GTA02 is now an expensive brick

[Craig Woodward]

To those saying this doesn't belong on a support list:

I normally would agree.  But in this case, there's no other real channel to discuss things like this with those that have the (possible) power to do anything about it.  Clearly FIC has washed their hands of this, since they're only supporting the hardware for 2 weeks after purchase "in case of DOA".  Any solution that's going to come is going to come as software, if it comes at all.

---- "Neng-Yu Tu (Tony Tu)" <tony at openmoko.com> wrote: 
>There still people using GTA01

I understand that... My issue is that there isn't a stable base that loads and works as a phone for ANY Neo model.  There's no image that I can load that will work reliably as a phone for 24 hours, even if it's plugged in to a wall outlet.  Not a battery life issue, not a power save issue, just a stability issue.  Within 24 hours (usually less), either I can not make a call, can not receive a call, and/or can not use SMS.

You say to put this into the ticket system, but it's already there.  I added 3 tickets months ago, and ALL are still untouched.  I would have entered more, but many would have been duplicates, which I wanted to avoid.  There are thousands of tickets in the system, many of them listed as "new" despite being months old.

A prime example is the one I sited above, bug #1662, "[GSM] not working properly after x hours of usage".  This is a basic thing for a phone to do, but it's been waiting to be seen since 7/23/08.  This is not acceptable for any cell phone, but shows no signs of being fixed any time soon.

>What if we use montavista/windriver/wince/whatever make a device first then release(open) crappy/ok linux kernel, it won't be Openmoko.

I think that's the issue here... Open source doesn't mean throw the hardware and docs out to the planet and they'll write stuff for you. Open source needs a stable base to work from.  OM has provided a stable base for the CPU (via ARM repositories), and arguably the video device.  But at least one key device (GSM) has had several stability issues, and ironically that's the one part of OM that is NOT open source.  Another part that has issues that are know is wifi (needing reboot to connect to a second AP?), not to mention issues surrounding power save and battery charging.

> We are sorry if FR make you think as expensive brick

It cost $400 and can't be used as a phone when the page I bought it from said it was a consumer ready phone.  If FIC were in the US they'd have a class action suit on their hands by now for false advertising.  Instead, they will (maybe) produce GTA03 and be shocked when they get almost no sales because people look it up and see the failure of the past 2 devices.  And all the open source nay-sayers will collectively say "told you so" and write glowing articles about the death of open source for phones.