I didn't back them for two reasons. The first is that the hardware will be late. Not their fault, but rather that hardware is always late. The hardware shouldn't be compared against what is on the market now, and not even on the purported release date, but rather a few months after that. I suspect it won't be that extraordinary.
The second is that Ubuntu have deliberately alienated me as a user. They are under no obligation to do any different - actions they have taken have been a different direction than suits me. The phone is ultimately not for a free(dom) software community, Linux community or collaborated UI community device - it is a Canonical/Ubuntu (Unity) one. In the AMA "So in this first generation Edge, no, we didn't look for open hardware specifically"
Examples of where they have gone different directions: keeping upstart versus systemd, not trying to play nice with Gnome 3, CLA, Amazon on by default, bzr, launchpad, a general preference towards writing new code versus fixing the many issues languishing in the bug tracker etc. They did do good stuff with trying to make a community, fresh software packages, PPAs etc.
If Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, SuSe, Mandrake etc users had a reason to buy the phone I'd bet it would be a lot more successful.
What I'd like to see is a very basic cheap open mobile device.
It might even have to shun making calls because of the proprietary hardware/software stack. Is it possible to make an open/free mobile phone right now?
Alternatively you could use wifi, wireless and peer to peer. A very cheap instant grid/alt internet would be nice.
Interesting the way that Google have opted for their HDMI dongles. I'm surprised we haven't seen a similar offering from the Ubuntu camp. Do we really need the display?
What I'd like to see is a very basic cheap open mobile device
Raspberry Pi and a battery?
It might even have to shun making calls because of the proprietary hardware/software stack.
The cellular side can be on a separate baseband processor that talks to the outside world using good old fashioned AT commands[1] pretending to be a serial device. At that point you don't care how proprietary it is since any kernel and userspace can work with it. The current proprietary problem area is graphics (binary blobs abound) and often some other pieces (eg bluetooth, system initialization and bootloaders)
OpenMoko[2] did do open phones, although IIRC there was one proprietary piece.
Comments
I didn't back them for two reasons. The first is that the hardware will be late. Not their fault, but rather that hardware is always late. The hardware shouldn't be compared against what is on the market now, and not even on the purported release date, but rather a few months after that. I suspect it won't be that extraordinary.
The second is that Ubuntu have deliberately alienated me as a user. They are under no obligation to do any different - actions they have taken have been a different direction than suits me. The phone is ultimately not for a free(dom) software community, Linux community or collaborated UI community device - it is a Canonical/Ubuntu (Unity) one. In the AMA "So in this first generation Edge, no, we didn't look for open hardware specifically"
Examples of where they have gone different directions: keeping upstart versus systemd, not trying to play nice with Gnome 3, CLA, Amazon on by default, bzr, launchpad, a general preference towards writing new code versus fixing the many issues languishing in the bug tracker etc. They did do good stuff with trying to make a community, fresh software packages, PPAs etc.
If Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, SuSe, Mandrake etc users had a reason to buy the phone I'd bet it would be a lot more successful.
What I'd like to see is a very basic cheap open mobile device.
It might even have to shun making calls because of the proprietary hardware/software stack. Is it possible to make an open/free mobile phone right now?
Alternatively you could use wifi, wireless and peer to peer. A very cheap instant grid/alt internet would be nice.
Interesting the way that Google have opted for their HDMI dongles. I'm surprised we haven't seen a similar offering from the Ubuntu camp. Do we really need the display?
Raspberry Pi and a battery?
The cellular side can be on a separate baseband processor that talks to the outside world using good old fashioned AT commands[1] pretending to be a serial device. At that point you don't care how proprietary it is since any kernel and userspace can work with it. The current proprietary problem area is graphics (binary blobs abound) and often some other pieces (eg bluetooth, system initialization and bootloaders)
OpenMoko[2] did do open phones, although IIRC there was one proprietary piece.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_command_set
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko