Device support / life (was: community issues)

Elrond elrond+openmoko.org at samba-tng.org
Wed Mar 14 21:04:33 CET 2007


Hi all and Wolfgang,

On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 at 08:12:48AM -0700, Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:
[...]
> The second cent is that many folks here are looking at the developer's
> phone as simply a way of getting the consumer's phone 6 months early.
> These people obviously have never used early rev. engineering
> hardware.  My experience is that it normally has plenty of hardware
> bugs that can't be easily fixed by the software engineer.  Sometimes a
> if the bug is simple a few blue-wires and a few trace cuts are all
> that is needed, but I can't imagine it will be practical for hundreds
> of phones located in the far corners of the world.  I think developers
> buying the engineering samples should think of them as essentially
> disposable with a shelf-life of 6 months.  Once the consumer device is
> out software tends to stop supporting some of the weirder quirks of
> the early engineering hardware and that hardware rev is essentially
> orphaned.

I think, there are two things to look at there:


1) P0 phones:

   It was clear for nearly everybody, that the P0 phones
   are engineering hardware. At least I expected some
   hardware flaws and thus expected P0 developers to be
   experts in the embedded field.

   The P0 phones were free to them (modulo customs
   trouble). Which is IMHO the right thing for engineering
   samples.

   So, no "getting the consumer's phone 6 months early"
   here.

2) P1 phones

   a) I have not read anywhere, that the P1 phones will be
      "expect hardware issues" devices. And at least I did
      not have the impression, that FIC tries to trick us
      into being their hardware laboratory rats.

      I really hope FIC will either deliver proper hardware
      or be kind to people having paid $350.

      (Warranty is also next corner.)

   b) At P1 start software is a completely different story.
      Full stop.

   c) I really hope against and can't see the orphaning of
      "older hardware".

      This is one of the base points of Sean: He doesn't
      want to buy a new phone, just because a new feature
      is out there (in this case "out there in the
      software"). He just wants to update the software and
      be happy.

   In a sense, the "getting the consumer's phone 6 months
   early" (modulo software!) seems true and I really hope
   for it being like this.


If I missed something, or am just using wishful thinking
can someone correct?


    Elrond




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