Crossroads

[Mike]

Sean Moss-Pultz wrote:
> Dear Community,
> 
> OpenMoko is built around the philosophy that far more knowledge exists 
> outside the walls of a corporation than within. Internally, we're
> struggling with two issues. So we're throwing this out, hoping that some
> of you have can help us move past our current crossroads: 
>   
>   1) We can't find a WiFi Chipset with GPL'ed drivers -- We know 
>   this has been discussed (to death) on this list, but as we're 
>   beginning work on the next summer hardware refresh we still can't seem
>   to find a vendor that meets our strict requirements: Namely, we refuse
>   to put anything binary in the kernel. 
> 
>   Marvell has some nice for larger devices (the 8388). But we need
>   one specifically for mobile phones (like the 8686). If somebody 
>   can help us find the right vendor, we'll give you a free Neo1973. 
>   
>   If you're a vendor and want to work with us to GPL your driver, we'll 
>   give you lots of business -- and a free phone ;-) 
> 
> 
>   2) We don't have enough UI / Application developers -- If anybody 
>   meets (or knows somebody who can meet) the following qualifications:
> 
>     	* >= 2 years experience with GTK
>     	* object oriented design and implementation w/ GObject
>     	* experience with writing GUI applications from scratch,
>     	* has software quality assets like:
>           o writing maintainable and reusable code
>           o refactoring
>           o design patterns
>           o identifying and extracting common application code 
>             into frameworks 
> 
>   Familiarity with collaborative development tools such as:
> 
>     	* bugtracker,
>     	* source control management,
>     	* wiki,
>     	* mailing lists 
> 
>   is a necessity.
> 
>   We've love to talk with you! Please email coreteam at openmoko.org with 
>   links to your previous work and a resume if you have one. (The latter 
>   is nowhere near as important as the former.)
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help!
> 
> -Sean
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> community at lists.openmoko.org
> http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> 


Good to see things moving forward on the wifi issue.  But,

I was going to be a developer for this platform, but in light of my 
recent thread, and the lack of wifi support, I don't think I can, at 
least not until it's launched to the general public, which defeats the 
entire purpose of the developer release phase.  It's because of the 
following:

1. The sheer quantity of information about finding a mobile provider 
with a data plan that will support the neo, as indicated by the useful 
responses to my recent thread.  And the lack of certainty of that 
information.  "I think this will work".  I appreciate those responses 
from non-openmoko people, because it's all we've got to go on.  And that 
brings me to problem 2:

2. The fact that the openmoko guys have apparently just washed their 
hands of the entire issue of which services will work, and aren't 
providing any information on the site (and very little on the wiki). (At 
least start with the big countries/regions).  Your device is great, 
guys, your platform sounds great too. But you can't leave us all on our 
own when it comes to getting the thing on the net.  Your neo is a $350 
doorstop without a working service provider.

3. If there was wifi on the device this wouldn't be nearly as much of an 
issue, obviously, because we wouldn't need to rely on the provider to 
get on the net.

Either give us detailed information on which providers and plans will 
work, or get wifi on the device.  Those are the two roads at the crossroads.