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303 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html newsdate="2022-03-23">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Interview with Plasma Mobile developer Bhushan Shah</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1 id="interview-with-plasma-mobile-developer-bhushan-shah">Interview with Plasma Mobile developer Bhushan Shah</h1>
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<p>
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What are my options if I want to run my phone with Free Software?
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For our Upcycling Android campaign we interviewed Plasma Mobile
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developer Bhushan Shah about running a privacy-respecting and
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secure GNU/Linux phone ecosystem on your phone.
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</p>
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<p>
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KDE is an international Free Software community founded in 1996, and
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KDE e.V. is an associated organisation of the FSFE. In 2014, KDE
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first released Plasma, a graphical workspace environment which
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became one of its core projects. Plasma Mobile is a Plasma 5 variant
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for Linux-based smartphones. Bhushan Shah is a developer in the
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Plasma Mobile project since 2015. We chatted with Bhushan to learn
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more about this promising project. In this interview Bhushan
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explains why using Plasma Mobile benefits one's privacy, and how to
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get started. Enjoy!
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/6e35e7f3972dab183787344981dfc924.png" alt="A phone running Plasma Mobile, and a team of developers"/>
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</figure>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Hello Bhushan 🙂 thank you for joining!
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan Shah</span></strong>: Hello! Good morning! 🙂
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce">FSFE</span></strong>: As a start we would like to learn a few
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things about you, like how did you first become interested in Free
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Software and how did you start working at Plasma Mobile?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Sure. My first exposure to Free Software
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was a Linux course at University, which made me interested in Linux
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and open source in general. As part of that I started writing
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articles for Linux news sites (Muktware), and that introduced me to
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the KDE community. Basically, as I grew closer to the KDE community
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as a user I started using my development skills to contribute back,
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and then I never looked back. I was working with the KDE community
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as a contributor when they announced Plasma Mobile, and I was hired
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to work on Plasma Mobile by Bluesystems GmbH. That was in 2015, and
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after that I grew much closer to the Plasma Mobile project, both in
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technical terms and as a "movement" to provide an open
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alternative to Android/iOS 🙂
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: What is your current role in Plasma Mobile?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Currently I am working as a developer and
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maintainer of the Plasma Mobile project. I should note that being
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the maintainer does not make me BDFL* 😉 and responsibility for each
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of the components still stays with all contributors. 🙂
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Perfect, because we would like you to share
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with us what is Plasma Mobile? How is it different to other mobile
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operating systems? Pretend we hear about Free Software for the
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first time.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Right. In purely technical terms, Plasma
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Mobile is a collection of various software components, but I'd
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like to think of it more as a ecosystem of mobile software which is
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open by nature and has a community-first approach.
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</p>
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<p>
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Other mobile operating systems like Android and iOS have
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development done behind closed doors by large corporations and will
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only provide new releases as a either huge code dump or will not
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even provide a source code in some cases, while Plasma Mobile aims
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to provide a complete transparent development process where each
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change is developed together with the community, and is available
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with licenses that allow anyone to use, inspect and develop onward.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong>Our goal is that every user, developer, designer,
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translator can take part in the development and the community of
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Plasma Mobile and can work on improving it</strong>. As for what
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makes Plasma Mobile, again this is technical points, but Plasma
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Mobile includes a shell or user interface, applications, and
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distribution / base system for various mobile devices.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/b9b1f761fd936faa0aab1e11fe3f70bd.jpg" alt="7 people in front of a garden and a building in a summer day"/>
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<figcaption>Bhushan Shah (second from left) in Akademy, the annual world summit of KDE.</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Sounds like a vast collaborative project. We
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would also like to learn what would you say to someone who has
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decided to opt for a Free Software operating system, and has to
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choose between an Android-based custom-ROM or a full GNU/Linux
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distribution, like Plasma Mobile. What are the main differences,
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and what should a user have in mind to make the right choice?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Right, this is a question which will
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yield 10 different answers if you ask 10 different people 😄
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</p>
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<p>
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But ultimately it depends on what the user wants from their device.
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There are <strong>some use cases, for example banking or mobile payment
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applications, which unfortunately are not easily possible when you
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use the full Linux based distribution</strong>, as the market for such
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operating systems is still little bit of a niche and app developers
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do not support these distributions. That said, there are solutions
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like Waydroid which allow one to run such essential android
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applications on the GNU/Linux system.
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</p>
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<p>
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If you do not have such use cases where you need an Android device
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in your daily life then a full Linux-based system is definitely a
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better choice, compared to let's say LineageOS or a de-googled
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device, due to software freedoms it provides. So the bottom line
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is, each user will have a different use case and while we can try
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our best to match user expectation, ultimately the user will have
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to make the decision here.
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</p>
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<p>
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I think the main difference that will impact users is the app
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ecosystem available to them. While the Mobile Linux app ecosystem
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is growing, unfortunately it is not anywhere close to what Android
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and iOS have right now. We as a community and Free Software
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enthusiasts will have to work on improving this aspect of the Free
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Software mobile ecosystem. 🙂
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Thanks. What is the quickest way to start
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using Plasma Mobile? If I am looking to buy a new device and I am
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interested in Plasma Mobile, what are my options?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: There are certain vendors like Pine64 and
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Purism, who have "Linux first" devices like PinePhone,
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PinePhone Pro, and Librem 5 which should support the Plasma Mobile
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without much hassle. Pine64 devices ship with Plasma Mobile as the
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default even, but if these are not an option for you for whatever
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reason, then the postmarketOS community is also working on adding
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support for off-the-shelf Android devices in the mainline Linux
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kernel. You can find a<a href="https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices"> list of supported devices</a>
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in this page.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Great. And once we have Plasma Mobile, what
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are your most beloved apps you would recommend us?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Most distributions come with some basic
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set of applications like Dialer, SMS application, Clock, Setting
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applications etc. We have <a href="https://plasma-mobile.org/">a
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list of applications on the Plasma Mobile website</a> that you can
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go through.
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</p>
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<p>
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My personal favourite, however, if you ask, is <a href="https://kdeconnect.kde.org/">KDE connect</a> for interacting
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and controlling other devices using Plasma Mobile devices 😉
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img src="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/medium/c038ebc0800a895cd42debf8d44d1ebc.png" alt="previours of home page, calendar, calculator, and camera, in Plasma Mobile OS"/>
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<figcaption>
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Screenshots of Plasma Mobile
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Plasma Mobile states to be a privacy
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respecting phone ecosystem. How does Plasma Mobile secure
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peoples' privacy?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Right. A lot of applications and software
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in the current mobile ecosystem are built with one basic aim of
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tracking users and collecting multiple GBs of data about users.
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</p>
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<p>
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Almost all of <strong>this is sold as "Improving user
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experience" or "features" so users have no idea that
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their data is being harvested</strong>. Do you want to activate
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your phone with voice? Do you want to share your live location with
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your friend? Do you maybe want to unlock your device with a
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fingerprint or eye tracking?
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</p>
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<p>
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Most users will say yes to this and Android/iOS will mine this
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data, use it for targeted advertisements and in the worst case will
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share with state actors who want to spy on users. We at Plasma
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Mobile have committed to building a ecosystem where user privacy is
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respected, Apart from opt-in very basic telemetry kde.org does not
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collect any of the user data, and we work on adding the same set of
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user enhancements without hidden data collection or targeted
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advertisements.
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</p>
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<p>
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In addition to this, being open by nature means that users are free
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to audit the application/software installed on their device for any
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anti-privacy features or hidden trackers 🙂
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: The contrast with the dominant mobile
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ecosystems in matters of privacy is striking indeed. Going back to
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other devices - GNU/Linux systems are famous for being able to run
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on a variety of devices. Can I use Plasma mobile on other devices
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except phones, or is that planned for the future?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Yes, you can use Plasma Mobile on the
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tablet/desktop devices as well. In fact a lot of us developers
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develop Plasma Mobile by running it initially on the desktop 🙂 Some
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distributions offer Live Images that you can boot on your laptop to
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test drive Plasma Mobile.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Sounds fun! As a last question, we would
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like to ask you what motivates you in your work for Plasma Mobile?
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: My motivation is two-fold. First is I
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very much believe in the vision of Plasma Mobile, and I would like
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to help the KDE community achieve that goal, and my second
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motivation is technology. I am a developer at heart and Plasma
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Mobile is supported by various technologies and developing on it is
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fun!
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#3394ce"> FSFE</span></strong>: Thank you Bhushan, for the interview and
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also for offering us a privacy-friendly alternative to the current
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mobile world. I wish all the best to the Plasma Mobile project,
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which contributes to software freedom.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong><span style="color:#ce6d33">Bhushan</span></strong>: Thank you very much!
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</p>
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<br></br>
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<hr></hr>
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<p>
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* BDFL: Acronym for 'benevolent dictator for life' satirizes the
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power of the developers of Free Software projects who have the
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final say in a dispute.
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</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="interview">Interview</tag>
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<tag key="upcyclingandroid">Upcycling Android</tag>
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<tag key="security">IT security</tag>
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</tags>
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<discussion href="https://community.fsfe.org/t/819"/>
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<image url="https://pics.fsfe.org/uploads/big/6e35e7f3972dab183787344981dfc924.png" alt="A phone running Plasma Mobile, and a team of developers"/>
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</html>
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