Discussion: what are your dreams for the Openmoko Community

[Onen]

Hi,

On 28/04/12 11:52, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
> It has become a little quiet here in the last weeks so that I
> really fear about the spirit and status of this community.
>

I for one, am waiting for news with respect to GTAA04. Will it be 
working, with good and reliable suspend, no buzz, just works as a 
reliable phone?

> So what are your dreams with respect to open mobile handhelds?
> What would you like as future hardware?

No bevel around the screen.
Bigger screen.
(Ideally the coming flexible screens.)
Camera.
Flatter phone.
HDMI output.

What to see in software
> distros? Anything else? What missing piece are you waiting for?
>

First of all, I have the feeling that discussion about the hardware and 
the distributions like SHR are always quite tied together. But I do see 
it as two different aspects.

First the phone with a working kernel, drivers etc. This will give the 
basis for whatever software on top of it.
What has been great with GTA02 and that I expect even to be better with 
GTA04 is how people, with time, find place for improvement. Saving some 
power there, improving framerate here, etc. Tweaking and getting the 
best out of the hardware.

Maybe a middle point, because it might be linked to hardware support, is 
a fluid interface. It does not necessarily need to have bells and 
whistle all over the place. If you have a simple clean interface, but 
very fluid, this is very pleasant. My n900 for example, is not quite 
fluid. It is not completely snappy. That makes a huge difference to me, 
regarding user experience.

And on the second hand, the distribution. To be honest, I think the 
first step would be to have something that just works. For daily use. 
Whatever it is. And not only for geek. Even software developer may be 
reluctant to have multiple phones: one for "real" use, and one to tinker 
with. I don't see why I could not use my "real" phone and still develop 
on it. Everyday I work on a computer for development, and still use it 
as my daily computer.
Maybe this could be some kind of recommended/official distribution for 
the hardware. Raspberry Pi has a recommended image. But other images 
appeared next to it. But for someone discovering the project, it is 
clearly identified what is the main path to follow. You have to make 
things easy for people. Later, getting experience, they might explore 
other paths. People will gather around that "main" working path. This 
will then give momentum for other distributions.

-- 
Onen