[Tinkerphones] ZeroPhone site offline

[Paul Boddie]

On Monday, 3 January 2022 20:12:32 CET H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
> 
> It happened several times during development of the GTA04 that people
> said: nice but look you can buy this or that. Instead of helping getting
> GTA04 better and making it a success.

I have to follow up on precisely this point. While surfing the FSF's Web site 
and their "high priority" projects...

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/

...I was reminded that the first item on the list is a Free Software phone 
operating system. Here, the FSF have decided to support Replicant:

https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/free-phone

If you look at what the Replicant project recommends...

https://replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php#recommendations

...the first choice after all this time is still the GTA04. Now, the FSF have 
financially supported the Replicant project through their "Working Together 
for Free Software" fund:

https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fund

This appears to be a directed donations scheme where 10% goes to the FSF for 
administering the fund, and if you visit the specific donations page for 
Replicant, it is noted that...

"$400-$600 will allow the Replicant team to buy one new device and make the OS 
compatible with it."

https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=19

So, Samsung or Google get paid, but aside from that it is "volunteers 
welcome", I guess. Maybe if the FSF encouraged investment in the hardware that 
runs the Free Software, everyone else would be better off: hardware would get 
designed and made, software developers would be involved in that process and 
not have to reverse-engineer proprietary devices, and maybe those involved 
would also get paid for their time.

Paul