[kwlug-disc] Local places to buy unlocked phones...

doug moen doug at moens.org
Wed Apr 11 13:36:53 EDT 2018


CopperHeadOS switched licences because Chinese distributors were
preinstalling CopperheadOS and selling lots of units, undercutting
Copperhead's prices, but all of these phones were using the CopperHead
network infrastructure for security updates, etc. So due to the open source
licencing, Copperhead found themselves providing free software development,
network infrastructure and customer support to Chinese phone companies, but
they had no revenue stream to pay their costs.

Note that this wouldn't have been an issue if Copperhead hadn't created
such a solid and compelling product.

I have a strong preference for open source licencing in most cases, but in
this case I support their use of CC/BY-NC-SA. On their software download
page, they express interest in getting a patron to fund the release of
their code under an open source licence.

On 11 April 2018 at 12:36, Andrew Stevanus (KWLUG) <andrew+kwlug at hoot.tech>
wrote:

> It should be noted that CopperheadOS relicensed their changes to CC
> BY-NC-SA (note the *NonCommercial*), so they are not actually Free
> Software, nor are they even Open Source, by the OSI definition. For that
> reason, if you care about that sort of thing, I would stick to
> LineageOS. More info:
> <https://np.reddit.com/r/fossdroid/comments/5s13ht/a_clarification_about_
> copperheadoss_present_and/>
>
> If you want something that is as Free as possible, you may want
> something that runs Replicant <https://www.replicant.us/>. However, you
> should note that because so much ARM hardware depends on non-free blobs,
> some things won't work on Replicant (like 3D acceleration, or even
> Wi-Fi, in which case you need an adapter). I'm not aware of any store
> that sells devices with Replicant pre-installed locally (though I would
> love to be corrected on this); this is one such online shop:
> <https://tehnoetic.com/mobile-devices>.
>
> Alternatively, there is also the Librem 5
> <https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/>, which I have high hopes for. It will
> run native GNU/Linux instead of Android. It hasn't actually been
> released yet, so you would need to pre-order it. There is always a risk
> with pre-orders of unfinished hardware, but Purism has delivered other
> hardware before, so I'm not overly concerned about that.
>
> On 11/04/18 11:22, doug moen wrote:
> > I think you want an open source Android *distribution*. You'll want it
> > either preinstalled on a new phone that you buy, or some easy way to
> > install it on a phone after buying it. You'll want automatic security
> > updates. Probably you don't want to compile the source from scratch and
> > manually compile and install all security updates.
> >
> > The most popular one seems to be LineageOS.
> >
> > CopperHeadOS (from Toronto) is an extremely security oriented open source
> > Android distro. If you want to have the most secure opensource phone on
> the
> > planet (which implies that you don't want to be spied on by Google or use
> > their app store), then you might want CopperHead. You need to buy a phone
> > from them, which has the OS preinstalled, and then you get security
> updates
> > from their server. You'll use fDroid as your app store (it's an open
> source
> > app store).
> >
> > On 11 April 2018 at 11:06, Federer Fanatic <nafdef at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi, Suggestions on where one can buy unlocked phones running android?
> >>
> >> Secondly, opensource android? Definitive source where one can install
> >> easily
> >> and super securely?
> >>
> >> Thanks.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  Roger Federer Fanatic Extraordinaire :-)
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
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