On Thu, 25 Jan 2007, Bryan Fink wrote:
Hi all. I've been talking up OpenMoko to everyone I know, and I felt like there may be some people around here who would be interested in the reactions I've gotten. The main camps are as you would expect: positively-excited, negatively-excited, and indifferent. What I think is interesting, is why people put themselves in those camps. Surprisingly, few of the positively-excited people I've "recruited" so far are coders. They're actually more interested in the fact that it's open, and not "controlled" by some faceless corporation. They're excited that they won't have to be stuck with Nokia's/Motorolla's/etc. crappy software and forced upgrade path. As I'm in the U.S., they're also surprised and excited to hear that it's naturally "unlocked" so they can choose whatever provider they want. I did have one person who ended up positively-excited, but hesitated briefly before that. I had been talking up the "freedom to tinker" line, and they got worried that you would *have* to be a tinkerer to even get the phone working. Assuring them of out-of-the-box functionality and the "OpenMoko Certified" download center was crucial. Also surprisingly, the one truly negatively-excited person I met said exactly this, "Great, so I'll have a phone that just randomly crashes for no reason." I know that he has run Red Hat Linux, and codes for a living. But, he has had poor experience with linux stability - specifically around crappy drivers for new graphics accelerators. So, just as a warning, mentioning linux in an OpenMoko discussion will not automatically win you friends. Finally, by far the largest camp is the indifferent class. Many people are quick to ask, "Why would you want an open source phone?" Answers of the, "So I know exactly what my phone is doing at all times - no secrets," variety typically get you labeled paranoid. Answers of the, "Because I will be able to modify absolutely anything about it," yield further questions to which further answers like, "I don't know, but *something*," are not enough. And, there's always the, "Well, I'm perfectly happy with what I have now," people. My feeling is that these people won't be convinced until there's considerable buzz from many people who have actually tried OpenMoko and like some specific feature about it. Has anyone else had a different variety of reactions?
Thanks for your observation, Bryan. This is a very interesting thread. I'll pay more attention to the various responses I get. (So far I've been so excited by what I'm describing that I didn't really listen to their responses :-) Regarding your comment about mentioning Linux to someone who had poor experience with it, you may be amused by today's Dilbert: www.dilbert.com M _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
