The OpenPC project was a failure. There were major issues that could have
been resolved. The idea was to basically put out a free PC. We already had
that. At least to the extent it ran free software (distribution like
Trisquel). In fact it was more of a backward motion as it used OpenSuSE.
OpenPC is really just a branded version of OpenSuSE with a few tweaks. It
looked REALLY cool. BUT the problems were this:
1. Multiple announcements prior to the availability of the system(s). We
weren't the only ones shipping an "OpenPC". It should have really been one
system that had shipping from multiple continents. Then there were no
announcements after it was released. It needed promotion that it never got.
2. It wasn't completely free (not from the free software perspective at
least). The wording used to describe it was all wrong. "Open" is a bad word.
I don't believe it actually contained non-free software as the OpenSuSE
developer(s) are active in removing non-free firmware/drivers. However I
think it's web site contains information on installing non-free software.
That makes it a no-go in this community.
3. We already had a system with chipsets made it free software compatible
(again, it's not free BIOS, X86 is never going to be 100% free even with a
free BIOS) and was selling great.
4. There was an article written by someone who didn't get the facts. This was
several months after the initial availability. They managed to find our web
site and made up stuff for the article. Never were we contacted. They claimed
for instance the US version of the OpenPC shipped with Ubuntu. It did not.
Ubuntu is not free. The OpenPC version of OpenSuSE was at least not shipping
non-free software for the most part (again- it isn't quite Trisquel free
though). We did not ship Ubuntu with the OpenPC version which was linked from
the OpenPC web site. There was an entirely different page for it. There still
is. We did also ship a version with Ubuntu though. The system is still
available with OpenPC. I would not recommend it. I'm doubtful the software is
being maintained. It's a very old effort now and it's probably based on an
unsupported version of OpenSuSE. It's not possible to find it our on web site
directly.
All in all we are basically doing what the OpenPC project attempted to
accomplish. A PC built for free software users. Non-free software is a
hindrance to free software users and that was what the project was trying to
solve. The translation / English of those running it wasn't great. I never
was really sure if they understood the problem(s) even though I attempted to
explain it. It wasn't my place and the project was basically done when we got
involved. We just gave them a new means to distribute a product in a region
they otherwise could not. They already had completed development on it
(software wise).
