FSF and Richard Stallman believe this is the right way to protect freedom. GTA02 is at this level, let's call it the 'FSF level' :-)". The proprietary firmware on the chip has been a source of problems (because for example it is compiled with debug options on), so that's presumably why people are saying otherwise. root@om-gta02 /lib/modules/2.6.29-rc3 $ find . -name *.bin doesn't return anything, fwiw.

[5] There are 4 CPU,The Arm9 CPU controls the modem+gps(mDSP),the audio(aDSP),and the mDSP and the aDSP are all non-free,the application CPU is an arm9,not much is known about the msm architecture

[6] GSM/GPS firmwares may be stored in rom, however, they are almost certainly upgradable

[7] Can also run directfb GUI without WebOS GUI, however no one has written tslib module for touchscreen yet so limited usefullness

[8] Official SDK requires nonfree Sun Java,can be liberated if you compile your own and use a patch

[9] Toolchain is all free, to run the device emulator you need nonfree Nokia binaries.

[10] You do not need to access the GNU/Linux command line or "root your Pre" to install or use Preware (which is the GPLv2 app store client). However you install it with "WebOS Quick Install", which is nonfree software, under a provision that allows "WebOS applications that are in-testing, which under section 4.2 of the Palm SDK License Agreement allows for such unapproved applications to be installed on Palm devices" [1]

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