End-of-life smartphone? Penguins at postmarketOS aim to revive it A Linux distro for smartphones abandoned by their manufacturers, postmarketOS, has introduced in-place upgrades. Alpine Linux is a very minimal general-purpose distro that runs well on low-end kit, as The Reg FOSS desk found when we looked at version 3.16 last month. postmarketOS's – pmOS for short – version 22.06 is based on …
Their environmental record compared to their competition* is often better, because they still have the longest mobile OS and support lifetimes of any of the large manufacturers. Places like Fairphone that design for repairability and longevity are better, but they're minuscule in comparison.
*Applies only to phones and tablets. They were worse with computers and then they announced their Mac OS 13 support system, apparently not wanting to let Microsoft's Windows 11 ewaste generation overtake them. Seriously, it was hard to beat Windows 11 on dropping perfectly usable hardware, but somehow Apple managed it.
Basically not, unless you want to take an exploit recently discovered that runs Linux on old iPhones and attach the rest of this OS to that. It's now theoretically possible if your old phone has a processor between the A7 and A10 ranges, but it's going to involve a lot of hacking. You can start with this person who already started with a different exploit on the iPhone 7, but depending on your hardware, iPhones might be even harder than Android to get working.
It might be time for us, as a society, to start re-thinking this endless yearly product cycle.
We do not need a new Iphone model every year. A phone should be able to last five years without trouble, so make your new model cycle over five years and everyone will be happy (well, except for those who absolutely have to spend a thousand bucks a year to prove that they are better than everyone else).
"I get upgrades for free from my company :)"
When our contract was up for renewal last time I emailed everybody who had a company phone saying something along the lines of "You are entitled to a new phone if you want, but you may prefer to avoid creating un-needed e-waste and hang on to your current one - let me know which you want to do". Out of 51 handsets I had 9 requests for new handsets, which comprised 8 directors (all of the directors) and one guy whose phone kept switching itself off every 10 minutes. In the next 12 months after that we had 2 requests to have new batteries fitted, which we had Apple do. So giving people the choice saved 42 new handsets being used in a 2 year period. I expect at next renewal when the handsets will be 4 years old that more people will probably want them replacing, but it's quite obvious that replacing every 2 years is a complete and utter waste of resources. Since I've retired now I bet they just replace the lot anyway next time.
Of course this also saved the company money - we dropped everybody who didn't want a new phone onto a SIM-only deal.
Of those 8 directors we didn't get a single one of the 2 year old phones back for re-deployment/sale either!
> We do not need a new Iphone model every year.
That's hippy talk. What's next? Resole your shoes? Mending clothes so old they have started wearing down? No! Real (wo)men only wear/use brand new stuff, and then throw it away.
You don't want to be caught still using the summer collection at Xmas, do you. You would look destitute, a Luddite, lacking all social dignity, probably a pervert.
Listen to marketing, marketing knows.
We do not need a new Iphone model every year.
No, but Apple needs us to think we do. (Ditto for Google, Sammy, etc.)
My strategy:
* Buy last year's not-top-of-the-line model, when the price drops after the new one ships.
* Use it until it's out of support and/or can no longer do useful things.
* Repeat, typically in about 5 years (for an iPhone, at least).
Device cost of ownership works out to about $120-150 per year. Even a 6-year-old iPhone in decent shape still has some value on the secondary market, so it doesn't go the the landfill right away when I'm done with it.
Of course, this only works if you don't give a damn about having the newest shiniest.
The only reason why I replaced my aged SE (1st gen) was that the battery was getting a bit past it. It was more economical, long term, to get a new phone (a SE (2nd gen)) than to replace the battery. I got it last year, the original SE was 5 years old. If I'd waited another year I could have got a 3rd gen, with 5G, instead. The 2nd gen is working fine. I'll be keeping it until it shows battery problems. In about 4 years or so.
"It might be time for us, as a society, to start re-thinking this endless yearly product cycle"—Right, but who's 'us'? 'We' as consumers might neither need nor want that cycle, and, in surveys, many people have already been agreeing for some time. But 'we' as a society the general prosperity of which is directly dependent on how much profit the commercial enterprises make, 'we' actually do need the profit companies make by making people consume more than they need, and more frequently than they need.
First of all, what we need is companies that pay their taxes.
And my whole point is that we need to rethink this situation.
Just saying that we need Apple to make ever-more-expensive shiny tat that ends up landfills is not a solution.
"First of all, what we need is companies that pay their taxes."
What an ignorant statement! Companies pay the taxes they owe! To not do so will land you in jail! A lot of companies pay more taxes than they owe because they don't have the expertise to understand exactly what they owe! I work for a large international company and several times we have had tax consultants come in and go over our previous tax filings and get us refunds for deductions we didn't know we could use.
The propaganda that corporations don't pay their taxes is just that, propaganda! If you don't like the tax laws then lobby your government to change them!
The bottom line with Corporate/Business income taxes is that "Corporations don't pay the tax, their customers do!" Taxes are a cost of doing business which needs to be offset by revenue! Just like the cost of materials and the cost of labor. Corporations offset taxes by 2 means, raising prices or lowering expenses, the primary expense that is lowered is LABOR!
You're right about the cause being the laws that say what taxes are due, I.E. tax avoidance (legal) instead of tax evasion (illegal) and therefore the tax laws would need to be changed to increase government revenues. I was agreeing with you completely until you went off the rails with this:
"The bottom line with Corporate/Business income taxes is that "Corporations don't pay the tax, their customers do!" Taxes are a cost of doing business which needs to be offset by revenue!"
Rubbish. You can use any accounting you like to move the tax around, but it's not going to work. On this basis, I can argue that I don't pay tax on my wages, my employer does because they pay me that money. The truth is that they gave me all the wages and I had to give some of it to the tax authority, just as when I give them money for the product, some of that also gets sent in. Playing games to move the numbers around doesn't change how they're collected. Your point appears to be "higher taxes means higher prices" which isn't always true, though people who don't want to decrease profit often consider that option. Sometimes, higher taxes means less profit, which entails different consequences. There are always downsides, but it doesn't help to pretend that only one type exists.
Completely agree.
My handset still fine but the battery is starting to be a bit flaky after three years. And of course it's no easy thing to switch is it?
That's what the EU should do, try and mandate a standard battery replacement strategy. No idea how and I appreciate it'd be impossible to implement but that would go a long way to help
Agreed wrt the battery.
If only there was an easy way to replace the battery without stripping or disassembling the phone completely...
Older phones had removable batteries. Some batteries (like blackberries etc) are standalone, meaning they do not form part of the battery compartment cover.
Some phones' batteries was actually a part of the battery compartment (some older Nokia phones, like the venerable 5110, 6310 and 3310) etc.
Unfortunately, in order to maximize assembly speed, minimize component cost and the such, most manufacturers started to place the battery into the phone casing, and in some extreme cases, hot glue everything together. This lead to smaller designs, but also have its drawbacks, such as when the battery turn into a spicy pillow. (There is a subreddit dedicated to this, called r/spicypillows)
It will not be easy to go back to the oldstyle phone with removable batteries, since most people are programmed to believe that thin phones are the in thing.
I'm prepared to have a thicker phone with a removable battery so that I can use it for a longer-than-designed lifespan.
But I may just be pissing into the hurricane at this stage.
I'm prepared to have a thicker phone with a removable battery so that I can use it for a longer-than-designed lifespan.
You are describing Fairphone 4 - but it's not much thicker Andi don't notice it.
OTOH my new shorts do not have pockets big enough for any recent phone to sit comfortably
I'd prefer to have a thicker phone that didn't slide through my fingers! Given the number of people I've seen wandering about with the latest top-of-the range iphone with a battery pack on it I'm not the only one who thinks that they've got them thinner than they really need to be.
If MS hadn't dropped winphone I'd still be happily using my Lumia with removable battery.
Which should inform you that all this "save the world, nonsense" is just that, nonsense. We are being told that CO2 is going to turn the world into a smoking cinder in 12 years (9 years no according to AOC), which is a flat out lie! Yet these same people will dump millions of tons of toxic materials into the environment. Electronics, batteries from e-vehicles, etc. If you believe these things will be disposed of properly your a fool living in a dream world. Its expensive and someone, many someones, will offer a less expensive alternative disposal service that doesn't follow the law! It's been that way for decades! As someone who grew up in an area with a high degree of toxic industrial waste I can personally attest to the damage it does. Cancers are a regular thing up there. Childhood leukemia is higher than anywhere in the nation (benzine in the ground water).
But the greenies just don't care because saving the world in not their true agenda!
We were told 30 years ago that we needed to immediately start reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every single year since then we have increased emissions. There is no existing plan that will see global emissions stop increasing for at least the next 10 years. And even those plans will be trampled over by industry and economic needs, just like the dozens and dozens of plans that came before them. The single remaining solution is mother nature destroying a larger and larger percentage of civilization every year until mother nature overwhelms our ability to rebuild. A war of attrition that we will lose. And then biodiversity collapse worse than the end of the dinosaurs that is already well under way, and then multiple runaway tipping point scenarios, and then humans only living on earth in space suits but with no capacity left to build and maintain space suits. Cheers!
A new lease of life for my N900 is a very welcome prospect. Bob, I loved that phone. Had to ditch it when work "upgraded" Exchange (spit) and the Nokia mail client could no longer connect, and neither could the browser cope with the new webmail. As a device it was far superior to anything I've used since, and totally unbreakable.
-A.
Regrettably I no longer have mine. Whoever lifted it off the seat-back shelf on the Eurostar where I stupidly left it, well I hope you got a good price. Or are still using it.
Bob, I loved that device.
But mea culpa I was actually thinking of the N9 that that I bought (via a friend in Finland) to replace it.
Bob, I loved that one too. Less useful without the physical keyboard, but amazingly robust, which is what I was thinking of. Whilst I was cycling down a steep cobbled street it leapt out and went bouncing down the road at high speed. I stopped and blocked the street with my bicycle while retrieving, but it was completely undamaged. Not a scratch.
-A.
The N900 is (almost) ideal for the purpose, being run by Meego, a Linux flavour. It should be easy enough for someone who knows how to revive the distro and update it. The only drawback is that for me, the N900 is a bit small on the screen acreage. But still, I'd love to update the OS but don't have the time /skills
This is one of the most refreshing articles seen in a long time, by someone who obviously (a) knows what he is doing, and (b) knows what he is talking about---and who is a hard worker and a good writer, to boot!.
Most writers of this calibre, and of this particular leaning, have long since given up---and disappeared---because of the "move fast and break things" mentality and modus operandi of most ALL of the current crop of crap---filled with regressions and incompatibilities with even the last "offering"--- 'offered' by what are considered to be "the mainstream" Linux distros---driven, of course, by the 'know-nothings' whose only metric---and mantra-- is "If it ain't the newest, it can't be any good"---with a good helping of "bigger is always better" thrown in.
Bug reports? Get serious! Most all major AND minor Linux distro houses are too busy working on the NEXT greatest, biggest, fastest, most feature-filled distro to pay ANY attention to any of your bug reports, no matter how serious; don't even waste your time. "Bug Reports" are now handled via the simple expedient of "IGNORE". Almost NO Linux distro house has the incentive, will, nor the desire to do Q-A or validation-testing any more; there's simply NO time available. Your well crafted, well-thought-out, well-researched Bug Report is handled very deftly by "DELETE".
Here's hoping we see a lot more from you, Mr. Proven.
Your wrong, and the primary distro that proves your wrong is Fedora! I've used Fedora for years (along with the other Redhat derivatives) and bugs do get fixed, especially major breaking bugs. Some may take time, some are based on other open source projects but they do eventually get fixed or the problematic application get replaced! i.e. PulseAudio with Pipewire!
The problem is people want their particular bug that they reported fixed immediately! No matter how much that affects the overall user community or effects the overall OS. Bugs have to be given a priority and your bug just might not rise to the level you think it does!
If you don't like that then run a commercial OS like Windows or pay RedHat to run RHEL.
@Cliffwilliams44---
Read much? Do you COMPREHEND what you DO read, much?
"Your[sic] wrong, and the primary distro that proves your[sic] wrong is Fedora!..."
What is it about
"Most all major AND minor Linux distro houses..."; or
"Almost NO Linux distro house..."
that you don't understand?
You hold up the fact that a derivative of a billion-dollar (BEFORE the IBM take-over) Linux distro does respond to bug reports (possibly; your word only) as evidence that my comment is wrong? Grow up.
As both Fedora and Red Hat say:
"Fedora is developed by the Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat..."
"To create Red Hat Enterprise Linux, some version of Fedora is forked and enters an extensive development, testing and certification process to become a new version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.”
I would suggest that you read---slowly---the following:
"Reading comprehension is a big problem in open-source"
Updated: February 24, 2016
https://heuneburg.schlegel.ovhwww.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-reading-comprehension.html
I was looking at the local thrift shop and what they accept for donations - Electrical goods - anything safe we take. iPods and iPads - take them to e-waste, nobody wants them.
The problem with the linux on these devices is the closed source nature of some of the drivers and also some of the binary blobs used in them. Having a few devices running lineage does help extend their life, but unfortunately you get weird bugs and unsupported hardware because the vendor hasn't open sourced the driver for it and/or the devices are stuck on some linux 3.x and 4.x. Let's hope things improves things.
Perhaps some kind of tax on the the life of the product. Make it some proportion from 10 years where 0% tax if a device makes it to 10 years and levy some kind of find on the manufacturer for non-repair ability.
I want this on a NEW PHONE. Let's have a walk down memory lane:
Sony Xperia 1 III : Half of what's claimed in the specsheet is disabled in firmware or a complete lie. Constant LTE band hunting. US model is fully compatible with ZERO US carriers and only partially compatible with only three of them. Has a microSD card but it's crippled by Google. Literally gigabytes of bloat. Erratic and outdated security patches. Still kicking myself for not getting a refund.
LG Velvet 5G : Updates stopped for months, leaving it with GPS and fingerprint reader problems. Bought the Sony then updates resumed, making far outperform the new phone except in CPU speed.
Samsung Galaxy S9+ : First month of ownership is killing Samsung's spyware and adware. Updates are rare and bring more bugs than fixes. WiFi and GPS are in an eternal crash loop.
ZTE Axon 7 : Just a couple of guys doing the OS. Cellular and WiFi crash loops near certain cell towers. The OS almost became stable then it was declared an unsupported phone.
2015 Moto X Pure : Constant cellular band hunting. Locked up and rebooted if it used VoLTE. I regret not getting a refund.
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