Not another Linux-Phone by Mathias Born. Updated 02.04.2009
Bad news for libertarians: Openmoko suspended development of the GTA03 smartphone until further notice and laid off part of its staff. The managing director said that this would be the only way for the company to survive in the long-term.
For the time being Openmoko abandons development work on the next generation of the current Freerunner smartphone. Furthermore the Taiwanese company releases almost half of its staff. This is what Openmoko managing director Sean Moss-Pultz said today at the Opensource trade show "Openexpo" in Bern. Partially the staff had been given notice; partially the staff had resigned voluntarily. "We have arrived at a critical point", said Moss-Pultz. "This measures are absolutely necessary to even stay in business."
Openmoko's aim was ambitious: The subsidiary of the Taiwanese component manufacturer First International Computer (FIC) wanted to produce an Opensource-Smartphone. The source code was supposed to be freely available as well as the drivers and the specification of the components. Therefore software developers can reprogram the mobile phone at will. So far the company has produced two devices; the first one as a series of 3000 samples, the second one having been sold 10'000 times so far. Both are targeted at developers. The project was experiencing difficulties from the very beginning: The launch dates were postponed. Some batches had design faults. Furthermore there was a change in staff, which delayed development. At the middle of this year the software should have been stable enough for allowing the phone to be used in every day life.
Plan B
Openmoko now focusses on "Plan B" according to Sean Moss-Pultz. "For business reasons we have choosen the second device which we have in our pipeline." He would not be free to disclose any more details. However it would not be about a telecommunication device. In contrast to the smartphone the first version is going to already target the mass market. Also this product is going to be developed with Opensource software he assured.
The development of the software for the Openmoko-Smartphone would continue said Moss-Pultz, however with less resources. Therefore he places great hope on the community. "Buy a Freerunner, help to fix the bugs and write new programs" he appealed to his audience during his presentation at the Openexpo. He hopes to also use those latern on a new device. "Also in the future we want to produce mobile phones." (Berner Zeitung)
Since I started using GNU/Linux more than 10 years ago I have seen "outsiders" criticise the hell out of Linux, X11, FVM2, EMACS, KDE, GNOME,...
And it does not stop there either. Just think about KDE4 vs. KDE3. There is certainly no lack of criticism of "insiders" in that debate.
Once you are out there doing something really innovative, you are on your own by definition. Everyone (including you) can only compare it to the state of the art. Any developer who could give you useful technical criticism most likely is already developing something in this area himself/herself. So if you want to have high level criticism, try to find a related project of high quality and start reading the source code.
As usual it will pass mostly unnoticed. A botnet can be used in much more profitable ways than simply wiping the disk. And maybe it will be used to send more SPAM affecting every mail user regardless of what operating system they are using.
Interesting read, thanks. Maybe one could buy "internet money" which can be transferred without cost from thereon. If a project fails to deliver/expires one can simply move the money to another project.
One may also look at software escrow for inspiration. Another interesting project is Sourceforge Marketplace. They hired a former eBay developer for helping them implementing the system. To address the problem of contract law they suggest a default contract which limits liability to no more than the value of the contract.
It would be interesting to create a system which could distribute the cost of developing commodity software, i.e. one million customers each paying 1$ for developing a crucial device driver for example. However I don't see a way how to create something which is superior to a simple donation system because there are so many issues
how is work on generic software libraries rewarded?
what happens if a developer is unable to fulfil the specification?
what happens if customers are not satisfied with the result?
how can one keep the banking charges on money transactions at a minimum?
The article says "To discourage piracy, a tiny but essential core (also containing the licensing code), will be kept private (at least until users reach a certain rating)." That's most definitely not going to work. Such an open-ended system cannot demand commitments like this without deterring potential participants. Instead it must reflect the way open source software is created.
If you look for hypocrisy, you should probably have a look at other license before criticising the GPL. Also you must have a distorted view of the situation if you criticise GPL developers for incorporating BSD code, but at the same time you are completely oblivious of the fact that entire software companies are making money from selling modified BSD software without contributing back.
But the current legal system allows coercion by means of patents, technical restrictions,... The GPL is not by any means more silly than the environment in which it is being used.
The GPL license is just about protecting individuals who want to develop and use software in freedom. It's up to you to take advantage of this protection or not.
The GPL maximises protection against software patents and forbids distribution as proprietary-only software. The Ms-PL minimizes protection against software patents and forbids distribution as libre-only software. The Ms-PL formally fulfills the requirements for an OSI approval but apart from that it is everything what you would expect a license from Microsoft to be. To understand the Ms-PL just imagine the Venn diagram for the following equation: MsPL = ( OSI - GPL ) & Microsoft
I like that the judge voiced his concerns about the defendants financial situation: "You know, it seems to me that counsel representing the record companies have an ethical obligation to fully understand that they are fighting people without lawyers, to fully understand that, more than just how do we serve them, but just to understand that the formalities of this are basically bankrupting people, and it's terribly critical that you stop it, so there will be a settlement conference in the Tenenbaum case at the conclusion of this hearing."
To me it sounds like they are using their status as a platform owner. It's like your landlord propping up the rent. Sure you can move out if you think it's unfair. But it will take time to pay off because of the high short-term cost of moving. It seems like every week another "App Store" is opening. They are not selling service, they are selling visibility.
"The glimmering rectangular shape that had once seemed no more than a slab of crystal still floated before him, indifferent as he was to the harmless flames of the inferno beneath. It encapsulated yet unfathomed secrets of space and time, but some at least he now understood and was able to command. How obvious - how necessary - was that mathematical ratio of its sides, the quadratic sequence 1 : 4 : 9! And how naive to have imagined that the series ended at this point, in only three dimensions!" -- Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 A Space Odyssey
I used to play Moria and later Angband. Although it is text-based, the source code is several hundred thousand lines! On the other side there are the old proprietary games which you can now get for a low price. I think it may be easier to differentiate your product by developing for J2ME mobiles. Event then competition will be very hard.
It's partially the job of the management to establish communication and to create a proper working environment. Data mining is just another attempt to make decisions without having to understand the projects which the company has taken on. Throwing a dice would be much more straightforward and less disruptive to the moral of the workers.
It is less hassle to use a distributed version control system such as Git or Bazaar. It also helps to split up the work into several files where each author is primarily working on one of them and use include-statements in the master file.
I also recommend to maintain a "Makefile" which takes care of running bibtex, converting SVG to EPS, creating renderings with POVRay,... so that a single "make" on the command line will update the document.
If you just want to write a draft, you could try a distributed editor such as Gobby.
I thought that Microsoft has a ongoing patent-licensing agreement with Novell which distributes GPLv3 software. But the GPLv3 says that therefore a world-wide royalty-free patent-license is granted. However the Linux kernel is licensed under GPLv2. So does anybody know a software which * is licensed under GPLv3 * distributed by Novell * and contains FAT I guess that could change the game quite a bit.
We don't need less debris. We need more debris! Only then we will get an equilibrium (see rings of Saturn). After that it's just a matter of giving every satellite an auxiliary moon for sweeping up the debris.
I have tried StumbleUpon before. Using a browser toolbar you submit binary ratings (thumb up or down) and then you can request website suggestions based on your profile. One in ten or twenty websites is a targeted advert.
But it requires you to actively submit information. So you have at least some influence on how your profile looks like.
That's an interesting way of looking at it. It's not about strongly urging someone to buy a product. It's sufficient to just deflect the few people who almost would buy the product if there was no advertising. If only one in one hundred thousand page viewers makes a purchase because of that advert, it will result in hundreds of purchases if the advert is served millions of times. But if all adverts are more or less targeted, the business model will work much much better.
I've tried the StumbleUpon recommendation system and I was astonished how good it is at detecting the topics you are interested in.
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Not another Linux-Phone
by Mathias Born. Updated 02.04.2009
Bad news for libertarians: Openmoko suspended development of the GTA03 smartphone until further notice and laid off part of its staff. The managing director said that this would be the only way for the company to survive in the long-term.
For the time being Openmoko abandons development work on the next generation of the current Freerunner smartphone. Furthermore the Taiwanese company releases almost half of its staff. This is what Openmoko managing director Sean Moss-Pultz said today at the Opensource trade show "Openexpo" in Bern. Partially the staff had been given notice; partially the staff had resigned voluntarily. "We have arrived at a critical point", said Moss-Pultz. "This measures are absolutely necessary to even stay in business."
Openmoko's aim was ambitious: The subsidiary of the Taiwanese component manufacturer First International Computer (FIC) wanted to produce an Opensource-Smartphone. The source code was supposed to be freely available as well as the drivers and the specification of the components. Therefore software developers can reprogram the mobile phone at will. So far the company has produced two devices; the first one as a series of 3000 samples, the second one having been sold 10'000 times so far. Both are targeted at developers. The project was experiencing difficulties from the very beginning: The launch dates were postponed. Some batches had design faults. Furthermore there was a change in staff, which delayed development. At the middle of this year the software should have been stable enough for allowing the phone to be used in every day life.
Plan B
Openmoko now focusses on "Plan B" according to Sean Moss-Pultz. "For business reasons we have choosen the second device which we have in our pipeline." He would not be free to disclose any more details. However it would not be about a telecommunication device. In contrast to the smartphone the first version is going to already target the mass market. Also this product is going to be developed with Opensource software he assured.
The development of the software for the Openmoko-Smartphone would continue said Moss-Pultz, however with less resources. Therefore he places great hope on the community. "Buy a Freerunner, help to fix the bugs and write new programs" he appealed to his audience during his presentation at the Openexpo. He hopes to also use those latern on a new device. "Also in the future we want to produce mobile phones." (Berner Zeitung)
Since I started using GNU/Linux more than 10 years ago I have seen "outsiders" criticise the hell out of Linux, X11, FVM2, EMACS, KDE, GNOME, ...
And it does not stop there either. Just think about KDE4 vs. KDE3. There is certainly no lack of criticism of "insiders" in that debate.
Once you are out there doing something really innovative, you are on your own by definition. Everyone (including you) can only compare it to the state of the art. Any developer who could give you useful technical criticism most likely is already developing something in this area himself/herself. So if you want to have high level criticism, try to find a related project of high quality and start reading the source code.
As usual it will pass mostly unnoticed. A botnet can be used in much more profitable ways than simply wiping the disk. And maybe it will be used to send more SPAM affecting every mail user regardless of what operating system they are using.
There's only one logical outcome of this: At the end the US government has to acquire the whole thing using taxpayers money. Oh wait ...
Apart from using CPU frequency scaling, shutting down unused PCs, and using thin clients, you can setup Boinc on your computer.
Interesting read, thanks. Maybe one could buy "internet money" which can be transferred without cost from thereon. If a project fails to deliver/expires one can simply move the money to another project.
The article says "To discourage piracy, a tiny but essential core (also containing the licensing code), will be kept private (at least until users reach a certain rating)." That's most definitely not going to work. Such an open-ended system cannot demand commitments like this without deterring potential participants. Instead it must reflect the way open source software is created.
If you look for hypocrisy, you should probably have a look at other license before criticising the GPL. Also you must have a distorted view of the situation if you criticise GPL developers for incorporating BSD code, but at the same time you are completely oblivious of the fact that entire software companies are making money from selling modified BSD software without contributing back.
But the current legal system allows coercion by means of patents, technical restrictions, ... The GPL is not by any means more silly than the environment in which it is being used.
The GPL license is just about protecting individuals who want to develop and use software in freedom. It's up to you to take advantage of this protection or not.
Yes. The motivation for making the GPL incompatible is a totally different one.
The GPL maximises protection against software patents and forbids distribution as proprietary-only software. The Ms-PL minimizes protection against software patents and forbids distribution as libre-only software. The Ms-PL formally fulfills the requirements for an OSI approval but apart from that it is everything what you would expect a license from Microsoft to be. To understand the Ms-PL just imagine the Venn diagram for the following equation: MsPL = ( OSI - GPL ) & Microsoft
I like that the judge voiced his concerns about the defendants financial situation: "You know, it seems to me that counsel representing the record companies have an ethical obligation to fully understand that they are fighting people without lawyers, to fully understand that, more than just how do we serve them, but just to understand that the formalities of this are basically bankrupting people, and it's terribly critical that you stop it, so there will be a settlement conference in the Tenenbaum case at the conclusion of this hearing."
To me it sounds like they are using their status as a platform owner. It's like your landlord propping up the rent. Sure you can move out if you think it's unfair. But it will take time to pay off because of the high short-term cost of moving.
It seems like every week another "App Store" is opening. They are not selling service, they are selling visibility.
"The glimmering rectangular shape that had once seemed no more than a slab of crystal still floated before him, indifferent as he was to the harmless flames of the inferno beneath. It encapsulated yet unfathomed secrets of space and time, but some at least he now understood and was able to command. How obvious - how necessary - was that mathematical ratio of its sides, the quadratic sequence 1 : 4 : 9! And how naive to have imagined that the series ended at this point, in only three dimensions!" -- Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 A Space Odyssey
I used to play Moria and later Angband. Although it is text-based, the source code is several hundred thousand lines! On the other side there are the old proprietary games which you can now get for a low price. I think it may be easier to differentiate your product by developing for J2ME mobiles. Event then competition will be very hard.
Yes! Let's all sue each other. Surely that will end the economical crisis.
It's partially the job of the management to establish communication and to create a proper working environment. Data mining is just another attempt to make decisions without having to understand the projects which the company has taken on. Throwing a dice would be much more straightforward and less disruptive to the moral of the workers.
It is less hassle to use a distributed version control system such as Git or Bazaar. It also helps to split up the work into several files where each author is primarily working on one of them and use include-statements in the master file. I also recommend to maintain a "Makefile" which takes care of running bibtex, converting SVG to EPS, creating renderings with POVRay, ... so that a single "make" on the command line will update the document.
If you just want to write a draft, you could try a distributed editor such as Gobby.
I thought that Microsoft has a ongoing patent-licensing agreement with Novell which distributes GPLv3 software. But the GPLv3 says that therefore a world-wide royalty-free patent-license is granted. However the Linux kernel is licensed under GPLv2. So does anybody know a software which
* is licensed under GPLv3
* distributed by Novell
* and contains FAT
I guess that could change the game quite a bit.
We don't need less debris. We need more debris! Only then we will get an equilibrium (see rings of Saturn). After that it's just a matter of giving every satellite an auxiliary moon for sweeping up the debris.
I have tried StumbleUpon before. Using a browser toolbar you submit binary ratings (thumb up or down) and then you can request website suggestions based on your profile. One in ten or twenty websites is a targeted advert. But it requires you to actively submit information. So you have at least some influence on how your profile looks like.
That's an interesting way of looking at it. It's not about strongly urging someone to buy a product. It's sufficient to just deflect the few people who almost would buy the product if there was no advertising. If only one in one hundred thousand page viewers makes a purchase because of that advert, it will result in hundreds of purchases if the advert is served millions of times. But if all adverts are more or less targeted, the business model will work much much better. I've tried the StumbleUpon recommendation system and I was astonished how good it is at detecting the topics you are interested in.
Reminds me of a German politician who suggested an innovative solution against kids browsing porn: Porn sites must be offline until 10 pm!
Maybe it's something along this line of research.