At the risk of being flamed : State of software

[wim delvaux]

On Friday 24 August 2007 17:14:54 Thomas Wood wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-08-24 at 16:59 +0200, wim delvaux wrote:
> > HI all,
> >
> > Champion of open source and user of familiar on Ipaq when time was new, i
> > wonder if it was such a good idea to rewrite from scratch an entire GUI
> > system.
> >
> > Knowing that the device is now about 6 months late and looking at the
> > overall stability and completeness of the GUI (List of issues is still
> > long perhaps too long ?) I wonder if it would not have been a better
> > solution to put things like QTopia on the phone. I mean, how long will it
> > still take to get things to this level
> > (http://trolltech.com/products/qtopia/learnmore/screenshots4/?searchterm=
> >screenshots) ?
>
> To be honest, I think we are quite close already but you really need to
> be more specific about what you mean.

Well I just flashed with the latest 0813 release and beside looking great, 
there is not much yet that is ready : no bluetooth, no gprs, no contacts, 
phone working a bit, no mail, suspend resume not OK yet, crashes etc etc.

>
> [...]
>
> > For me, the free community does not need (really) a new GUI library.  It
> > needs a good phone ! Our interest lies in having a nicely featured device
> > available so that we hackers can release our creativity and write apps
> > that users like and not - yet again - re-invent the wheel to start all
> > over again.  And for what ? For a theme ? For true GPL ? ...
>
> The primary aim of the OpenMoko project and the Neo1973 is to create a
> software platform and a device that are entirely Free in the spirit of
> the Free Software movement. See
> <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html> for a definition of this. I
> don't think we need "just another phone", we need one that embraces the
> ideals of the Free Software movement. This way we will be creating
> something truly unique and valuable.

But wat IS free ? Personally the 'free' as defined by Trolltech : free for 
free soft, payed for soft that will be sold, sounds more 'reasonable' then 
free and you cannot make money out of your application.  For me freedom means 
I have the possibility to do what I want with it providing I do not harm the 
rights of others.  I think the freedom of QTopia (compare it to KDE) is good 
enough.  It gives me lots of freedom and If I make a buck out of what I do 
with their work I need to pay them a buck too ...

CU
W