User Persona: Kyle Rankin
This ticket serves to document the Kyle Rankin user persona in the context of this user making the Librem 5 his daily driver. This master ticket will document any missing features or bugs that are preventing Kyle from using Librem 5 as a daily driver as well as point to the existing tickets that will address these issues.
The goal is to have a nice snapshot for this type of user and track the progress between now and when this type of user can use Librem 5 as a "daily driver" instead of their existing phone.
User Persona
Kyle Rankin is a long-time Linux-using geek who uses his phone both as a basic phone (calls/SMS) as well as an extension of his regular computer. His core use case for the phone is as a secondary computer when he's away from his main computer and primarily as a way to get notified when someone at work contacts him. When this happens he uses his phone to get notified of and respond to work email and direct chat messages.
What's Missing
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Calls -- Calls works, but doesn't seem to offer an indication when 3G/2G signal is too poor to place/receive phone calls. Tracked in https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/ModemManager/issues/28 -
Touchscreen problems -- Tracked in https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/linux-next/issues/136 and https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/linux-next/issues/125 -
ModemManager -- Data seems to drop sporadically, requiring HKS+ModemManager reset. Documented in https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/ModemManager/issues/23 -
SMS not Updating -- Incoming SMS replies in Chats seems unreliable, causing Kyle to reset Modem and Chatty when in an SMS conversation that doesn't get an expected response in a timely manner from the other party. Documented in chatty#271 (closed) -
Notifications -- Right now if you aren't actively using the phone when a notification shows up, it disappears. When Kyle puts the phone down for a minute and returns to it, he needs to be able to see any missed calls, email, SMS, Matrix messages. Tracked in phosh#245 (closed) for main screen. -
Hdog (aka Haptic motor) -- Kyle usually has his phone on vibrate. Without vibration support for notifications he will have to mute/power off his phone in certain environments. Tracked in Apps_Issues#60 for per-app notification settings, and OS-issues#87 (closed) for notification "themes". -
Terminal Keys (Tab/Esc/Ctrl) -- Kyle uses the terminal for quite a few applications and workflows on his phone. Having terminals keys present on the keyboard will greatly help and would solve the need for email on the phone (mutt). Tracked in squeekboard#126 (closed) and squeekboard#12 (closed) and squeekboard#170 (closed). -
Power Management -- The current battery life with the smaller capacity battery is between two and three hours. With this capacity Kyle mostly leaves the phone plugged in at home so it has a good charge to last him when he goes out. With a battery life closer to that of a laptop (6-8 hours) it would probably be good enough so Kyle didn't feel like it always needed to be plugged in when idle. Tracked in https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/use-cases/issues/78 and https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/use-cases/issues/75 -
GPG smart card support -- I forgot to add this before, but if I intend on sending work email from this device like I do my current device, I will need the ability to use GPG from a smart card. Ideally this would mean getting the embedded smart card working, however it would also be acceptable if this were fulfilled by getting USB host support working so I could insert my Librem Key. Tracked by OS-issues#119 -
Camera -- https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/linux-next/issues/43 and https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/linux-next/issues/44
Nice to Have
There are some functions of Kyle's existing Android phone that he uses frequently, yet they are not dealbreakers/blockers from using the Librem 5 full-time.
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Flashlight/torch -- https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/linux-protected/issues/28#note_76708 and phosh#251 (closed) -
Calendar -- Apps_Issues#5 (closed) -
Notifications in lock screen -- phosh#166 -
Matrix application w/ encryption -- Kyle uses the Riot application on his Android phone to receive Matrix notifications from work when he isn't in front of his computer. He also sometimes uses his Android phone to participate in work conversations outside of work hours without opening up his laptop.