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Openmoko Phone Not Dead After All
In response to the report I posted a few days ago that the Openmoko FreeRunner phone had been discontinued, Pat Meier-Johnson writes on behalf of Openmoko to say
that this isn't so. "Some bloggers have been misinterpreting a presentation by Openmoko CEO, Sean Moss-Pultz last week in Switzerland to think that the company is getting out of the phone business. That's not true. In fact, the Openmoko FreeRunner (their current model) is alive and well. (Also in Switzerland, Sean announced another project — not a phone — that they are calling 'Project B.' No details yet.) The next version of the phone, codenamed GTA03, has been suspended and there were some associated layoffs, but the GTA03 was in constant flux as a design. So the company is being prudent and focusing on the FreeRunner which has lots of open source community and most recently, embedded developer support." Glad to hear this, because the FreeRunner is an interesting phone.
It may not be dead, but it faces a huge battle against Google and others. And this is not literature.
Dude, seriously. I'm not trying to troll here. Can I get some honest first-hand accounts of its actual phone, SMS and voicemail capability/reliability from any AT&T customers using this thing in the greater Los Angeles Area? Any luck with actual 3g network access would be nice to hear about as well.
Considering the chaos in the software end, the only really interesting aspect of it was that you could get a debug board that plugged right into the thing. Other than that the only notable aspect was the fact that the schematics and mechanical designs were open, which is nice but largely only interesting to other corporations with the resources to spin and assemble PCBs.
Maybe if the company had better direction, they would have been able to forge ahead to the GTA03 instead of it constantly wobbling. With focus they could have pushed the software stack to stability and usability, as well as solve the power management issues and gotten an actual 3G radio into the thing. Instead they've shrunk and moved on to some unnamed project.
Sad, but not suprising. Glad I kept my $400.
(+1 Opensource)
Unfortunately, OpenMoko missed the support of a company like Apple or Google behind. Able to sprinkle the necessary kool factor, and the $$$ necessary in marketing the product. I believe there is space for a Truly Open (open as in Open Source, and as in Freedom from XYZ Application Store constraints/rules) mobile platform, possibly based on Linux and QTe.
And no, for the record, both iPhone and Android (and even less Symbian) are not truly open as by the definition above.
Glad to hear this, because the FreeRunner is an interesting phone.
"Interesting" in what way? Beyond the obvious fact that it's hackable. Or have "interesting" and "hackable" become synonyms?
I feel fine!
So did Infineon (behind the Phantom console).
I'm sure we could all come up with a ton of other examples.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
May every device you touch which runs Linux -- which may be more than you think -- all drop dead on you on the same day.
In other news: any chance at all they're ever going to think ahead to include a PTT button on the case design?
aka Plan-B
Sounds like plan A didn't go so well.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
I like the idea but everything I have read about the product says it is a lousy phone. And if it can't do that basic function well it doesn't matter what other neat things it can do, whether it is open software, open hardware, whatever. A phone that sucks is no sale.
Democrat delenda est
It's annoying because the zealots will be happy that their "phone" (which isn't even a good phone to begin with) will still be around. We need an actual product that you won't be embarrassed showing to non-geek folk. Now all we'll get are smug idiots.
...and most recently, embedded developer support.
In the current economic climate, I know downsizing is becoming common... but this is ridiculous!
OpenMoko is dead. - Linguo
Sig this!
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
After owning a SE P800 & P900, I'm stuck with my SE P910. I want a phone/PDA that doesn't run ugly WinMo, does allow multiple SMS and MMS, no keyboard, allows spreadsheet/word processer editing and doesn't look like a lump of ugly plastic. I've tried the Blackberry Storm (locked to Vodafone with horrible, intrusive branding), the iPhone (no MMS or multiple SMS send), the Samsung Omnia (WinMo sucked). I'm curious to see how good the G2 is but initial reports are brilliant. The Freerunner looks plain awful and has issues with stability. Where is the modern P910?
So does Steve Jobs too! And SUN Microsystems. And United States of America. And as you said, there's a ton of examples. Now what was your point again? Everything that claims it's not dead is? Or isn't?
You've been a wonderful crowd. Thanks
Modded down by someone not knowing what 'Last post' is meant in this context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Post . This IS the final round in this open-hardware-source battle, for now. The public just isn't ready for it, yet.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
The public just isn't ready for it, yet.
The public will never be ready for a phone that doesn't make phone calls properly. If instead of working on various UI toolkits and abandoning them they focused on making the phone work maybe they could sell a few more.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Interview with Steve Mosher from Openmoko about current state of things (7 minute video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8Tsvj2TdQ
Sean Moss-Pultz's presentation at openexpo (30 minute video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFuwhPXYxxI&NR=1
Head FreeSmartPhone developer, Mickey Lauer's take on things.
http://www.vanille-media.de/site/index.php/2009/04/04/back-from-switzerland/
LinuxDevices article: Openmoko: Next-gen phone bites the dust, FreeRunner lives.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8568412362.html
The project was dead before it started. The management of the project is horrible. The software is constantly attempting to copy someone else and doing it poorly.
This is pretty typical of an OSS project. Its not about innovation or breaking the mold, its about copying what someone else did and releasing the source in a sad attempt to reap the benefits of someone else's work without really contributing anything new. Very few OSS projects actually break out of this mold. Linus did it by accident, when he started it was nothing more than a copy of another Unix, that was the plan. Obviously that changed as Linux grew far beyond a 'copy' in the late 90s. But Linux is a shining start in OSS world and is very hard to duplicate, there simply aren't enough people that care about most OSS projects the way Linus and his original crew did to get it to the point that it had momentum.
I'm not saying thats always a bad thing, but lets not get delusional when talking about this device, it is in no way impressive unless you're comparing it to those fake phones you give little kids.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Just to throw my own experience into the mix. I use the Freerunner as my daily phone and it works well enough.
It takes some time to set up, that's true, but I'm quite happy with the latest SHR release and can finally make phone calls with good quality. There was a major mess before as most of the distros caused the other end of the phone call to hear a constant echo of their own voice. That is sorted out now and Freerunner works as an everyday phone for me, not to mention as a mobile web browser (Midori, dillo), a GPS unit (tangogps), an IM client with wifi (Pidgin) and (what I didn't think was possible in the beginning) as a decent music player using an A2DP headset (pythm). There is some sound criticism among the comments but most of it is just scaremongering - the Freerunner keeps evolving on just fine.
Certainly not a phone for the common Joe, but for a more computer-literate user it can be a more powerful tool then most closed phones on the market.
Really? What about the NGage?
Er, on second thoughts, maybe you have a point...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
But FreeRunner IS making phone calls properly. It works for me. Really.
...am not dead. wait? that wasn't the point?