[openmoko-announce] Openmoko on Design

Ken Restivo ken at restivo.org
Thu Jul 31 10:49:34 CEST 2008


On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 10:31:55PM +0200, Jay Vaughan wrote:
> > Sorry to hear it doesn't work for you. But like I said, we each have  
> > our
> > own ways of understanding and making meanings.
> > You are free to create your own meanings.
> 
> 
> I just can't see how you honestly believe all this panty-waiste  
> dilettante waffling about "not having a design because its up to the  
> open community" is going to drive things forward.  Are you, or are you  
> not, committed to delivering a working phone platform that *users* and  
> developers alike are going to be interested in?  Then: some standards  
> need to be put forth, and they need to be adhered to.
> 


It seems to me from my former-product-mananger perspective that OpenMoko doesn't really want to be in the software business. 

I'm sensing a business model that has OpenMoko focussing on selling general-purpose computing hardware (like Dell or ASUS). but in a handheld format, and letting the "community" or some third party (like Trolltech/Nokia) deal with the software issues, for the most part. 

Obviously they need to ship the phone with *something*, so they're betting on Qtopia-over-X11, which seems a solidly good choice.

The one very big problem with this model, is that Dell and ASUS have very mature, end-user-ready software suites (Ubuntu, Windoze, etc.) to ship with their hardware or for users to add on their own, and the OpenMoko doesn't really have that yet.

This will get sorted out though. I'd bet on about two years from now it'll all be squared away.

-ken




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