Name: Anonymous 2016-06-16 15:47
would it be feasible to create a smartphone that isn't shit? by isn't shit I don't mean suckless approach of making it 'better' by reducing codebase - just making it open, based around unix philosophy and as close in usage to a computer as possible. basically, a pocket-sized linux box with GSM/3G/LTE functionalities.
the 'computer' side of things should be easy: pick a popular processor architecture like ARM or x86 and an actively maintained linux distribution and it will already have drivers for network cards every I/O device under the sun from keyboards to teledildonics toys. add a low-res screen (after all, it won't be used for 'apps' with their huge interfaces but with programs designed for bigger screens), a small joystick with two buttons to emulate a mouse, a small QWERTY keyboard and a li-ion battery and you have a custom-made PDA which does smartphone things like web browsing or (if you add a webcam) photography and beats tablets by the virtue of running on an a real operating system.
the bigger challenge would probably be the telecommunication-related shit, although I'm not sure how much bigger. certainly, implementing the whole GSM stack would require crazy amounts of work but maybe some basement dweller already did it and made it open-source. maybe even android or firefoxos made their implementations available, haven't checked.
if we could make a device that could do all this shit, there'd be no reason to own a smartphone as it would be better at both productivity and wasting your time (because who needs f2p p2w 'games' when you can just ssh to nethack.alt.org?). more importantly, it would be free of cancer such as DRM, locked bootloaders, lack of root access, simlock and vendor or government backdoors. it would be a phone you actually own.
the 'computer' side of things should be easy: pick a popular processor architecture like ARM or x86 and an actively maintained linux distribution and it will already have drivers for network cards every I/O device under the sun from keyboards to teledildonics toys. add a low-res screen (after all, it won't be used for 'apps' with their huge interfaces but with programs designed for bigger screens), a small joystick with two buttons to emulate a mouse, a small QWERTY keyboard and a li-ion battery and you have a custom-made PDA which does smartphone things like web browsing or (if you add a webcam) photography and beats tablets by the virtue of running on an a real operating system.
the bigger challenge would probably be the telecommunication-related shit, although I'm not sure how much bigger. certainly, implementing the whole GSM stack would require crazy amounts of work but maybe some basement dweller already did it and made it open-source. maybe even android or firefoxos made their implementations available, haven't checked.
if we could make a device that could do all this shit, there'd be no reason to own a smartphone as it would be better at both productivity and wasting your time (because who needs f2p p2w 'games' when you can just ssh to nethack.alt.org?). more importantly, it would be free of cancer such as DRM, locked bootloaders, lack of root access, simlock and vendor or government backdoors. it would be a phone you actually own.