At the risk of being flamed : State of software

[Attila Csipa]

On Monday 27 August 2007 17:24, Giles Jones wrote:
> It means a heck of a lot if you can't earn back the outlay. Mobile

If you _can_ earn it back directly through selling proprietary software for 
it, OpenMoko is a mockery of the GPL. In that case you are not creating a 
truly free platform, but a low-cost platform for closed source vendors who 
are unable or unwilling to pay SDK and/or license fees. This is getting 
pointless - in one part of the post you criticise Qtopia to have a too 
restrictive license that does not allow you to write proprietary software 
(being GPL), and in the other of not being being in the spirit of OSS/free 
software (having _additional_ commercial modules). 

> Plus what if you get the SDK and then find the platform unworkable
> simply because you don't get the available APIs you need?

What APIs are you referring to ? You DO get the binaries and you DO get the 
headers, so no API difference there, it's just that you do NOT get the code 
to proprietary parts (which, BTW, is the way NVidia, ATI, and surprise, the 
Neo1973 with regard to the GPS code works, too). If you are still unsure, you 
can actually download the SDK and check what's inside, but it's very clearly 
marked, explained and listed in the FAQs and documentation (I really really 
wish most other OSS projects had at least half as good docs as Qt has). 

> > That's a precisely 100 Euros of difference, which is hardly twice
> > the cost...
> You're not comparing like with like, since Openmoko gives you all the
> source and freedom. You would need full commercial licence of the
> greenphone to get similar freedom.

You initally clearly referred to financial values when you said 'twice the 
cost', there is no such thing as 'twice the freedom'. As for freedoms, I 
already addressed this above, you being free to financially exploit anybody 
elses code without any approval or compensations is NOT my idea of 'Free your 
phone'.

The 'freedoms' you are talking about are covered roughly by the Lite license. 
The full commercial license means something else, like paid support, personal 
accounts, program partnerships, etc.

> Not to mention the OpenMoko has some better components, plus GPS. The
> cost of the greenphone isn't justified, its hardware is like average
> HTC (but with touch screen).

OpenMoko is not hardware, but yes, the Neo1973 is cheaper (in part to the 
generous offer to have Phase1 devices sold cheaper than initially planned) 
and a good year older. As a consumer, I hope this will make a competitive 
market which will result in a lower price for ALL enthusiast developer 
phones.