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Improv Project, Vivaldi Tablet Officially Dead
sfcrazy (1542989) writes "It's a sad day for free software as one of the most ambitious free software projects, Improv, is officially dead. Along with the board also dies the promising Vivaldi tablet [video intro]. The developers have sent out emails to the backers of the project that they are pulling plugs on these. The end of the Improv project also means a disappointing end to the KDE Tablet project, as Aaron Seigo was funding both projects out of his own pocket (almost exactly $200,000 spent)."
The cause for the death is not mentioned in the summary, so I'm adding it here. The article says that the reason for the project failing was that "there was simply not enough support to make the project work, despite having fully functional, production ready devices and a strong commitment to succeed".
GNU/Linux systems just can't seem to get a foothold in the consumer market.
Android/Linux does, iOS/BSD does, Microsoft even and hold on and get some share, mostly threw force of deep pockets.
I applaud the idea of trying to get a White box type of tablet. However form factor is a major concern, with tablets and mobile devices. Trying to make a White Box with many ports makes it heavier and bulkier.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
KDE, Canonical, and GNOME have all made this huge push into stupid design decisions lately. Canonical with Ubuntu Phone/Tablet and Mir, GNOME with GNOME 3 and treating the desktop like a tablet, Mozilla with FirefoxOS, and KDE with this sort of stuff.
You know what I want out of an open source desktop? A DESKTOP! Seriously. I need a good desktop environment for my COMPUTER where I do actual work. I can't write code on a tablet. I can't write papers on a tablet. I can't do serious design work (anywhere, because I'm not a designer, but specifically also not on a tablet).
If I want to use a tablet, I want to use it to play games and watch movies, and Ubuntu/KDE/GNOME tablets aren't going to have Civilization Revolution, Ticket to Ride, Netflix, or Amazon Instant Video any time soon, so any tablet running those operating systems is going to be just a really crippled computer and a useless tablet.
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
I was interested until I found out it ran Linux / KDE. Any chance if getting Microsoft Windows on this thing?
It's a sad day for free software as one of the most ambitious free software projects, Improv, is officially dead.
How is an "open hardware development board" (how hard would it have been to weave that into the summary, by the way?) a "free software project"?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Hardware is hard. Good hardware is harder.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
If only there was some way to get more information, perhaps with a sort of "link" of some kind to a more detailed description.
Open hardware sounds cool, but as others have noted, good hardware design is both difficult and expensive. Considering how rapidly the components advance (CPU/SoC, I/O, displays, etc.), it would be hard for a small shop trying to live up to competing demands of "quick to market," "affordable to produce," "doable without a larger company's backing" to compete seriously against the likes of, say, Google's partners. Of note, even Google outsources the hardware.
But then there's the software. What does a "generic" Linux core with KDE offer that's a real improvement over the open source pieces of Android? Why not put a different UI (even KDE) onto Android? What am I missing here? Does anyone really want to reinvent the wheel of making a Linux kernel and its accessories meet the dual needs of good performance and economical power usage? Considering the variations already available for Android, what was the goal?
We're in a world where a first generation Nexus 7 tablet sells for $140 or less. At Walmart.
About all they've ever finished is a pizza.
Lots of people have pointed out for years now that tablets are a pointless device.
People who buy iPads rarely do it because they have a use for such a device. They just want to be "trendy", and that involves spending hundreds of dollars on a device that has the right logo on it, but is otherwise of limited to no practical value for most people. Normal, sensible people just don't buy the tablets offered by other vendors.
Tablets give you the worst of all worlds. Their portability sucks compared to smartphones. Their functionality sucks compared to laptops. They're worse for consuming media than smartphones, laptops, desktops, TVs, personal music players and portable radios. The software tends to be awful, since it's often just scaled-up versions of smartphone apps.
It's good that this stupid project failed. It was obviously a waste of resources to begin with, just like every other tablet that's not being sold as a quasi-religious artifact. The sooner a pointless project is put down, the better.
short version: the plan is to carry on, using the lessons learned to
try again, with a crowd-funding campaign that is transparent. please
keep an eye on the mailing list, i will also post here on slashdot
when it begins.
http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipe...
long version:
this has been a hugely ambitious venture, i think henrik's post explains much:
http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipe...
the - extremely ambitious - goal set by me is to solve a huge range of
issues, the heart of which is to create environmentally-conscious
mass-volume appliances that software libre developers are *directly*
involved in at every step of the way.
so, not to be disparaging to any project past or future, but this isn't
"another beagleboard", or "another raspberry pi beater": it's a way to
help the average person *own* their computer appliances and save
money over the long term. software libre developers are invited
to help make that happen.
by "own" we mean "proper copyright compliance, no locked boot
loaders and a thriving software libre environment that they can
walk straight into to help them do what they want with *their*
device... if they want to".
the actual OS installed on the appliance will be one that is
relevant for that appliance, be it ChromeOS, Android, even
Windows or MacOSX. regardless of the pre-installed OS, the
products i am or will be involved in *will* be ones that Software
Libre Developers would be proud to own and would recommend
even to the average person.
by "saving money over the long term" we mean "the device is
split into two around a stable long-term standard
with a thriving second-hand market on each side, with new
CPU Cards coming along as well as new products as well.
buy one CPU Card and one product, it'll be a little bit more
expensive than a monolithic non-upgradeable product,
but buy two and you save 30% because you only need
one CPU Card. break the base unit and instead of the whole
product becoming land-fill you just have to replace the base,
you can transfer not just the applications and data but
the *entire computer*".
it was the environmental modular aspects as well as
the committment to free software *and* the desire to reach
mass-volume levels that attracted aaron to the Rhombus Tech
project.
perhaps unsurprisingly - and i take responsibility for this - the
details of the above did not translate well into the Improv
launch. the reason i can say that is because even henrik,
who has been helping out and a member of the arm netbooks
mailing list for quite some time, *still* has not fully grasped
the full impact of the technical details behind the standards
(hi henrik, how are ya, thank you very very much for helping
with the boot of the first A10 / A20 CPU card, your post on
the mailing list last week was very helpful because it shows
that i still have a long way to go to get the message across
in a short concise way).
the level of logical deduction, the details that need to be taken
into account, the number of processors whose full specifications
must be known in order to make a decent long-term stable
standard.... many people i know reading that sentence will think i
am some sort of self-promoting egotistical dick but i can tell you
right now you *don't* want to be holding in your head the
kinds of mind-numbing details needed to design a long-term
mass-volume computing standard. it's fun... but only in a
masochistic sort of way!
anyway. i did say long, so i have an excuse, but to get to the
point: now that the money is being returned, we can start again
with a new campaign - using a crowdfunding site that shows
numbers, and starts with a lower target (250) that offers more value
for that same amount of money to everyone invo
If only there was some way to get more information, perhaps with a sort of "link" of some kind to a more detailed description.
here is the [old] specification of the [revision 1] CPU Card:
http://rhombus-tech.net/allwin...
the current revision 2 which i am looking for factories to produce (RFQs sent out already) we will try with 2gb of RAM. this is just a component change not a layout change so chances of success are high.
here is the [old] specification of the Micro-Engineering Board:
http://rhombus-tech.net/commun...
that was our "minimal test rig" which helped verify the interfaces on the first CPU Cards (and will help verify the next ones as well, with no further financial outlay needed. ever. ok, that would be true if i hadn't taken the opportunity to change the spec before we go properly live with it!! you only get one shot at designing a decade-long standard.... i'd rather get it right)
this will be the basis of the planned crowd-funding campaign: it's more of a micro-desktop PC:
http://rhombus-tech.net/commun...
the micro-desktop chassis is very basic: VGA, 2x USB, Ethernet, Power In (5.5 to 21V DC). all the other interfaces are on the CPU Card (USB-OTG, Micro-HDMI, Micro-SD). however unlike the Micro-Engineering Board, the power is done with a view to the average end-user (as is the VGA connector which means 2 independent screens, straight out the box).
does that help answer the question?
I've never heard of this project, so no wonder it failed. They should have hired Danica Patrick or someone to promote it. Since it's dead, I'm not going to bother finding out what it was.
Improv may be axed but other projects still need money, so if you like free software, donate! http://www.kde.org/fundraisers... https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...
It's sad to hear this but it's exactly what I predicted 2 years ago. I even provided an alternative that would work: use an "Android Core" as the base operating system, instead of Mer Linux, then port KDE to this "Android Core":
http://www.elpauer.org/2012/09...
Interestingly, this is exactly what Digia did for Qt, with the Boot to Qt (AKA Qt Enterprise Embedded) solution, a while after I made my proposal.
You keeep using that word . . . I do not think it means what you think it meanz . . .
hawk
If only Slashdot would act like a real news source, and subtly provide just the barest of information rather than leaving the reader less well informed than before.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Since Olimex produces a few of their OSHW products in a "SOM" form factor (separate CPU modules and baseboard) and the company has been extremely open and supportive of the OSHW community for a long time, wouldn't it be in both your interest and theirs to work together directly in developing an EOMA-68 system?
Their current A10-OLinuXino-LIME and -4GB products are selling like hotcakes and they hit the price point that you were aiming for. Although "hardware is hard" and requires juggling a lot of facts and figures as you explained, Olimex has the hardware skills and production systems to make interesting things happen fast, and they've demonstrated their juggling abilities repeatedly.
I think it would be very beneficial to the OSHW community if there were some direct collaboration with that company towards your very worthwhile project, and it's not out of line with what they already do.
Most of the functionality of Improv is available in an existing 30-euro board, with the only major exception being form factor and the ability to plug into a baseboard for memory expansion.
Since that product is open source hardware, extending its design with a DDR3 memory connector could serve as a useful stop-gap. At heart, it's exactly what you were aiming for in specs, but in the "wrong" form factor. Given the price, it's hard to complain.