I just did something similar to bring mainline Linux to my Daylight DC-1 [1] [2], although possibly more difficult since I had to start from scratch.
I can guarantee the same amount of work, without AI, takes probably 10x or more time (I did it in the past w/ the Google Pixel C [3]).
Unfortunately it looks like pmOS is against AI [4], so I'll likely switch away from pmOS and never contribute a single line in the future.
Too bad, I was a huge fan [5].
Because one of the biggest hurdles to porting the Linux kernel and device-specific software to more hardware and making existing hardware work better is one of the things that "AI" can (seemingly, caveat) do surprisingly well?
Not to say PM (or any other project) should/shouldn't use AI. There are plenty of other salient reasons to reject AI. But given (from what I remember) postmarket's goal is basically saving as many phones from becoming ewaste as possible, well, an LLM could actually be a formidable way to get more hardware than ever running.
Why would you waste 2 years to port Linux to an old / a device when you can literally do it in ~10 days and save many devices from turning into e-waste?
I really don't get their approach. Besides, Linux (and Linus) accepts and are doing AI contributions, so their argument makes no sense (since they're a Linux distro)
I would also add on top of those points that nobody will ever get paid for mainlining old phones, these are side projects by nature, meaning, not full time.
And since it's such a hard task without AI (and it's still not easy even with it), almost none will ever be mainlined just because of the size of the task
>I really don't get their approach. Besides, Linux (and Linus) accepts and are doing AI contributions, so their argument makes no sense (since they're a Linux distro)
Sometimes the base has to fight the insanity coming from the top down.
There is a lot of people who don't know how to prompt well, don't understand the underlying task at hand and will just ask Claude a single line question without any reviewing of said output.
The Shopify CEO calls this a "Slop grenade".
That being said, I hope that postmarketos can move away from a flat out "No Gen AI" stance. Maybe the PR should include the prompts used, perhaps?
I hope this doesn't just result in a forked project.
denysvitali · · focus · HN ↗
I can guarantee the same amount of work, without AI, takes probably 10x or more time (I did it in the past w/ the Google Pixel C [3]).
Unfortunately it looks like pmOS is against AI [4], so I'll likely switch away from pmOS and never contribute a single line in the future. Too bad, I was a huge fan [5].
[1]: <a href="https://daylightcomputer.com/product" rel="nofollow">https://daylightcomputer.com/product
[2]: <a href="https://x.com/DenysVitali/status/2091238391710888416" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/DenysVitali/status/2091238391710888416
[3]: <a href="https://github.com/pixelc-linux/documentation" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/pixelc-linux/documentation
[4]: <a href="https://docs.postmarketos.org/policies-and-processes/development/ai-policy.html" rel="nofollow">https://docs.postmarketos.org/policies-and-processes/develop...
[5]: <a href="https://blog.denv.it/posts/pmos-k3s-cluster/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.denv.it/posts/pmos-k3s-cluster/
officeplant · · focus · HN ↗
Why would you think one of the more beloved projects for linux mobile phones would be pro-AI?
spijdar · · focus · HN ↗
Not to say PM (or any other project) should/shouldn't use AI. There are plenty of other salient reasons to reject AI. But given (from what I remember) postmarket's goal is basically saving as many phones from becoming ewaste as possible, well, an LLM could actually be a formidable way to get more hardware than ever running.
denysvitali · · focus · HN ↗
Why would you waste 2 years to port Linux to an old / a device when you can literally do it in ~10 days and save many devices from turning into e-waste?
I really don't get their approach. Besides, Linux (and Linus) accepts and are doing AI contributions, so their argument makes no sense (since they're a Linux distro)
realusername · · focus · HN ↗
And since it's such a hard task without AI (and it's still not easy even with it), almost none will ever be mainlined just because of the size of the task
conorcleary · · focus · HN ↗
officeplant · · focus · HN ↗
Sometimes the base has to fight the insanity coming from the top down.
HarlequinHair · · focus · HN ↗
Linux accepts AI assisted contribution. A human still has to review the output before submitting the code.
This is a big difference as it prevents raw genAI code to be part of the codebase.
pmOS might accept this in the future, as it is slowly becoming the standard.
ojdon · · focus · HN ↗
The output is only ever as good as the prompt.
There is a lot of people who don't know how to prompt well, don't understand the underlying task at hand and will just ask Claude a single line question without any reviewing of said output.
The Shopify CEO calls this a "Slop grenade".
That being said, I hope that postmarketos can move away from a flat out "No Gen AI" stance. Maybe the PR should include the prompts used, perhaps?
I hope this doesn't just result in a forked project.