http://lists.hackable1.org/pipermail/hackable1-dev/2011-March/001686.html
I don't think I have much to add to this; except on a personal level maybe, which would be appropriate here I guess.
When I was first offered an Openmoko Neo1973 in summer of 2007 [3], I think I was both excited and disappointed about the device. It was a very promising opportunity for Open Source and telephony, at a time where only few devices were known to be usable with alternate and free environments. But I really did not like the look & feel of the device, or the state of the software running on it. Little did I suspect that I would spend so much time and energy with its successor, the Freerunner [4].
This happened first while I was working with Bearstech [5] on the promotion of hackable devices [6]. There, we focused on supporting what seemed to be the most viable solution at the time: the Om2007.2 stack. This part was a very frustrating experience, which I have mentioned already [7].
And now, I begin to feel much better about the whole thing. First, the Openmoko platform is still alive: thanks to Nikolaus Schaller of Golden Delicious [8], and of course thanks to the openness of the platform, a third-party hardware upgrade is available. Then, well, Google happened, Android is everywhere, and many more devices are usable with Open Source software.
But what's more, I am beginning to feel better and better about the DeforaOS project as a whole. This was a painful yet fantastic motivation to bring it where it is today. I had even decided to mostly give it up about a month ago, at least for a while. But the deadline [9] I set for the project on improving the user environment is almost matched now [10]. Better, I have great plans for the following one [11]. I may even go to University again [12]! This is not without reminding me about my own description of myself :) [13]
So yeah, four years later and much to my own surprise, I am getting increasingly comfortable and curious about using the dse2 release as a daily phone. It can only inspire me to push it to the next level :) [14]
To conclude:
- special thanks to the Neo1973-gift-maker!
- all of this is completely futile, and most of my thoughts are going to people of Japan, Ivory Coast, France and Libya right now.
[2] http://trac.hackable1.org/
[3] http://events.ccc.de/camp/2007/Intro/
[4] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner
[5] http://www.bearstech.com/
[6] http://hackable-devices.org/
[7] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/blog/88/The-DeforaOS-smartphone-environment
[8] http://www.goldelico.com/
[9] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/display/3324/Roadmap
[10] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3426/Graphical-environment
[11] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3427/Distributed-environment
[12] http://www.net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de/teaching/thesis/#network_virtu
[13] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/wiki/12/About
[14] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/display/3323/Planned-developments
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