Nokia responds to iPhone by Promoting 'Open'

[Guido Arnold]

Hello all,

On Tue, Oct 02, 2007 at 10:18:35PM +0100, Alex Hudson wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-10-02 at 23:03 +0200, Guido Arnold wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 02, 2007 at 11:55:39AM +0200, arc wrote:
> > > 
> > > http://www.openmoko.org/
> > 
> > It's October now. Does anybody know when they will start selling them
> > to the masses?
> 
> Early next year hopefully; the hardware (Neo) is likely to be ready
> before the software (OpenMoko) from the looks of it, and you'll be able
> to buy a final-ish version of the phone before the software is "mass
> market" ready I think - maybe even late this year.

Thanks for your responses.
Hm, I'll have to see if I can wait that long. My current mobile is at
it's last legs.
> 
> > What I would like to see, eventually, is a database of vendors who
> > sell "free"d hardware like openmoko or laptops without any proprietary
> > software on them.
> 
> Well, the Neo has proprietary software "on it" if you count the internal
> modem. I'm not sure how interesting a list that would be, particularly
> if you count firmware - the number of devices would basically be zero.

Yes, I know. For this particular list/database, I wouldn't be that
rigorous as a start. The GCC wasn't written on a Free Software driven
machine in 1984.  My intention is to support those vendors who offer
hardware that meets the necessary freedoms as close as
possible/available. I envision a guide that helps to choose the
"lesser evil".

If there is no portable music player on the market, I would recommend
the ones that play ogg and are able to communicate with a GNU system
without any proprietary drivers. Because all other players wouldn't
just be proprietary, they would force the user to make her system
un-free. 

All hardware databases I found on the internet just care if it
"runs" at all, not if it runs with Free Software. So, I definitely see
a need for such a list to promote Free Software and to enable us to
"vote" with our money. 

If we keep buying e. g. windows-taxed laptops (and not claim the
tax back), why should the vendors change their strategy?

Depending on the popularity of that database, it might create
competition between the vendors to get a higher "ranking". But now, I
start daydreaming and better leave it alone for today. :)

What do you think?

Greetings,

Guido
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