On Sat, 2008-10-04 at 15:56 +0300, Risto H. Kurppa wrote: > Hi! > > After my previous blog post [1] about Openmoko 2007.2 distribution and > the Openmoko community I got some comments proving that like me, some > other people feel that the community is lost and uninformed. This post > is a follow up to the previous post and the comments I got. > > I've understood that 2007.2 still ships with the phones. As soon as > one gets his new c00l Freerunner linux phone they need to flash the > phone with a new distro (2008.x or Debian, FDOM, SHR, Gentoo, Qtopia, > FSO.. [6]) since the software it ships with is obsolete. OK, so you > get your 2008.x there and find that it doesn't really do all the magic > and would like to report a bug. > > BUGS > I don't know how others feel but I really don't feel like reporting > bugs in the bug tracker [3]. OK, I'm running an unsupported distro > (2007.2) so there's one reason but I also feel that it's okay to post > kernel bugs only there, not anything that a normal user would see in > his GUI. Is this correct or just a feeling or misunderstanding? > Remember that all Freerunner owners and people here in the community > are not kernel developers. I don't even know how to save back traces > or hack the source code but I'm happy to report if something doesn't > work and then when someone more skillful finds what's wrong and > eventually fixes it, I'm again happy to try if the fix works for me. > For some reason I feel that there's no space in the community for > users like me. > > DISTROS > So it's 2008.x now. No, wait.. there are FDOM [5] and SHR [2] around > that are not far from 2008.x. Is 2007.2 still developed and lead by > Openmoko or by the community? Do the community developers have access > to the files so that new releases can be made or is SHR the closest to > 2007.2 you can get to? My feeling is that there was a lack of > information about why 2007.2 was forgotten and new 2008.x series was > started and that something weird is happening in the official distros > that creates a need for FDOM and SHR - why don't the developers feel > ok to contribute directly to 2007.x and 2008.x but 'fork' their own > distros? > > INFORMATION > I think that what makes me feel lost is the lack of information about > what's happening in the community. I don't know what's the development > status of the software or what's the general direction the community > and/or Openmoko is heading to? Having a better view on the general > situation makes one feel much more comfortable and secure: now I feel > that I just wait to see what the next release's like not being able to > know what to wait for. > > NEXT STEPS > People working at Openmoko and other software developers: > > * Please check 'Community Management as Open Source's Core > Competency' by David Eaves [4] and have a good look at the the > Openmoko community. It needs management! > * Please write a blog post once a week or so to > planet.openmoko.org and the community mailing list telling the > community what's going on. Five to ten lines is enough to help the > community feel better! > * Please respect your community! > > Other community members: > > * How do you feel about the current situation? How happy are you > with the community? > * Do you feel well informed? Do you know what's the direction > we're heading to? > * How would you like to contribute? > > > Thanks! > > ps. I posted this also in my blog: > http://risto.kurppa.fi/blog/the-lost-openmoko-community/ > > > r > > [1] http://risto.kurppa.fi/blog/openmoko-20072-distros-and-community/ > [2] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Stable_Hybrid_Release > [3] https://docs.openmoko.org/trac > [4] > http://eaves.ca/2006/12/17/community-management-as-open-sources-core-competency/ > [5] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/FDOM_-_a_Fat_and_Dirty_OM_based_distribution > [6] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributions > > >
I feel more or less the same way. I am a software developer but have no experience in linux development, not that I don't want too. My goal buying the neo was mainly to have a portable device with gps and different means of communication. Since in my work I have become more and more specialise in one area I wanted to expand my knowledge in a new area. The first I did was flash 2008.08 and get usb and wifi up running but I fast realise that the system software was to unstable to make it really useable. It crash to often and drain battery to fast. A week ago there were a call to get community to contribute in bug tracking and yesterday I struggled to figure out how to build everything so that I maybe could assist in bug tracking. until now I find it very confusing all the guides follow a general approach where I don't really know what is going on. I managed to build an image (took a few hours) but I have no idea what image and where to find the source code. Maybe it's me lacking experience from other linux projects I don't know but normally I easy can get source install required libraries ./configure and make change some code make again test it out but not here. I have not give up but I really wish I could contribute more I keep on trying and wait and hope for things to get fixed. that's most I can hope right now.
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