Sean: Please authorise the release of GTA01 schematics

Rod Whitby rod at whitby.id.au
Sun Jul 20 04:06:37 CEST 2008


Sean,

Now that the FreeRunner is selling like hotcakes, and your hardware and 
software teams must focus on it to ensure that it succeeds in the 
market, and the GTA01 Neo1973 is no longer in production or being sold 
by Openmoko or its distributors, surely it's the perfect time to release 
the GTA01 hardware schematics?

This would send a clear message to the community and the whole mobile 
ecosystem that Openmoko is a company that doesn't leave it's customers 
in the lurch when it brings out a replacement product like closed 
ecosystem companies do, but that Openmoko is a company that wants it's 
customers to continue to impact the material world with *all* of it's 
products - past, present and future - for many years into the future.

Allow the amateurs to continue to have the distinct advantage over the 
professionals even years after the professionals have moved onto the 
next piece of hardware.  Imagine a world where new uses for 10 year old 
Openmoko hardware are still being found, because the schematics for 
previous generation products are always released when Openmoko ceases to 
produce or sell that product.  Imagine how much wider the impact of 
Openmoko can be if older products are not thrown in the bin due to lack 
of information availabe to repair them, but are instead repaired by 
people in the community or amateur ecosystem and then put back into 
service to continue to spread the word about the clear advantage that 
open source has over the closed ecosystem.

Sean, please release the hardware schematics and pcb layout and 
component placements for the GTA01.

Let the GTA01 run free and continue to impact the material world.

Respectfully,
-- Rod Whitby




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