Third request: what *is* the warranty on the Freerunner?

Jay Vaughan jayv at synth.net
Mon Aug 4 23:43:33 CEST 2008


> There were a number of sites, like Engadget and a few others, that  
> were
> essentially implying that the Freerunner was ready for general use (as
> opposed to the Neo1973, which was strictly a developer's phone).
>

well, if you use qtopia, with an eye on the rapid progress, you can at  
least adopt a holding pattern as good things come along.

what i think has happened is, frankly, a bit of a wild hacker mutiny.   
realizing that, once the hardware is actually out there in good  
numbers, the distribution wars are *on8*, be-atches, the openmoko  
'community' went ballistic, and .. yes kids .. its true, there are  
more than one operating systems to run on your freerunner, and frankly  
thats not going to change or 'devolve', its clear.

so tell your iPhone homies :P to them having 'the one "mans" operating  
system', while you have .. so far .. at least 5 or 6 to choose from.

and, thus: the race is on.  who will make the freerunner a trully  
rockin' device?  *all* the bits are there, and frankly, with such a  
big feast, its sure we'll not run out of forks.


> So, I enthusiastically ordered it, only to realize that it's still,  
> very
> much, a developer's phone. And not just a developer's phone, but a  
> *super
> hardcore* developer's phone.
>

well, i have to admit that i think its high time the back-room 'disk  
image swapping around of' crowd got their thumbs out of their asses  
and started sharing bootable goods, pre-configured and ready to roll,  
but thats just me bein' all 'cyber' about it, alas ..

> I wouldn't mind learning to program for it, but even that's hard to  
> do,
> since there are a handful of competing openmoko software  
> architectures that
> aren't really interoperable.

consider this: there is *nothing* stopping you from spending an hour  
or two for a week, configuring and building your -own- distro, from  
all the parts, slapping a lable on it and installing it on the other 9  
phones you've got in your box.  the only question then, of course,  
would be: who you gonna call?


> Anyway, I guess I'll wait for the software to catch up to the  
> hardware.
> Meanwhile, I'll keep it tucked away in the closet.


i've got mine in my kit, its a very useful linux box to me already,  
only a 9 or so days into the trip, and i must admit its fun to have  
when i need it .. i've got mine set up for the local public funkfeuer  
nodes, just fine, and that means i've got at least a feed or two in  
the park to read, and GPS maps (weather too) as well .. so thats  
nice.  it is actually *quite* a useful system if you pump some time  
into it.

;
--
Jay Vaughan








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