>> I hope they consider working with existing libre and/or ethical hardware >> vendors before starting something from scratch. > > Yes, I also hope that all such projects would do research and find us > and ask for experiences before starting and announcing a new project... > > But that never happens. Well, the NIH-syndrome is everywhere - and I admit > that I suffer it as well :)
Well, I've started a similar project, and I did do my research, and I did find you - I just never asked questions =) I've been folowing this ML from February 2017, and reading about Openmoko history from about the same time - till now. Internet (including mailing lists' archives) still contains a lot of information, and most of it I don't have to ask anybody for - it's just more efficient, I don't have to bother anybody and ask people to retell things that I can find on forums or in the mailing list history. + one more reason for why nobody comes to ask is that, ultimately, projects make different decisions. For example, I'm working on ZeroPhone - a phone that doesn't even have a touchscreen display, and is a kludge compared to a proper single-PCB phone base. However, its hardware is optimized so that its parts can be sourced independently, and the phone then can be assembled manually. It also leverages the Raspberry Pi popularity&hardware support + uses Raspbian Linux as a base, so that its hardware and software is more familiar to people using it. So, it's not that similar to Freerunner phones in terms of hardware, it won't run the same graphical applications and it, likely, won't be assembled in Europe. It has different goals - self-assembly option, for example, as well as giving access to the same Linux distro that Raspberry Pi enthusiasts are used to. As a drawback, it is pretty thick (and I can only shave off so much thickness off it by switching to pouch cells), and the battery life is not as good (20h on one charge). Nevertheless, it's an interesting experiment that other people are interested in, and it tries to approach open phones from a different angle. I'm working on it full-time now - as I'm preparing the hardware, software and the whole project for crowdfunding a manufacturing run of ZeroPhone kits (which is long overdue, but I have to balance the project with part-time jobs, too). So, some things from Openmoko history apply to my project, and I hope that what I've learned is what's there to be learned. By the way, if there's something valuable I've found that I'd like to re-use, it's FreeSmartphone API I understand just how valuable it is to have a good API for app developers, and FSO seems to be a well-defined standard to follow. I might not have learned everything, though - that's the problem with never asking, undoubtedly. If there's anything important that I haven't found or noticed, I'd love to hear about it. + sorry for this wall of text, I'm in a rush and might have missed some important point, or worded something the wrong way. =) Happy New Year to you all, too! Arsenijs. _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
