I would say the ABSOLUTE basics are:
- Phone calls
- texts
- web browser
- GPS map app
- Camera and photo/video gallery app
- Timer/reminder/calendar/clock system
- Battery life of at the very, VERY least 6 hours of mixed idle and active usage
That will get those first few hundred enthusiasts, paranoid delusionals and political idealists to start carrying a GNU‽Linux phone without an Android or iPhone for backup. I think there’s enough of us who will charge it at work or in the car or whatever and will give up banking apps and shit like that for this.
The thing that will probably never come up to snuff is the database of businesses. GNU Maps b/w the OpenStreetMap database is actually pretty good. I just looked at my home town and of all the hundreds of businesses on the main street it knew two restaurants, a gas station and a trash can. “Navigate to the nearest shoe store” isn’t a thing it can do.
After that, you need a decent app store with small screen versions of most utility apps. No, the Desktop version of Slack isn’t going to work, you need mobile Slack, because the desktop version is going to be an utter usability failure on a 5 inch screen. The only way I can think of to get that done without a carrier battle group and the 82nd Airborne is APK compatibility and FDroid.
Then you’ll have the problem of mass adoption becaue it doesn’t run Fortnite or banking apps or the McDonald’s app or whatever.
The thing that will probably never come up to snuff is the database of businesses. GNU Maps b/w the OpenStreetMap database is actually pretty good. I just looked at my home town and of all the hundreds of businesses on the main street it knew two restaurants, a gas station and a trash can. “Navigate to the nearest shoe store” isn’t a thing it can do.
That’s a fixable problem with the indexing method that someone will figure out eventually.
There’s no need to say “it will never happen” as that can discourage able developers.
People always say new ideas won’t succeed until they do then they start downplaying the success, there’s no need to say “it won’t ever happen”.
I don’t think it’s a “problem with the indexing method” I think it’s a problem of data source. People sign up and pay to have their businesses listed on Google Maps as a marketing strategy. That’s a LOT of parallel effort that won’t be there for OpenStreetMap unless it somehow becomes a major player.
That’s true but as we lay down more ground work most people would become more interested in Openstreetmap as it has more information available to the public and a free api that would save thousands in costs.