GNU discussion

[Richard Franks]

On 1/27/07, David Schlesinger <David.Schlesinger at palmsource.com> wrote:
> More importantly (and very relevantly to this list) you can't compete for
> consumers on a basis of "Not as good, but _more free_." If completely open
> phones are going to achieve any sort of dominance, then the same kind of
> work will have to go into project to support the capabilities that consumers
> want.

Exactly - the one bonus that OpenMoko receives, in addition to the
number of developers, is that we're not tied to any Corporate
restrictions in design, contract or politically restricted technology
- new software features 'saved up' for the next marketing phase.


> More likely, this will prompt other phone manufacturers to try to find ways
> to compete with the iPhone in as reasonable a time as possible. Some of
> those ways will likely be based on Linux, and will likely wind up being a
> mix of proprietary and open source software, but the net outcome will be
> that there will be a larger amount of more capable open source software
> available in the product space, and more open source software being used in
> more devices like the NEO.

In evolutionary terms, this is a favourable environment for open vs
closed software models. All free software written on open or
selectively open hardware platforms, strengthens free software.

Richard