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authorDenis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo@cyberdimension.org>2024-01-09 16:15:03 +0100
committerDenis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo@cyberdimension.org>2024-01-09 17:46:09 +0100
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37c3: Add 'Replicant struggle: past and present successes and failures' talk.
Signed-off-by: Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo@cyberdimension.org>
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+Replicant is an Android distribution that is certified by the FSF that
+supports some Smartphones and Tablets.
+
+Historically Replicant has united different struggles / concerns
+within the same project:
+
+It enabled to use hardware way longer, limiting damage on planet and
+workers.
+
+Compatible hardware could be found second hand in various ways (shops,
+free, etc). This made it accessible by a wide variety of people.
+
+Many of the supported hardware were made and sold in big numbers so
+they have a wide ecosystem around them like replacement batteries,
+repair knowledge, second hand shops.
+
+While all the supported hardware contains nonfree software
+(bootloader, sometimes another operating system loaded on the same CPU
+alongside Android/Replicant, details will be explained in the talk),
+Replicant itself is fully free, which appeals to people caring about
+free software.
+
+It avoided backdoors and chose to support only specific phones to
+limit the privacy damage (this was done by isolating the modem, more
+will be explained in the talk).
+
+While Replicant always had to take difficult strategic decisions that
+affected the above, with effects on both the amount of work required
+to support devices and the amount of work required to move to new
+Android versions, things also changed a lot in the last years.
+
+Modern off the shelf smartphones hardware made it impossible to
+address the same concerns than before: Replicant depends on hardware
+design features like modem isolation to provide some privacy
+guarantees (details will be in the talk). Supporting devices with
+batteries that cannot be replaced also lead to lot of complications
+for users (batteries that last less on second hand devices, limited
+lifespan, etc) that in turn put impossible constraints on contributors
+(supporting new devices as soon as they are released).
+
+Other issues like the disappearance of 3G networks, or the status of
+some Android related project also affect Replicant in big ways.
+
+On another hand Replicant also ended up with way more resources than
+before: it has enough money (about 200 000$) to fund development work
+during few years and also managed to get funding from NLnet to work on
+specific tasks.
+
+All that brings huge changes in the project and makes strategic
+decisions harder than before.
+
+The talk will start with information on why having 100% free software
+Android distribution(s) is still relevant today when GNU/Linux
+smartphones are becoming a reality again. It will also explain all the
+background needed to understand the rest of the talk (how smartphones
+work, what is a modem, what is TrustZone, how Android is different
+from GNU/Linux from the hardware support and contributor perspective,
+etc).
+
+A lot of the focus of this presentation will be about the project
+strategic decisions: Given the difficult context Replicant operates
+in, what difficulties it faced, how it solved them. But also current
+and longer term issues we have. In this talk we are also looking for
+feedback on our new strategy and/or ideas to address some of the
+longer time concerns we have, some of which other projects also faced.