How We Designed the Librem 5 Dev Kit with Free Software

A mini-HDMI port seems like an odd choice. Considering most people who might use it will probably have to buy some kind of adaptor anyway, it seems like it would&#x27;ve been easier just to require a USB-C to HDMI adaptor and leverage the MHL Alternative Mode spec.[0] That, in my mind, would be preferable to adding another port that hardly anyone will use to the phone. Pretty much every smartphone&#x2F;tablet I&#x27;ve ever owned supported some form of MHL, even when most of them only had MicroUSB.<p>[0]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mobile_High-Definition_Link#USB_Type-C_(MHL_Alternate_Mode)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mobile_High-Definition_Link#US...</a>

Once this is shipped as a real product, with reviews that it is functional and doesn&#x27;t require tinkering constantly. I will drop money on it. I&#x27;m getting excited!

Anybody remember Openmoko? Ubuntu Edge?<p>It&#x27;s a great and noble idea, but really hard to pull off.<p>Also, there&#x27;s no final specs for the Librem 5 yet they have a 4&#x2F;2019 ship date. Sure... Hats off to them if that actually happens.<p>Does anyone have a Librem dev kit? Thoughts?<p>I like the Linux distro + e2e encryption support and would consider this in the future when they ship.

I&#x27;m also using KiCad for personal projects and small prototypes at work. Version 5 with a proper 3D export and interactive routing mode is definitely good enough for me. I find it much easier to use than Eagle and I don&#x27;t really feel the need for Altium (for relatively low complexity things, but I don&#x27;t do latest gen SoCs).<p>What really helps for hand assembly is interactive BOM viewer plugin: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;openscopeproject.org&#x2F;InteractiveHtmlBomDemo&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;openscopeproject.org&#x2F;InteractiveHtmlBomDemo&#x2F;</a>

It seems the High Density parts of the system are on a separate off the shelf SoM (System on Module) that was presumably not designed in KiCAD. It&#x27;ll be informative to see if they can continue to use KiCAD when they do the final integrated version of Librem that will presumably have the SoC on the mainboard. I&#x27;d very much like to use KiCAD for projects like that in the future, so hoping they can prove it viable.

My biggest concern with using a phone sans ios&#x2F;android is not being able to use the ID app used in Sweden for basically everything important. It&#x27;s used everywhere now, banks, government, my kids preschool, insurance etc etc.<p>As soon as I can figure out a way around this I&#x27;m going back to a feature phone.<p>My dreamphone is iPhone 3gs sized, has gps and maps, Hotspot and the app I mentioned before.

I wish the article started with a one-line description of what a &quot;Librem DevKit&quot; is. Then I would at least know if I wanted to read the rest of the article.

Does anyone know what language(s) will be used for app development? My understanding from reading the documentation is that it will be GTK+ for the UI and there are 2 examples of C&#x2F;GTK+ apps. Since this is a debian linux distro and applications will be distributed via a debian repo, could you theoretically write it in any language ex: python, java, c++ and use GTK+ or QT?<p>Doc Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.puri.sm&#x2F;Librem5&#x2F;Apps&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.puri.sm&#x2F;Librem5&#x2F;Apps&#x2F;index.html</a>

Doesn&#x27;t miniHDMI require paying a license? Probably a waste of resources, if there is a way to route DisplayPort over USB-C?

Question as a cautiously excited potential buyer: Do we know what apps it will be launched with? Is there documentation on that somewhere?

Having ordered one, I am waiting for them to ship!

This is great!

So I&#x27;m reading this and I&#x27;m wondering, is Librem pulling a BlackBerry here? When the BlackBerry PlayBook came out it had no native email or calendar or contact management capabilities.<p>Purism is going to ship the Librem 5 without the ability to do calendar, notes app, calculator app, and PDF viewer. My question is why? Why is this a good idea?<p>Edit: Reference their site: &quot;Upon initial shipment of the Librem 5 in 2019, it will offer the essentials: phone functionality, email, messaging, voice, camera, browsing. The featureset will expand after shipment and over time to more free software applications. Your user experience will improve as we incrementally add commonly requested applications and features (such as calendaring, notes, calculator, PDF viewer, etc.) while keeping performance in mind.&quot;