good report [LWN.net]

good report

Posted Jan 5, 2009 23:06 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
Parent article: Openmoko: looking forward to 2009

Interesting status report.

So, for anyone wondering if they should buy a FreeRunner or wait for the next generation, I guess the timeline for the FreeRunner's successor is December 2009 or later.

It would be a good idea for openmoko.org to link to some explanation of what 'free' is and why it's important. It currently links 'open' to a page about getting the source code (which is fine since 'open source' is about programmers getting source code), but as well as giving people source code, this software gives people freedom. That's a benefit, so it would make sense to tell people about it.

I'll try to raise this on that page's discussion page.

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Next Gen When?

Posted Jan 6, 2009 5:25 UTC (Tue) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359) [Link]

There was a quote on the community mailing list recently (last month?)
which suggested the time line for GTA03 (the next generation) is at least
3 years out (so Dec 2011 at the earliest).

So if you want a toy to play with, you would waste a lot of play-time
waiting for the GTA03. But if you want a device to reliably make phone calls,
you would probably waste a lot of call-time playing with your GTA02
(aka Freerunner) .... though some people apparently use their's as an
every-day phone..

Next Gen When?

Posted Jan 6, 2009 6:46 UTC (Tue) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link]

the time line for GTA03 (the next generation) is at least 3 years out (so Dec 2011 at the earliest).

That is not describing a viable company.

It's going to be one year, or they can give up now.

Bruce

Next Gen When?

Posted Jan 6, 2009 9:11 UTC (Tue) by pbaum (subscriber, #4514) [Link]

This three-year-mail was meant as a joke.
Q3 2009 is more realistic.
http://lists.openmoko.org/nabble.html#nabble-td1664400i10...

Daily phone usage

Posted Jan 6, 2009 11:18 UTC (Tue) by tajyrink (subscriber, #2750) [Link]

The 3 years was a joke indeed, but I wouldn't hold my breath regarding GTA03.

2008.12 software release is quite usable as a phone. I've used it as my only phone since August, but 2008.12 is making it a whole lot easier. "Easier" is of course not _that_ easy, but it has some of the most annoying problems fixed (echo, boot time, biggest suspend problems) and it actually works as a phone out-of-the-box.

The only real (as in "would be worried a bit") remaining issue is the so called buzz issue. In some networks, with some channel frequencies and some signal strengths, there is a (very) annoying buzzing because of a hardware problem. Mostly it's not a problem but if it hits you, it might be a real problem. Openmoko (Inc) has promised that each phone will be fixed, but currently there are no details. The exact hardware fix is now known and documented, but requires non-mediocre skills - DIY will be supported, but for others it's not clear if each country could have a point where to fix the phones, or if the phones should get sent to some central place for fixing. With the amount of tinkerers and hardware experts in the community, I wouldn't be surprised if it all works out fairly well as soon as Openmoko decides the master plan.

Other remaining problems can be fixed in software. And the 2.6.28 upstream committing work has been an amazing improvement after the (still currently in Om 2008.12) 2.6.24 custom kernel.

I'm not really experiencing the buzz problem so 2008.12 (+ tweaks, like gsm0710muxd, bluetooth personal area networking setup, shortcut actions via a python-gtk application etc) works fine for me as a daily phone + net access device + music player + GPS device. You need to accept that it's still a somewhat love-hate relationship with all the stuff that has bugs, so it requires an appreciation of the uniqueness of the product to tweak it enough to utilize all the features beside phone capability. Although it has to be mentioned that a new Om2008.12-based release of FDOM (Fat and Dirty Openmoko) might change the perspective since FDOM is known to include the most usual tweaks and especially extra software people really want, without having to figure out how to do those. For me, I know how to do all the tweaks I want in a matter of minutes after flashing a new image.