[openmoko-announce] Openmoko on Design

[Christopher White]

On Tue, 2008-07-29 at 16:02 +0200, Michele Renda wrote:
> I think this require some hours hour man-time (let suppose 3-4 h)

I'll agree that responding as Jay has takes considerable time, but I
disagree with what a person can do.

> In 3-4 hours a person can do:
> 
> 	To learn a bit how to write an little application for Freerunner
> 	(To start you need around 2-3 hour of intensive study, if you
> 	 have experience in programming)

I've been poking at FR for probably a good 20hrs now.  Flash,
reflashing, playing, poking, looking for logs, looking for hooks. 

And I still haven't started programming yet (yes, i have embedded linux
experience).

I spent an hour *just* trying to figure out why exposure was not
starting up.  In the end, I could not and just gave up.

> 	To check 10 pages of the Wiki updating old information

Ok, that assumes I have something to contribute.  After 20 hrs on my FR,
and countless hours over the last year reading the list, I do not feel
very confident in *any* of my methods yet to start sharing them with
others.  

> 	Start to know of to make a theme for Openmoko

Yikes, I wouldn't even know where to start if I wanted to do that.

> 	Go out buy a postcard and to send it to Openmoko team that will be
> happy that someone is thinking to them

Well...that's some blue sky thinking for you!  Tell you what I did do,
though...I sent them a virtual postcard with $369 attached ;-)

I vent now because I'm frustrated.  My wheels are spinning in the mud.
I have some great ideas but and can't seem to get traction in the
product.  That's why you hear so much on this topic.  Jay already has 3
projects *underway* -- he has clearly invested a lot more time
implementing for the phone than he has emailing about it.

This is the 3rd time I've started a message on this thread.  It always
gets to the point where I want to make concrete suggestions on how to
improve.  That's where it gets messy.  I'm too lost in finding the right
set of magic commands to fix the problem of the day to figure out what
would make it better...

More than anything, my suggestion to the OpenMoko team -- get things
*stable*.  Stop all new development until you get it stable.  The build
process, basic menuing, core documentation.  I still have the window
manager crash on me periodically ...stuck with a brick until I can ssh
in and restart X.

Until it gets stable, adding more features or more apps is just adding
fuel to the fire.

...cj


> 
> I am no one to tell to you how to use your time, but I personally thing
> that continuing to use your time to repeat how many stupid things
> Openmoko do, and complaining how many fanboy there are, is not the best
> way to help this project. Then do you what do you think is better!
> 
> All this in my personal opinion!
> 
> Michele Renda
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