Alternatives to FR

[Wolfgang Spraul]

Warren,

> I've been using my FR for 1.5 years, as my primary phone for a lot of that
> time(on QtEI and the more recently shr-u), and I must admit I'm getting more
> and more frustrated with it - between the regular crashes and hangs, the
> incredibly slow performance (so slow that I still occasionally miss a call
> because I can't unlock the phone in time to answer it), the horrible GPRS
> performance, and the various idiosyncracies (like the  recent 'feature' to
> progressively dim the screen while I'm trying to use it, inability to
> connect to wifi much of the time, etc.)...
> 
> There have been improvements, but it's been very slow, and IMO we're still a
> *long* way from having a phone with even a half-decent user experience...
> and there is nothing we can do can fix issues like the poor glamo bandwidth,
> and the crappy GPRS performance.  When I'm out of the house and need to look
> something up on the web, I borrow my wife's Iphone - I can look up what I
> need before the FR's browser finishes launching, let alone loading the
> google homepage...

Just want to say thanks for writing this up!
It's tough, but I think you pretty much sum up the experience of a lof of
people. It's the best that we could achieve (I worked for Openmoko before).

> And to be blunt, I don't give a damn if the battery loading software isn't
> open...  As long as it's a linux stack, and it's easy to cross-compile the
> app software I want for it, using the standard open source libs I'm familiar
> with --- that's free enough...

Sounds like a plan.
We all want a 100% free phone, but we gain nothing from building on sand.
So with the FreeRunner in the state it is, I think development will fragment
for a while, until it comes together again in a new attempt at a 100% free
phone one day. Until then, if the hardware is not stable you cannot do kernel
development, if the kernel is not stable you cannot do middleware, if
middleware is not stable you cannot do apps.
Doing it all at the same time like with the FreeRunner lead to what you
described above.

For myself - I went back to an old Blackberry Pearl, I think I will buy
a new Linux phone only if one exists that can do telephony when reflashed
with an image built by OE/OWrt or so. Like you I would also accept some
binary parts temporarily.
As far as I understand that still doesn't work with the Palm Pre or N900,
so I'm in wait-and-see mode.

Wolfgang

On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 05:28:34PM -0500, Warren Baird wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Timo Jyrinki <timo.jyrinki at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > 2010/1/4 William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au>:
> > > Nokia n900 - probably the best choice at this time.
> >
> > Probably, but to be more precise "not yet" instead of "at this time".
> > It's the only one that seems to have realistic possibility of some day
> > having a free distribution running with all features enabled. But it's
> > not today, and it remains to be seen how active the community around
> > it is.
> >
> >
> Depends a bit on how you define 'free'...   I interact with a phone mostly
> as a user, and possibly as a app developer - so for me if I can run free
> software on it, and I can develop free software for it using free tools,
> it's 'free enough'...    I really want a device that I can use as a phone,
> and a hand-held linux box.   The FR does the hand-held linux box part very
> well, but not so much the phone part.
> 
> I've been using my FR for 1.5 years, as my primary phone for a lot of that
> time(on QtEI and the more recently shr-u), and I must admit I'm getting more
> and more frustrated with it - between the regular crashes and hangs, the
> incredibly slow performance (so slow that I still occasionally miss a call
> because I can't unlock the phone in time to answer it), the horrible GPRS
> performance, and the various idiosyncracies (like the  recent 'feature' to
> progressively dim the screen while I'm trying to use it, inability to
> connect to wifi much of the time, etc.)...
> 
> There have been improvements, but it's been very slow, and IMO we're still a
> *long* way from having a phone with even a half-decent user experience...
> and there is nothing we can do can fix issues like the poor glamo bandwidth,
> and the crappy GPRS performance.  When I'm out of the house and need to look
> something up on the web, I borrow my wife's Iphone - I can look up what I
> need before the FR's browser finishes launching, let alone loading the
> google homepage...
> 
> Unfortunately, I've been actively looking for a device lately to replace my
> FR - I'm just too fed up with it.   The N900 is currently my leading
> contender.   I had originally written it off, because it doesn't support the
> 3G data frequencies currently available here in Montreal - but I realized
> the other day that it's 'fallback' data support is EDGE, not GPRS.   The
> *fallback* on this phone is still 20x to 50x faster than the best data
> tranfer rate I can get on the FR...
> 
> And to be blunt, I don't give a damn if the battery loading software isn't
> open...  As long as it's a linux stack, and it's easy to cross-compile the
> app software I want for it, using the standard open source libs I'm familiar
> with --- that's free enough...
> 
> So long, and thanks for all the fish...
> 
> Warren
> 
> -- 
> Warren Baird - Photographer and Digital Artist
> http://www.synergisticimages.ca

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