OpenMoko Challenges

[Jon Phillips]

On Mon, 2007-02-12 at 09:48 -0800, michael at michaelshiloh.com wrote:
> Sean,
> 
> I'd like to add my voice in support of your decision to delay the hardware.
> I've been in situations like this, and I appreciate the difficulty of making
> this decision. From my experience, I believe you've made the right choice, and
> I fully support you and your team.
> 
> I look forward with great anticipation to the source opening in a few days.
> This, after all, is where all the open excitement is really going to take
> place. Judging from all the creativity and intelligence we've seen expressed
> on this list in the past few months, I'm looking forward to some amazing
> software from this group.
> 
> Keep up the great work!
> 
> Michael

Yes, I completely agree as well...multilateral community support is a
good thing :)

See, open communities are supportive :) Hugs all around :)

Jon

> On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Chuck Williams wrote:
> 
> > Sean,
> >
> > This is a great decision.  I'm sure the community will be supportive and
> > the end product will benefit from the early openness.  I'm looking
> > forward to getting early access to the hardware and software and hope to
> > contribute something to the software effort.
> >
> > Chuck
> >
> >
> > Sean Moss-Pultz wrote on 02/11/2007 11:18 PM:
> >> Dear Community,
> >>
> >> We, the OpenMoko Team, have promised exciting news about our project
> >> today. We have some information that we think you will like very much,
> >> but also have some news we like less. Let us first address the
> >> unpleasant part, before turning to the more cheerful part of this
> >> announcement.
> >>
> >> After we announced OpenMoko last November, we were flooded with emails.
> >> Most were absolutely encouraging, thanking us for undertaking this
> >> project. And out of the many thousands of emails, only two requests came
> >> again and again: "Where's bluetooth?" And, "Why doesn't it have WiFi?"
> >>
> >> (We really do read _everything_ you write.)
> >>
> >> Originally, bluetooth was in our product spec, however, this was left
> >> out of our schematics in an early stage. At the time we were really
> >> hurting for resources internally, so we did not push. Making changes to
> >> a product while in the R&D stages can be quite painful. But after all
> >> the incredible demand, post-November, we felt it had to be done.
> >>
> >> We had a string of bad luck that really hurt our productivity. Each
> >> hardware revision takes at least one month of time. Each month without
> >> stable hardware means serious delays for software.
> >>
> >> One time we received the wrong memory from our vendors and we failed to
> >> catch this before production. Another time some key components ran out
> >> of supply. And as if all that wasn't bad enough, our baseband leader's
> >> mom died leaving a gaping wound in both his heart and our hardware
> >> team.
> >>
> >> But we moved on. Little by little our hardware started to come together.
> >> Around the middle of January we thought we finally found a stable
> >> revision. At this point, our software was seriously behind schedule, but
> >> as Alan Cox once said, "Free Software is always late."
> >>
> >> January's announcement bought us more time to fix some hardware issues
> >> still plaguing us. We also modified the position of the bluetooth module
> >> to make way for a JTAG port (we're trying our best to be hacker
> >> friendly). This required our vendor to design a special FPC to connect
> >> the module to our board. Something on the order of 3 weeks would be
> >> required to complete this "simple" task.
> >>
> >> One thousand little Murphy's seems to be what we have running around
> >> teasing this project. Less than a 7% yield rate is all that we got out
> >> of this new cable; not even enough to meet our Phase 0 demand. Needless
> >> to say, it was an incredibly depressing day for all of us.
> >>
> >> "Tormented" is really the only word that we can think of now to describe
> >> how we are feeling as a team, forced with making this decision: Do we
> >> delay again, wait for the hardware and software to be ready, or do we
> >> just open up now as promised without reaching our key milestone?
> >>
> >> Each of us, in different ways, have struggled with this decision for
> >> the past five days. We're all extremely demanding of ourselves when it
> >> comes to the quality of our work. Nearly every minute of our waking
> >> lives have been spent on this project. So to be at this state, now, is
> >> really hard on us.
> >>
> >> Mickey Lauer, one of our core developers sent an email, only a few hours
> >> ago, that put things back into perspective for us. He said,
> >>
> >>    "A lot of people will be disappointed by the state of the
> >>    software, but -- I may be a dreamer -- I prefer rough and truly
> >>    open solutions (where I have the chance to help shaping the
> >>    future) over cool, but already finished and closed solutions
> >>    (where all I can do is take the platform as it is or NOT.)"
> >>
> >> As planned, we are going to open this project up at this point. Within
> >> three days of this announcement you will all have access to our source
> >> code, Wiki, and Bugzilla.
> >>
> >> Hopefully you can understand why we're at this less-than-ideal state.
> >> But more importantly, we hope you understand that opening our code now,
> >> and letting you join us in making this dream of an open phone platform
> >> come true, is more important for us than mere appearances.
> >>
> >> Regarding our Neo1973 hardware, we will send out the first batch of
> >> phase 0 phones out around the end of this month. Sorry for not being
> >> able to give an absolute date. Next week is Chinese New Year (we're in
> >> Asia remember) and _everyone_ stops working for a full week. Having our
> >> newly designed FPC built before is really wishful thinking.
> >>
> >> All interested developers can purchase Neos starting late March. Please
> >> understand that phase 0 is a system of "checks and balances," so it
> >> simply cannot be rushed. We want to get the framework right, the first
> >> time around. Hopefully you all can live with the slight delays in our
> >> schedule. We're all super excited to be cranking again and eagerly await
> >> sending you hardware so you can join us in the party ;-)
> >>
> >> Finally, we will offer Neos to end users sometime in September of this
> >> year. People everywhere will finally begin to understand the real power
> >> of an open phone with a strong community behind it. Within this
> >> relationship between humans and Neos, a new kind of device will emerge.
> >> "Freed Phones", will have the potential to forever change the way people
> >> think of technology. This is the challenge that drives us. And it awaits
> >> each an every one of you, along with our full support.
> >>
> >>
> >> Now, "Free Your Phone."
> >>
> >> Sincerely,
> >>
> >> The OpenMoko Team
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> OpenMoko community mailing list
> >> community at lists.openmoko.org
> >> https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OpenMoko community mailing list
> > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> >
> 
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Jon Phillips

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