First, thanks for f-droid - I didn't know about that. I think the most open platform to date is the Pi - there are only certain parts of the processor that are kept under NDA. As for phones, there are many parts of them you will never see released (even openmoko which is old and I'd like one to play with, but not to use). So, lets consider how much of Android (arguably the most open stable mobile OS) you can compile vs finding binary blobs. You can compile cyanogenmod and you can get the binary blobs for lots of phones from github.com/TheMuppets. So, what might be a good indication of openness, might be to look at the number and size of files for each phone and compare that. Though this might be faulty as this may also mean more proprietary hardware (that might never get updated).
There is another issue with Android: I couldn't figure out how to compile it using OpenJDK on Gentoo. AFAICT, you have to use Sun's (not sure what is missing here, but....). Currently, most apps for Android are closed source (including Google Maps, GMail, Play, YouTube, etc). However, f-droid should be a good replacement for the Play store as long as you're not expecting Angry Birds or other games. Now, without recompiling anything, you've got a decent Linux base system you can go from. My stock Samsung Note 2 even has access to iptables functionality and tun/tap. On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 6:48 PM, André Nunes Batista <andrenbati...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, 2013-10-29 at 10:56 -0400, alex.pad...@laposte.net wrote: >> Hello to all, >> >> I shall want to buy a SMARTPHONE with a free O.S (GNU). >> Many of my friends say to me that ANDROID is a free system, it is LINUX! >> What do you think about it? >> Does it exist a SMARTPHONE with a system DEBIAN GNU LINUX >> >> Thank you for your answers >> >> Alex > > Android is build upon Linux kernel and other free software components, > but it relies on binary blobs and proprietary google code. Apart from > openmoko - which sounds great but I could never get to lay hands on one > of those - you could search for Replicant (go see which phones are > already supported). Cyanogenmod + f-droid.org - Gapps would also be > better than running the default firmware. > > Sometime ago I had an N900 and it worked great with maemo as well.. > Dunno the current state of the project. > > But R. Stallman usually says he does not own any smart phone as they are > user tracking devices built in with microphones, camera and motion > sensors. So completely free OS is something yet to be achieved to smart > phone users. But even in the case of traditional pc's, many people rely > on proprietary BIOS or proprietary firmware for special devices or > cards. > > -- > André N. Batista > GNUPG/PGP KEY: 6722CF80 > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org > Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1383086934.24485.29.camel@tagesuhu-pc > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CAH_OBicp9XUj9EWFhHqALAxvCP4sxPBO7u-JGZdu3JvS9=d...@mail.gmail.com
