[Arm-netbook] fosdem2016

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

---
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68


On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 12:20 PM, GaCuest <gacuest at gmail.com> wrote:

> I may have misspoke. In my opinion, the EOMA-68 project is very
> good. The problem is that I see it from a very ambitious view, a
> project to change the world.

 indeed.  there are a huge number of steps, but the goal is very very
clear to me.

i am not known for thinking small.  i took on microsoft [and they
didn't hire a contract killer to have me taken out - but they _did_
call my boss at Internet Security Systems and ask if they could fire
me.  my boss said, "if we do that, he's just going to carry on.  now,
do you want him on the inside where we can keep an eye on him pissing
out, or do you want him on the outside, annoyed, and pissing in?"] by
network-reverse-engineering their flagship Operating System, NT.

> Perhaps your view is better. We must be realistic. It is a small
> company, so we have to do the simplest project. First do simple
> devices (one EOMA-68 basic with Allwinner A20 with a simple
> notebook, a simple tablet, a simple games console...) to sell
> between developers and fans of the genre, and then expand
> the concept to ordinary people with more complex and powerful
> devices.

 exactly.  and why is this still good? because there is an upgrade
path.  products bought now can be repaired indefinitely (with the
laptop you can go to a public library in the U.S. and 3D-print a
replacement bit of the casework).

 but, also, it's actually really important to start off slow.
problems that occur early on can be fixed.  even a 0.1% returns rate
on mass-volume products is too much, because of the sheer volume
involved that 0.1% means "100,000 products returned".  to get there,
things have to be ramped up carefully.

> And try to do cheap products (at first) to avoid losing
> money if very few units sold.

 or, more to the point, that there are not too many early adopters who
feel that they've been "ripped off", because they instead love the
idea of supporting this project, they have some spare income, they're
happy to put that towards being part of a much larger picture which
will make a positive difference in the world.

 one of the crucial things here is never to think of it as being
"money lost".  money is *never* lost - money is "stored energy"
(potential energy) that empowers people to do things.  money is a
representation of the "value" of the "service" that you (or i)
provide.  we provide "service" to others, and they give us "stored
potential energy" in return.  that "stored potential energy" is equal
(ish) to the *actual* kinetic energy needed to provide that "service".

 once you start thinking of money in terms of "potential [stored]
energy", the mystique and fear - phrases like "losing money" - all
disappear.  you can instead think of a project's goal as being "how
much kinetic and potential energy is needed" and "where is that going
to come from?"

 and it turns out that great ideas have a way of coming together, if
you are persistent enough, and can communicate them well to others.
that's what i did at FOSDEM2016, and i was confident of what i was
talking about because i had the prototype right there in front of me.
*i* believed in what i was doing, so they did as well.

 l.