OpenMoko Challenges

[John]

Hi Sean,

Great to hear that things have got to the 'open' stage.

I'm sorry, I don't understand; can you confirm that the Neo1973 will or wont
have BT and Wifi?

Thanks.

John

On 2/12/07, Chuck Williams <chuck at manawiz.com> wrote:
>
> Sean,
>
> This is a great decision.  I'm sure the community will be supportive and
> the end product will benefit from the early openness.  I'm looking
> forward to getting early access to the hardware and software and hope to
> contribute something to the software effort.
>
> Chuck
>
>
> Sean Moss-Pultz wrote on 02/11/2007 11:18 PM:
> > Dear Community,
> >
> > We, the OpenMoko Team, have promised exciting news about our project
> > today. We have some information that we think you will like very much,
> > but also have some news we like less. Let us first address the
> > unpleasant part, before turning to the more cheerful part of this
> > announcement.
> >
> > After we announced OpenMoko last November, we were flooded with emails.
> > Most were absolutely encouraging, thanking us for undertaking this
> > project. And out of the many thousands of emails, only two requests came
> > again and again: "Where's bluetooth?" And, "Why doesn't it have WiFi?"
> >
> > (We really do read _everything_ you write.)
> >
> > Originally, bluetooth was in our product spec, however, this was left
> > out of our schematics in an early stage. At the time we were really
> > hurting for resources internally, so we did not push. Making changes to
> > a product while in the R&D stages can be quite painful. But after all
> > the incredible demand, post-November, we felt it had to be done.
> >
> > We had a string of bad luck that really hurt our productivity. Each
> > hardware revision takes at least one month of time. Each month without
> > stable hardware means serious delays for software.
> >
> > One time we received the wrong memory from our vendors and we failed to
> > catch this before production. Another time some key components ran out
> > of supply. And as if all that wasn't bad enough, our baseband leader's
> > mom died leaving a gaping wound in both his heart and our hardware
> > team.
> >
> > But we moved on. Little by little our hardware started to come together.
> > Around the middle of January we thought we finally found a stable
> > revision. At this point, our software was seriously behind schedule, but
> > as Alan Cox once said, "Free Software is always late."
> >
> > January's announcement bought us more time to fix some hardware issues
> > still plaguing us. We also modified the position of the bluetooth module
> > to make way for a JTAG port (we're trying our best to be hacker
> > friendly). This required our vendor to design a special FPC to connect
> > the module to our board. Something on the order of 3 weeks would be
> > required to complete this "simple" task.
> >
> > One thousand little Murphy's seems to be what we have running around
> > teasing this project. Less than a 7% yield rate is all that we got out
> > of this new cable; not even enough to meet our Phase 0 demand. Needless
> > to say, it was an incredibly depressing day for all of us.
> >
> > "Tormented" is really the only word that we can think of now to describe
> > how we are feeling as a team, forced with making this decision: Do we
> > delay again, wait for the hardware and software to be ready, or do we
> > just open up now as promised without reaching our key milestone?
> >
> > Each of us, in different ways, have struggled with this decision for
> > the past five days. We're all extremely demanding of ourselves when it
> > comes to the quality of our work. Nearly every minute of our waking
> > lives have been spent on this project. So to be at this state, now, is
> > really hard on us.
> >
> > Mickey Lauer, one of our core developers sent an email, only a few hours
> > ago, that put things back into perspective for us. He said,
> >
> >    "A lot of people will be disappointed by the state of the
> >    software, but -- I may be a dreamer -- I prefer rough and truly
> >    open solutions (where I have the chance to help shaping the
> >    future) over cool, but already finished and closed solutions
> >    (where all I can do is take the platform as it is or NOT.)"
> >
> > As planned, we are going to open this project up at this point. Within
> > three days of this announcement you will all have access to our source
> > code, Wiki, and Bugzilla.
> >
> > Hopefully you can understand why we're at this less-than-ideal state.
> > But more importantly, we hope you understand that opening our code now,
> > and letting you join us in making this dream of an open phone platform
> > come true, is more important for us than mere appearances.
> >
> > Regarding our Neo1973 hardware, we will send out the first batch of
> > phase 0 phones out around the end of this month. Sorry for not being
> > able to give an absolute date. Next week is Chinese New Year (we're in
> > Asia remember) and _everyone_ stops working for a full week. Having our
> > newly designed FPC built before is really wishful thinking.
> >
> > All interested developers can purchase Neos starting late March. Please
> > understand that phase 0 is a system of "checks and balances," so it
> > simply cannot be rushed. We want to get the framework right, the first
> > time around. Hopefully you all can live with the slight delays in our
> > schedule. We're all super excited to be cranking again and eagerly await
> > sending you hardware so you can join us in the party ;-)
> >
> > Finally, we will offer Neos to end users sometime in September of this
> > year. People everywhere will finally begin to understand the real power
> > of an open phone with a strong community behind it. Within this
> > relationship between humans and Neos, a new kind of device will emerge.
> > "Freed Phones", will have the potential to forever change the way people
> > think of technology. This is the challenge that drives us. And it awaits
> > each an every one of you, along with our full support.
> >
> >
> > Now, "Free Your Phone."
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > The OpenMoko Team
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OpenMoko community mailing list
> > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> >
>
>
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