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FSF announces Librephone project
(www.fsf.org)
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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Not a good choice for a name, at first I though it was just another linux phone that would be useless for 90% of people.
Very cool project instead, hope this can lead the fondation for a 100% open source mobile OS.
Google is what happens when good marketing meets OSS, so careful what you wish for.
Do you think good marketing necessarily leads to unethical business practices?
<gestures at all the enshittified software products from the last 30 years>
In our current economic philosophy, yes.
I think you mentioned a keyword you're ignoring here: product. This enshittification happens in a commercial environment. Good marketing does not require a commercial product.
Whatever it is you're referring to here certainly doesn't change the fact that the FSF sucks at marketing.
Which makes sense, since that is not what I was saying. I'm saying that a FOSS project with good marketing doesn't necessarily become like google.
Marketing is unethical because it is consentless
Doesn't have to be. Marketing also includes a website, that you as a user need to consciously visit to see, which I would definitely consider consensual.
Commercials like billboards are a different story, those definitely suck
I feel it's a bit like the usability vs security dilemma.. you can try to optimize to have both, but then you won't have as a result neither the most secure system nor the smoothest user-friendly experience, but something in between (you might still consider that "secure" or "usable", but that just depends on where you set your expectations).
If you want to maximize marketing then the result won't be as ethical as it could be, and if you want to maximize ethics then the result won't be as marketable as it could be.
good marketing does not require maximizing it, I think. I see where you're coming from though, any effort spent on marketing could have been spent to create a better product. Having the perfect product is useless when nobody knows about it, though, so as always there is a balance to achieve.
Good marketing means achieving an arbitrary limit of what you consider "good" marketing. So it depends on where you set the bar.
The best marketing necessarily requires some level of unethical behavior, because being honest and saying the whole truth doesn't sell. Everything has drawbacks and benefits.. the better marketing minimizes (or even hides / fails to mention) the drawbacks and emphasizes the benefits, which is a form of deception.
OSS? The precursor of the CIA? True
And thank god it isn't
There's a happy medium imo. Linux is enjoying a bit of a golden age at the moment because so many people are doing brilliant work making it usable and nice. But if the userbase becomes too large, tech companies will see their bottom lines affected, and it'll be enshittified like everything else. And it'll become a more attractive target for malware, of course.
Honest to God, I thought a "Librephone" was something that already existed. I think I was thinking of the PinePhone or smth.
Librem 5 is what you're thinking of
You're probably right
For Fuck Sake its Free Software Foundation.
The day a open source project has good marketing is the day the end of the world happens.
It's just impossible for some reason.