Wolfgang, I just wanted to say thanks for this very informative response! :)
-Dale Wolfgang Spraul wrote: > Dear Kevin, > thanks for writing your review, for us at Openmoko nothing is better > than a genuine reality check from outside. > Executive summary first: I understand that we have not done a very > good job at communicating our software strategy, and I accept > responsibility for that. > > In detail, let me go through some of your comments: > > ---1 > > The ASU was a proof-of-concept image that combined Qtopia, > Enlightenment and GTK > > I would say it's more than proof-of-concept. When Qtopia became fully > GPL in November last year, we looked at it technically. Trolltech > published great binary images for the Neo 1973 but we couldn't > immediately use them because Qtopia ran on the framebuffer not on X, > and we did not want to give up GTK+. By February, we had come to the > conclusion that porting Qtopia onto X, retaining GTK+ support, would > be technically feasible for Openmoko. Our initial estimate was 2-4 > months. So we started. Qtopia is an addition to the Openmoko software > stack. > > ---2 > > "ASU" and 2008.8 are the same thing for the most part. > > Correct. > > ---3 > > The GTK based 2007.02 line was obsoleted (or some might argue > deprecated ... > > I would say neither obsoleted nor deprecated. Bringing Qtopia (and > especially Enlightenment) in _TEMPORARILY_ broke GTK+, that's one > reason why we didn't release more ASU builds earlier. > Actually the real breakage of the GTK+ telephony apps came from > Enlightenment, which forced us to replace matchbox. > We also wrote a new launcher, Illume. > Then we went back to fix the GTK+ part, adding the theme back in, > making it easy to switch from what are now the default Qtopia > telephony apps to the GTK+ telephony apps. That part is not yet > entirely finished. When 2008.8 is released, you still will not be able > to remove Qtopia with a few clicks, and switch back to GTK+. Neither > can you have both installed at the same time. We are very interested > that both of that works, if nobody in the community picks this up then > we will. We are already on it actually, like I said fixing the GTK+ > telephony apps that got broken by the introduction of Enlightenment > and Qtopia is something we do for a while already. > > ---4 > > The ASU and Framework were announced at roughly the same time. > > Please don't read anything into this. Openmoko is a real open source > project. What you may feel are two 'announcements' 'at the same time' > are in reality probably several emails from people in different parts > of the world that are _NOT_ synchronized to the degree that you might > see this from the typical company. In many companies, all you will > hear is the marketing department. So they always speak with one voice. > At Openmoko, even full-time, fully paid employees have no restrictions > whatsoever to post private opinions, blogs, etc. In fact we encourage > them! Please factor that in... > > ---5 > > To the community is appeared as if Sean Moss-Pultz had pulled a > decision out of his ass to abandon the software that people knew and > go with Qtopia instead > > I agree some people felt like that, and it's not good. Again we have > no unified marketing message, and we don't want to introduce any kind > of 'gag order' for engineers (a lot of them would leave if we would > try that anyway ;-)) > I will try to do better going forward communicating our technical > strategy. > > ---6 > > The biggest unanswered question was "I want to develop an app for > Freerunner, what should I start with?" > > Yes, big problem. Right now a lot of the new things we are doing are > implemented in Python using Python-ETK bindings. > Check out the sources here: > http://projects.openmoko.org/plugins/scmsvn/viewcvs.php/trunk/?root=exposure > Now, this is not the end of the story. You can also develop using GTK > +, or Qtopia. We even have quite good Java support (Jalimo) on the > Neo. And so on. > We are fully aware that we need to provide an entry point that is AS > EASY AS POSSIBLE to use. We are working towards that, but I think you > need to give us a few more months until we have good tutorials, sample > sources, development/installation methods, etc. At least you will be > able to see it coming together alive, I hope it's not too stressful :-) > > ---7 > > Mickey Lauer posted again, making it pretty clear that my > assumptions [that ASU and Framework were complimentary projects] were > wrong > > You must have misunderstood Mickey. ASU and Framework are absolutely > complimentary. > Behind the scenes it is all melting together. Luckily Linux is a multi- > process environment :-) > ASU means Enlightenment and Qtopia were brought into the Openmoko > software stack. It will be released as Om 2008.8. > FSO/Framework means many more dbus services will be brought into the > Openmoko software stack, including applications using d-bus. It will > be released later, maybe Om 2009? > OpenEmbedded is holding all this together. > > ---8 > > If the two [ASU and Frameowork] were to merge, it would be by > community support. > > Not correct. Full-time Openmoko engineers are already working on this > merge. > > ---9 > > Frankly, after the disappointing abandonment of the Neo 1973 device > > That is really unfair. Let me explain the background: > First, there are full-time, fully paid people at Openmoko supporting > the Neo 1973 passionately. Just suggest something that would break > 1973 compatibility to Werner and you will see what I mean. And this is > fully supported and backed by Sean and our investors, even though, if > you only think short-term, it doesn't make sense economically. > Now - even better - I would _LOVE_ to produce new Neo 1973 devices > right tomorrow. Imagine we could have the 1973 as a low-cost option > next to the Freerunner. Maybe 199 USD. Without glamo, i.e. with a > faster VRAM bandwidth. For a long time raster preferred developing on > his 1973 instead of Freerunner prototypes! > But you know what? I cannot produce them! The way the whole mobile > industry works is that new mobile chips are announced, go into MP, are > being produced, are being end-of-lifed. All of this very fast. It's a > big machine, making more than 1 billion devices per year, and it > doesn't stop for anybody. Everybody in this industry is under constant > pressure to use the latest chips, all under NDA and even tighter > Intellectual Property protections than before. The older chips simply > cannot be bought anymore. We believe we can change this, we believe we > can break the cycle and establish a long-lasting platform. But believe > me we are up against a massive, scary machine. So if I hear a comment > like "disappointing abandonment" that indeed is disappointing to me, > because I know we have people who work late-nights every day and > scramble to find those components so we could produce more 1973. But > the machine has moved on. Eventually we will get smarter, use only > chips that are not only open, but also produced for a longer time > span. And hopefully with the help of everyone, we get bigger too, so > we find more partners to break the system. > > ---10 > > Sean is also the CEO of a company ... to ensure that Openmoko turns > a profit. > > Absolutely. > > ---11 > > The financiers, investors, venture capitalists and shareholders are > the real chiefs. I suspect that those people started getting freaked > out by the Freerunner delay. > > Let me praise our investors a bit. FIC is a wonderful parent company. > They give Sean 100% freedom to execute _his_ vision. Sure, the > Freerunner was delayed, but there is nobody outside that could > possibly create more pressure on us than we put onto ourselves. People > were waiting for the product to ship. We looked at _EVERY_ conceivable > option to speed this up. As I said above the opening up of the Qtopia > sources under GPL was one such option, and we looked at it. As you > said, we were hoping it would give us a way to sell the phones to more > 'normal' end users faster. To get some money into the bank. Not > because our investors forced us into that, but because we wanted to > stand on our own feet financially so we could further pursue what we > wanted to do. Something like the framework, and other things we are > dreaming about. > > ---12 > > In some ways, it's a gigantic experiment. > > Indeed :-) > Thank you so much for coming along on the ride, keep your feedback > coming! (let me know if my mail was helpful, I answer more questions > if you have more) > > Best Regards, > Wolfgang > > On Aug 6, 2008, at 12:16 PM, Bobby Martin wrote: > > >> Kevin Dean wrote a great review of the FSO Milestone 2 release, and >> some commentary about the new OM direction that I think expresses the >> opinion of a lot of us. It's not really surprising, but it is well >> said. >> >> http://monochromementality.com/index.php/blog/show/FSO-Milestone-II-Phot-Safari-and--rant.html >> >> -- >> If it doesn't make you smile, you're doing something wrong. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Openmoko community mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Openmoko community mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > > _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
