You make amazing points, and I completely agree with you. I will continue to use Jami since it’s good enough for me to talk with my friends. I mean now the only replacement which is not a replacement just another thing I use to chat is GNU Emacs. I hope the development speed and motivation increases and please do inform me if you found an alternative
If it’s not fully free, I don’t trust it. I don’t understand how someone in a privacy community doesn’t understand how much a few lines of code can track someone so easily no matter how much of the program is free software.
Yeah, this is just the reality of unpaid free software developers, they don’t have the recourses to work on every single bug as quick as a paid developer, but that doesn’t justify not reporting bugs and working with the developers to fix them. Like you said, Jami is grest ethically so why not make it great function? Also, don’t you have a computer and a phone? Test on those. I don’t own a phone, so I can’t test the phone, but I do gladly test on my laptop.
Great, but it relies on signal’s servers, so it’s centralised. Also, Moly merely removes proprietary parts from Signal, but that’s a workaround (same thing for linux-libre kernel, it’s free software, but just a workaround which is why I’m looking to help with HyprbolaBSD). I’m not coming here to say Molly isn’t an improvement, but being centralised and relying on a non-tully-free program’s servers is a huge red flag for me :)
That’s not the full picture. That’s exactly the problem I was highlighting. The issue isn’t whether some of the code is “FOSS”, it’s about whether all of it is. If even small parts remain proprietary (as you mentioned), then we can’t verify what those parts are doing. And those parts could theoretically significantly affect the data collection. Also, I didn’t make up a lot of stuff. The Signal Foundation themselves have confirmed that certain UI and build components are not fully libre. As the GNU project puts it, if part of your system is closed, then you’re trusting a black box, no matter how well-lit the rest of it is.
And we should report problems and fix them ourselves to make it better
Go to your local repair shop and see if they have / can get you a new one.
Ignore the comment saying signal is “end to end encrypted” “private” etc They are simply stuck in a delusional state where they try to convince themselves that signal is the best option so they can continue using it. Nothing is private if it isn’t fully libre because you never know what the proprietary code is doing. The signal protocol itself has its source code released, and the encryption and security code is publicly available, but the signal Foundation has stated that it uses both free code and proprietary code. Their reason is UI, but it’s hard to make sure whatever proprietary code is being used for because you simply can’t see it. As GNU puts it: “You’re walking in a pitch black cave”. Jami is fully libre and is a GNU project. You don’t even need any phone number!
No, I just buy a new lenovo 9 cell battery. I use my X200T for creativity stuff (reading/writing/drawing) and use my T500 for portable more intense work like programming that I would do on the ASUS KMCA-D8 when I’m on the go. I get about 5-12 hours on my X200T and 3-10 hours on my T500, but I do carry a docking station with me, so I can always just recharge easily, but I usually don’t use it since the 5-10 hours is more than enough for school bus rides and I don’t usually program in a place without a charging outlet nearby. Btw it’s important to note that my computer is very minimal since I use parabola open rc edition with dwm to boot emacs, libreoffice draw, and icecat, so if you have a bloated setup then ofcourse the battery life will differ.
Why must the device be new and still in production? The current devices that are currently in production/new both at that price point (sub 40$) and more expensive (up to 3000$) are consumer grade garbage that will last at most 2 years. They’re not repairable, not durable, not built well etc. I personally use a GNU booted Thinkpad X200T /T500 and a GNU booted ASUS KMCA-D8- both running Parabola GNU+Linux-Libre splendisly with the proprietary wifi-card replaced. The cost of the X200T was about 30$ and the T500 was about 20$. I understand that you might not care as much of freedom to get either the X200, X200T, T400, T400s, or T500, but it is important to understand that most of the operating system components you are runnning were made with freedom in mind. If you still don’t want to sacrifice performance for a cheap, libre experience, then just get a newer Thinkpad. It’s not as libre, but they still could be found (more easily) for very cheap prices. But keep in mind the newer you get the shittier it’s going to be. I still suggest the models I reffered to though- esspecially if you want to tinker. You can remove about every component and replace it, and you can replace the BIOS with a fully free bios (GNU Boot).
By the way, most operating system distributions based on Linux as kernel are basically modified versions of the GNU operating system. Richard M Stallman and contributers began developing GNU in 1984, years before Linus Torvalds started to write his kernel. Their goal was to develop a complete free operating system. Of course, they did not develop all the parts themselves—but they led the way. They developed most of the central components, forming the largest single contribution to the whole system. The basic vision was theirs too. In fairness, the GNU project ought to get at least equal mention. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html#gnulinux https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html
1984