Before I start, thanks for the Diggs, guys. Two articles on the front page of Digg in just two days is a dream come true. Thank you.
The OpenMoko is certainly an impressive piece of hardware, it is hackable, open and runs Linux. But unfortunately, people probably wont buy it…
Marketing
Apple has got a genius marketing team. OpenMoko has the community. We love OpenMoko, but we do not have the finances or the drive or the reasons to pull a full scale marketing campaign off such as the iPhone one. So, the only way it will spread is by word of mouth, more or less. There is no Red Hat or Novell to save us here, guys.
Software
The FreeRunner is much better I hear, but still unreliable. Getting support, additional functions, an online store. OpenMoko is not Nokia, they are not a big name. You have to do something revolutionary, not sell a product that function-wise cannot really compare to the iPhone, but still has a way better operating system. It is a shame with all the confusion about which libraries to use et cetera et cetera. Learn from Asus. They did it in a market where they are not well known - as a laptop manufacturer.
Users
Yeah of course Linux is awesome, but who -except for you- ever told your grandmother that this suspicious looking phone is better than the -revolutionary, -good-looking -gay iPhone? The potential converts do not trust you and they do not care.
It will be a hard fight, but eventually Linux will will in the hand-held devices market, just like it is winning in the ultra portable PC market. We just need time. And this is not the time for it, but let us still cheer the OpenMoko team on for making a brave step forward. Do not rush it people, not even the year of the Linux Desktop is anywhere near, why wait for the Year of the Linux Phone…
July 26th, 2008 at 06:48
This. I’d also like to say that this doesn’t look too much like a phone; it lacks form factor, is quite bulky, and isn’t aesthetically pleasing. Now these things matter quite a lot.
I read something on the FSF blog about how the iPhone might be spying on everyone and sending our information to the government, etc, but IMO, it works like this:
A nice looking phone: ++Rep
A ugly fridge-phone: –Rep
Obviously, the iPhone is sleek, and people would want it more. Open-source is great, but in a phone, I doubt that is what matters most.
July 26th, 2008 at 17:47
Free Software (along with its brethren free culture, knowledge and map data) has the better ethics and will in the long term succeed every proprietary effort.
Granted the world is full with people who can be impressed with superficialities. However these people are not those which engage themselves in writing free software, add Wikipedia entries, go out mapping the world for OpenStreetMap or help other people setting up their wireless mesh router .
Hopefully more and more people start being able to differentiate between superficialities (e.g. free as in beer) and real values (free as in freedom).
July 28th, 2008 at 01:43
Yes, that’s what the openmoko is about, pretty much. We’ll get there one day, everyone still has to learn that the phone that is being sold today is nowhere near user friendly.
It’s a shame I have to read the word “gay” as an insult.
July 28th, 2008 at 20:01
[It’s a shame I have to read the word “gay” as an insult. - Jelle De Loecker]
Gay, except male homosexual, also means brilliant/exciting. See also http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=gay
In the given context, I can’t read it as an insult…
Best regards,
Taki
July 31st, 2008 at 17:30
– Response to Sid –
[This. I’d also like to say that this doesn’t look too much like a phone; it lacks form factor, is quite bulky, and isn’t aesthetically pleasing. Now these things matter quite a lot.]
The FreeRunner is -NOT- designed for consumption by the general public. Maybe future versions of it will be more like the iPhone but at the moment this is a hackers toy. And WHAT A TOY!!!
Now, keeping that in mind. There is enough interest in the phone to have the OpenMoko store being constantly sold out of both North American and Worldwide editions of the phone. There are also 6-8 week lead time from 3rd party vendors.
So… given all of that, I would have no issue saying that OpenMoko is doing pretty well for itself. And besides, I’ve not heard anyone saying they’re trying to be an iPhone out of the box. At least not yet
The long and short of it is this. The Freerunner is designed to be a publicly availible DEVELOPER tool. It even states quite clearly that it is not user friendly. So I tihnk comparing it to the iPhone is a poor way of looking at it. And if you think differently on this, maybe you should actually try reading the documentaion and chat with the community
– Response to Taki —
[Gay, except male homosexual, also means brilliant/exciting. See also http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=gay
In the given context, I can’t read it as an insult…]
I can read it both ways, given that text does not translate emotions well. It can be gathered that the formatting of the test means to emphasize that it’s a bad thing. Either way it’s truly sad that parts of society use the word gay to be derrogatory.