financial situation and development activity

[Paul Kocialkowski]

> >> because the last offical supported device is Samsung Galaxy S3, i wonder
> >> if you have difficulties to accomplish a port to a newer phone,
> >> supported by Cyanogenmod.
> >
> > You might want to read about the Replicant project's roadmap for the
> > future:
> > http://blog.replicant.us/2014/09/replicant-homepage-and-roadmap-for-the-future/
> >
> > I decided not to keep dedicating valuable time ressources on mainstream
> > devices that are fundamentally flawed (non-free bootloaders) while
> > better devices exist out there. I am now focusing on those better
> > devices, but it takes a lot of time and I don't have much available.
> 
> Is this your view on use of your own time, or do you believe that the
> Replicant project should not support devices with non-free bootloaders?
> I think this is a bit unclear from your blog post, and I believe it is
> an important distinction.

The way I see it, everyone is welcome to contribute work for various
areas. I don't think I would refuse to integrate some work because it
doesn't match the idea that I have of the direction of the project.

What I really like about free software projects is that people are free
to work on whatever areas they want to, there are no obligations. Hence
I really don't see myself telling people what they must and must not
work on. I could suggest some tasks based on what I think is important
but in the end, it is really not up to me.

But since I'm the only developer bringing a substantial technical
contribution to the project, what I decide to do reflects what
development happens on Replicant. Thus, what was expressed in my blog
post reflects my development priorities but also has a direct impact on
where Replicant is going.

> I'm happy with Replicant on the S3.  While I also would like phone with
> a free bootloader, the options that are available today are really far
> away from being usable as a everyday phone.

Hopefully, the LG Optimus Black should change that situation to some
extent (even though it's a bit old, it's still easy to find and is
stable and usable).

> So for me, until there is better commodity hardware available, it is
> either using Replicant on S3 or giving up on what Replicant has
> achieved and go back to using some less nice OS (e.g., CyanogenMod) on
> the S3 or some other phone.

I understand that, I am using a Samsung device as daily phone as well.

> I believe there is a role for free software and security/privacy-aware
> OS's on commodity phone hardware with hardware that require some
> non-free firmware.  Similar to how gNewSense, trisquel, libreCMC, etc
> exists for commodity PCs/routers that may have some non-free hardware
> components in them.  Right now, Replicant is the only contender in the
> space as far as I am aware of.

That is correct. The idea has always been to make those devices "less
bad" by having a fully free system. Since they exist and we are going to
use them, we might as well do it with as much free software as possible.

However, Replicant differs a lot from fully free GNU/Linux systems,
because it is very device-specific and we have to write free software
replacements for things to work. On that regard, fully free GNU/Linux
systems don't write free drivers or free firmwares replacements, they
just remove them. Since x86 is generic enough and most of the
abstraction is already there, they just provide a generic image and
don't work on any particular hardware.

In the case of Replicant, things are different since we have to target
specific hardware, hence we have to chose which targets are the best. I
think it is better to try and bring free software to the next level by
supporting devices that run free bootloaders.

There are several implications of this for the flawed (no free
bootloader) mainstream devices:
* I am probably not going to add support for new features on the flawed
devices we already support, but most of what could reasonably be done is
already there
* I am however still going to maintain those devices, fix bugs, etc and
in particular, complete Samsung-RIL
* I am not going to try and keep up to the latest Android versions to
add support for new flawed mainstream devices

-- 
Paul Kocialkowski, Replicant developer

Replicant is a fully free Android distribution running on several
devices, a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on
freedom and privacy/security.

Website: http://www.replicant.us/
Blog: http://blog.replicant.us/
Wiki/tracker/forums: http://redmine.replicant.us/

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