Hi, I understand the problems that could happen when developing embedded devices, so I appreciate that you're sincere and provide us the source code as a good (although not ideal) starting point.
Thanks and see you at FOSDEM, I won't make it to the Friday Beer, but we can meet during the following two days. Pedro Aguilar > Dear Community, > > We, the OpenMoko Team, have promised exciting news about our project > today. We have some information that we think you will like very much, > but also have some news we like less. Let us first address the > unpleasant part, before turning to the more cheerful part of this > announcement. > > After we announced OpenMoko last November, we were flooded with emails. > Most were absolutely encouraging, thanking us for undertaking this > project. And out of the many thousands of emails, only two requests came > again and again: "Where's bluetooth?" And, "Why doesn't it have WiFi?" > > (We really do read _everything_ you write.) > > Originally, bluetooth was in our product spec, however, this was left > out of our schematics in an early stage. At the time we were really > hurting for resources internally, so we did not push. Making changes to > a product while in the R&D stages can be quite painful. But after all > the incredible demand, post-November, we felt it had to be done. > > We had a string of bad luck that really hurt our productivity. Each > hardware revision takes at least one month of time. Each month without > stable hardware means serious delays for software. > > One time we received the wrong memory from our vendors and we failed to > catch this before production. Another time some key components ran out > of supply. And as if all that wasn't bad enough, our baseband leader's > mom died leaving a gaping wound in both his heart and our hardware > team. > > But we moved on. Little by little our hardware started to come together. > Around the middle of January we thought we finally found a stable > revision. At this point, our software was seriously behind schedule, but > as Alan Cox once said, "Free Software is always late." > > January's announcement bought us more time to fix some hardware issues > still plaguing us. We also modified the position of the bluetooth module > to make way for a JTAG port (we're trying our best to be hacker > friendly). This required our vendor to design a special FPC to connect > the module to our board. Something on the order of 3 weeks would be > required to complete this "simple" task. > > One thousand little Murphy's seems to be what we have running around > teasing this project. Less than a 7% yield rate is all that we got out > of this new cable; not even enough to meet our Phase 0 demand. Needless > to say, it was an incredibly depressing day for all of us. > > "Tormented" is really the only word that we can think of now to describe > how we are feeling as a team, forced with making this decision: Do we > delay again, wait for the hardware and software to be ready, or do we > just open up now as promised without reaching our key milestone? > > Each of us, in different ways, have struggled with this decision for > the past five days. We're all extremely demanding of ourselves when it > comes to the quality of our work. Nearly every minute of our waking > lives have been spent on this project. So to be at this state, now, is > really hard on us. > > Mickey Lauer, one of our core developers sent an email, only a few hours > ago, that put things back into perspective for us. He said, > > "A lot of people will be disappointed by the state of the > software, but -- I may be a dreamer -- I prefer rough and truly > open solutions (where I have the chance to help shaping the > future) over cool, but already finished and closed solutions > (where all I can do is take the platform as it is or NOT.)" > > As planned, we are going to open this project up at this point. Within > three days of this announcement you will all have access to our source > code, Wiki, and Bugzilla. > > Hopefully you can understand why we're at this less-than-ideal state. > But more importantly, we hope you understand that opening our code now, > and letting you join us in making this dream of an open phone platform > come true, is more important for us than mere appearances. > > Regarding our Neo1973 hardware, we will send out the first batch of > phase 0 phones out around the end of this month. Sorry for not being > able to give an absolute date. Next week is Chinese New Year (we're in > Asia remember) and _everyone_ stops working for a full week. Having our > newly designed FPC built before is really wishful thinking. > > All interested developers can purchase Neos starting late March. Please > understand that phase 0 is a system of "checks and balances," so it > simply cannot be rushed. We want to get the framework right, the first > time around. Hopefully you all can live with the slight delays in our > schedule. We're all super excited to be cranking again and eagerly await > sending you hardware so you can join us in the party ;-) > > Finally, we will offer Neos to end users sometime in September of this > year. People everywhere will finally begin to understand the real power > of an open phone with a strong community behind it. Within this > relationship between humans and Neos, a new kind of device will emerge. > "Freed Phones", will have the potential to forever change the way people > think of technology. This is the challenge that drives us. And it awaits > each an every one of you, along with our full support. > > > Now, "Free Your Phone." > > Sincerely, > > The OpenMoko Team > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OpenMoko community mailing list > community@lists.openmoko.org > https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community