Openness (was RE: Concern for usability and ergonomics)

[kenneth marken]

Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> Milan Votava writes:
>> You are all going to become slaves of capitalists (Sean on behalf of FIC).
>>
>> Better to support guys from xda-developers.com (like cr2) to make 
>> machines like HTC Universal a real free phones....
> 
> Better to work on a machine in spite of the manufacturer rather than
> with the manufacturer?  I don't follow.  The day FIC wants me to sign
> an NDA or claims ownership of my code, I'll agree with the "slaves of
> capitalists" comment.  I don't see any prospect of that happening.
> 

im guessing its something like: better to have a device out there in the 
hands of people that you can free, then a device with high hopes that 
never shows up in many hands. or whatever...

to me it sounds like a donkey chasing a carrot on a stick. the stick 
will always be just out of reach.

unlike the PC market, where commodity parts are everywhere, and if you 
dont like what dell, HP and other sell preassembled you can do your own, 
the mobile market is about locked down devices that, after its made, 
cant change no matter what.

hell, my guess is that by the time xda-developers.org is done, HTC have 
a new and better device out that people will flock to. one that the xda 
firmware cant work on, or at best will have some nasty flaws. and so the 
cycle starts again.

at best one is squeezing a couple of extra years out of a obsolete device.

but the neo seems to be designed from day one to be made from virtually 
of the shelf parts. FIC is just the hired factory (like how apple do for 
their stuff or microsoft does for the xbox's), they hold no copyright or 
patent on the neo iirc. so if FIC comes up short, one can take the parts 
and find some other factory willing to have a go at it.

until we get home assembly kits for mobiles, thats the second best option.

hell, it got a usb port that can run in host mode. can someone point me 
to a windows smartphone that have a similar option? it means that with 
the right drivers one can plug virtually any usb device into the neo and 
have it work. sounds to me like it can be molded into doing a lot of 
things. maybe if one could get it to charge of a solar cell it can act 
as a mobile modem for usb connected sensor ecquipment or similar.

but in the end i dont care what hardware it runs on as long as it has a 
code core thats open to anyone to modify after their liking.