Significant Numbers of Non-Developers?

[Jeff Rush]

I've been reading the archives of the various OpenMoko lists and I've noticed
a significant number of people who admit they are not programmers at all, or
that this is their first exposure to Linux.

I'm curious what a non-programmer is going to do with this device in the next
few months.  And if your first use of Linux is on the device itself, and you
run Windows on your desktop, how you're going to grow your Linux skills and
effectively develop applications.  Just seems odd to me, but maybe I'm
overlooking something. ;-)

BTW, there are threads of discussion here that are answered by digging into
the source code released so far.  I've seen some people asking the OpenMoko
team to spell how how this or that is going to be done (events from calls) --
guys, its in the source and at this stage we're expected to be developers.
While waiting for our oders, we should be setting up our development
environment, reading thru the source given so far, and writing test programs
to run within the QEMU environment, to get ready.  I doubt once the device
arrives in the mail that it will come with a manual that makes all things
clear or that the functionality on the device will be useful for much by
itself -- you'll still have to dive into the source.

As an embedded developer myself, the less than smooth way things are unfolding
and the rough nature of the device itself are normal and expected when
engineering a new device.  Those used to a consumer device may not understand
this as they rarely get a peek into the process like FIC is giving us.

And I'd just like to say to the OpenMoko team "thanks" for giving us this
device and opening it up so that we can participate in its shaping.  That many
decisions on how things are going to be done are not yet made is a -good-
thing, people.  The journey is the reward for geeks, not the final destination
of a polished, shrink-wrap consumer gadget.

-Jeff