Chaosmonk:
> It's good enough for simple things like SMS, but don't expect to get any
serious work done on it. It probably will not perform better than your
netbook
I expect that it will perform much better than this netbook:
https://git.feneas.org/disintermedia/public-wiki/-/wikis/Bishop
Especially given all the physical aches and pains the poor thing has. The
battery is down to 20% capacity (according to Trisquel), the mains power is
loose and often falls out, the headphone socket no longer works reliably, and
the WiFi becomes unreliable when the devices is used for longer than a few
minutes at at time (I suspect due to heat). I maxed out the RAM to 2GB, but
the Convergence edition of the PP has 3GB. I'd be very surprised if even the
weakest modern processor isn't more powerful than a 32-bit 1.6 Ghz Atom, even
a dual core.
> and certainly not better than your X60.
Maybe, but the X60 is in China behind a closed border, and I am in Aotearoa.
So it was either the PinePhone or buying a used laptop for NZ$100-200, which
I'll then have no use for when we return to China. For NZ$300 I get a mobile
device I can use with peripherals, which is what I do with laptops when I
have a stable studio space anyway.
> This will be the same whether your use the Pinephone's modem or the Android
device's modem.
Yes, but the difference is that to use my SIM in the PP, I have to have its
cell modem turned on. If I don't, I can leave it turned off, and that's one
less piece of proprietary code in use on the device. The one bit that is
protected by law from being reverse engineered and run with free code.
> However, adding an Android device into adds an additional attack vector:
now Google gets has all that information too, plus a little bit more, which
an additional govt (USA) will have pretty easy access too.
How does Goggle get any info from an Android device that has never had a
Goggle account associated with it?
> Are any of your Android devices supported by any ungoogled Android ROMS?
It doesn't appear so, and since I have no experience with replacing the OS on
an Android device, I've been unwilling to risk a hack that *might* work (and
might brick the device). Once I have the PP, I expect I'll have two Android
devices I no longer depend on (I can put my NZ SIM in my Chinese Oppo with my
Chinese SIM if I have to), so I might try some experiments.
> That would make those devices a better option, more secure overall than the
Pinephone
I've heard this claim a few times. I've never seen any reason to believe it.
ELI5
> Pinephone has the advantage that you can use the hardware switch to disable
the modem sometimes
I was initially excited by this, but it seems that with the initial models
you have to take the back off the device to get at these switches, which
makes them almost useless. I'm hanging out for future versions in which
cameras will have a lense cover that users can manually slide clear when
they want to use the cameras, and the mic, cell modem, WiFi, GPS, and
Bluetooth, will also have hardware switches under an easily opened panel, on
the outside of the device.
