Survey about the Touchscreen

[Stroller]

On 21 Nov 2008, at 16:41, Tilman Baumann wrote:
>
> I just want to point out that I will not vote because the vote is  
> bullshit.

+1

I when I finished reading this list yesterday it had only 3 replies,  
and thought about replying.

Unless your email address ends in @openmoko.com, please keep "surveys"  
and "votes" off this list!

They seem to generate a very high number of posts lacking in  
thoughtfulness - as opposed to, say, those a thread titled "capacitive  
screens vs touchscreens" might - and it is naive to consider what kind  
of hardware an individual user would prefer in isolation of all the  
other compromises that would be required to accommodate the decision.

> And even more important. Price and availability.
>
> What you want is totally unimportant. The question is which  
> compromises
> are you ready to make?
> This is nothing that can be figured out by some stupid two options  
> poll.
> ...
>
> I would like openmoko to do bold steps.
> But they should also be careful.

Introduction of a multi-touch screen would only fragment the userbase.  
10,000 Freerunner owners would be bitching that they can't run  
$new.app because it requires the new screen type; owners of the new  
device would be bitching that existing apps don't use the cool new  
interface.

Hardware decisions are best made by those who actually have an insight  
into ALL the variables of the planned hardware. The whims of you & I  
are simply irrelevant if Openmoko / FIC are unable to purchase multi- 
touch screens. In case you're not aware, hardware decisions have  
already been constrained by an unavailability of parts in such small  
quantities as those used in Openmoko devices - you might have to buy  
100,000 or 1,000,000 units before the vendor will talk to you.

Besides that, GTA03 is no longer subject to change - isn't it stupid  
to be making plans (especially when you're not in a position to do so)  
for GTA04 or 05, when the hardware available by that time might be  
quite different from what is on the market now?

Thanks for cluttering up my inbox with this irrelevancy.

Stroller.