I'd be so happy to install this on my phone. I miss the time when I was using Samsung Dex. Incredible to not hold my computer around anymore. But Samsung... not open-source, buggy.
Very few phones have good enough upstream Linux support to run Nura as a daily driver. It's an active area of research but getting something where you have a working camera, phone calls and reliable sleep/resume has become somewhat of a white whale.
I haven't checked in a while, but I've dabbled in Linux phones for years now so I'd be surprised if it changed that much since last I looked.
I did think postmarketOS was a bit of an awkward name but it was also widely recognised, at least in Linux nerd circles. I guess this will cause a bit of confusion in the short term but hopefully lead to broader recognition in the longer term. Though the obstacles to Nura's growth are probably not primarily branding-related.
Yeah, I was trying to think of a mnemonic to remember this new name but I'm coming up short. The old one was indeed... somehow 'post-market' isn't the best vibe so I do get the point of a rebrand in general
So the name comes from nuraghe, a kind of ancient stone tower in Sardinia, intending to convey stability and strength. But nura is already a Sardinian word, it seems, for "daughter-in-law". Daughters-in-law can be strong and stable too, of course, so it doesn't matter much.
From experience, AI is a 10x (or more) booster for getting a new device up and running - or porting mainline Linux to those super old (3.x) kernel forks.
I'll not contribute back anymore - this is a real bummer, but I guess they made their choice.
A pro-AI fork would be nice for both "sides"; we could experimentally see whether it helps or hurts. In a few months-years, we should be able to see whether it's faster/buggier/better/worse.
I've seen a few people react this way, promising to never contribute when AI is banned; invariably, it turns out they hadn't been contributing upstream anyways.
The policy you linked explains its reasoning pretty clearly. So you feel better about their decision, please re-read it with an open mind and a "why would a very ideologically-motivated copyleft free software project think this" attitude.
Can you give an example of a point in their rationale that they'll "come around" on, and why? I mentioned it because it looks solid to me.
I don't think they'll be forked to irrelevance. Even if I put aside my skepticism of the quality or longevity of AI-assisted projects, I don't think there's a bigger audience for a Nura that's less principled on the issues they mentioned.
To begin with, Nura is based on Linux, which is already contradictory.
Linux uses LLMs. It cannot afford not to, when LLM can find and fix bugs at a rate no amount of human effort can match. This includes security-relevant issues.
I thought the old name was fine, it was usually just PMOS abbreviated... Nura seems totally unnecessary but we'll roll with it or some fork if someone creates an alternative
The jokes almost write themselves about the knock-on effects of dedicating significant time to debugging your phone running this OS, with the new name.
Open source continues its streak of picking atrocious names. Just off the top of my head, in recent memory we have Raku, Kodi, Luanti, Valkey, and now Nura.
Naming things is famously hard, but sometimes it feels like the Good Idea Fairy visits these projects and they aren't product-savvy enough to realize that humans are social, fickle creatures. You need to pick a name that your users won't be embarassed to say in a board room. There is a fairly sizable body of research-backed evidence that picking a cringe name reduces initial trust/comprehension.
Lukewarm take: "I'm a Raku developer" makes one sound like someone with poor hygiene who watches far too much anime.
No, it's not. C♯, with a sharp sign, is the sharp note. Exchanging the number sign for the sharp sign is like exchanging the Latin capital letter R for the Cyrillic capital letter Ya (Я).
No, the "postmarketOS" name came about to indicate that it's an OS to keep older devices working for longer (i.e. providing active support after the support from the manufacturer has ended).
As someone who used PostmarketOS previously, and would be interested in returning...
1. Congrats to them on a name change.
2. Bummer about not getting the .org domain name, but if the current registrant hasn't been using the name, there is some ICANN trademark pressure that can help the registrant be reasonable with the price.
3. Is the effort into branding a sign that there's also imminent big news on device viability for daily drivers?
Have you seen the new show? It's on Tubu. It's literally on Heebee. It's on Poodee with ads. It's literally on Dippy. You can probably find it on Weeno. Dude it's on Gumpy. It's a Pheebo original. It's on Poob. You can watch it on Poob. You can go to Poob and watch it. Log onto Poob right now. Go to Poob. Dive into Poob. You can Poob it. It's on Poob. Poob has it for you. Poob has it for you.
Pfah, Poob. Zombo.com is the place to be. Welcome to Zombo.com. This is Zombo.com. Welcome. This is Zombo.com. Welcome to Zombo.com. You can do anything at Zombo.com. Anything at all. The only limit is yourself.
That the new name sounds like (at least to some people) a meaningless blob of letters, similar to what a bunch of tech companies name their products or themselves, I suppose.
Searching for "Nura" returns dozens of existing results. They couldn't even get nura.org! Is there really not a more distinct name they could've picked? Even Nura OS would make them easier to find in the long term.
Non-exhaustive list of things already named "nura":
- NURA: Premium Ingredients for Food & Wellness
- Nura - Award-winning personalised sound
- NURA: India's First Ai Powered Health Screening Center
- Nura Clinics | Pain Management Specialists In Minnesota
- Nura (German rapper)
- NURA - Shop Now for Health Essentials
- Nura | Hummus, Falafel & Shawarma
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
- Nura, a defunct consumer electronics company based in Melbourne
- Nura Space: Workplace Management Platform
Competing for this name seems like an uphill battle.
67 comments
[ 0.31 ms ] story [ 54.9 ms ] threadI haven't checked in a while, but I've dabbled in Linux phones for years now so I'd be surprised if it changed that much since last I looked.
From experience, AI is a 10x (or more) booster for getting a new device up and running - or porting mainline Linux to those super old (3.x) kernel forks.
I'll not contribute back anymore - this is a real bummer, but I guess they made their choice.
Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49704503#49745309
https://docs.nura.eco/policies-and-processes/development/ai-...
https://gitlab.com/sm8250-mainline/linux/-/merge_requests/8
https://wiki.nura.eco/wiki/Special:Contributions/Denvit
The contributions won’t be missed.
Or get forked to irrelevance.
I don't think they'll be forked to irrelevance. Even if I put aside my skepticism of the quality or longevity of AI-assisted projects, I don't think there's a bigger audience for a Nura that's less principled on the issues they mentioned.
Linux uses LLMs. It cannot afford not to, when LLM can find and fix bugs at a rate no amount of human effort can match. This includes security-relevant issues.
Naming things is famously hard, but sometimes it feels like the Good Idea Fairy visits these projects and they aren't product-savvy enough to realize that humans are social, fickle creatures. You need to pick a name that your users won't be embarassed to say in a board room. There is a fairly sizable body of research-backed evidence that picking a cringe name reduces initial trust/comprehension.
Lukewarm take: "I'm a Raku developer" makes one sound like someone with poor hygiene who watches far too much anime.
Either way, I don't mind that much, I do think "Nura" is more catchy than "postmarketOS", it also rolls off the tongue much better IMO
1. Congrats to them on a name change.
2. Bummer about not getting the .org domain name, but if the current registrant hasn't been using the name, there is some ICANN trademark pressure that can help the registrant be reasonable with the price.
3. Is the effort into branding a sign that there's also imminent big news on device viability for daily drivers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Xxy0tU65Y
The original name was descriptive and helpfully labelled.
I feel this was a bad decision.
Non-exhaustive list of things already named "nura":
- NURA: Premium Ingredients for Food & Wellness
- Nura - Award-winning personalised sound
- NURA: India's First Ai Powered Health Screening Center
- Nura Clinics | Pain Management Specialists In Minnesota
- Nura (German rapper)
- NURA - Shop Now for Health Essentials
- Nura | Hummus, Falafel & Shawarma
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
- Nura, a defunct consumer electronics company based in Melbourne
- Nura Space: Workplace Management Platform
Competing for this name seems like an uphill battle.