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The end of Community Editions

Today marks the end of the PinePhone Community Edition scheme. On behalf of myself, the Pine Store crew and the entire PINE64 community I’d like to thank the UBports Foundation, the postmarketOS project, Manjaro Linux, KDE e.V as well as the Mobian project for participating in bringing the PinePhone to tens of thousands of FOSS enthusiasts worldwide. We literally couldn’t have done it without you.

We are also grateful to all those who believed in our vision of a Linux smartphone and purchased a Community Edition PinePhone. Over the course of the last year we - all of us - propelled mobile Linux development forward to new heights and proved that a real Linux smartphone is not only possible but also viable if done right.

From the very start, the main goal of the PinePhone was to provide an affordable, open source and development-friendly platform, which would be accessible to all. A platform that would allow users to experiment with, and contribute to, the plethora of existing OSes, and for developers to build their operating systems on a native Linux platform. But the PinePhone was also meant to show our commitment to the future of Linux on mobile by promoting established Linux on mobile projects, while fostering new ideas and financially supporting our software partners.

Although this is the end of the Community Edition scheme, it is just the beginning for the PinePhone as a project. Over the next 12 months you’ll see many exciting developments concerning the PinePhone as a platform. Hardware-wise, we believe that the keyboard add-on, alongside an array of planned back-covers that enable additional functionality, will change how people interact with and think about mainline Linux smartphones. As for software - it won’t be long before an OS worthy of being your daily driver becomes ready.

I’d like to end this blog entry by letting you all know that a very small number of Mobian Community Edition PinePhones is still available in the Pine Store at the time of writing. I also expect that a handful of PinePhones will become available at the end of February from cancelled orders or failed transactions, so you’ll have a last chance to pick one up later this month.

In the upcoming community update I’ll be discussing our plans for a default PinePhone operating system as well as the PinePhone’s immediate future, so make sure to subscribe to the blog and follow the Telegram News channel to be notified of the post. [edit February 3] A number of KDE Community Edition PinePhones from cancelled orders or failed transactions is now available in the Pine Store.

Once again, I wish to thank all of those who were a part of the PinePhone Community Edition scheme - I feel we collectively made a difference to furthering the Linux on mobile cause.