[Arm-netbook] What I have done so far

[fuumind]

Just for the record and from my very egotistical point of view: 

A product that I would buy is a smallish fully libre smartphone of good
quality with good performance, a ****load of storage and battery
lasting a month at least. It would also need to have the option of
plugging it into a usb hub to get me a workstation with kb+mouse+large
display+better audio. And it would have to be dirt cheap ;)

/fuumind

sön 2016-07-24 klockan 20:17 +0100 skrev Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo:
> 2016-07-24 17:31 Wolfgang Romey:
> > 
> > Am Sonntag, 24. Juli 2016, 16:14:43 schrieb Manuel A. Fernandez
> > Montecelo:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I read Wolfgang's paragraph a bit differently...  I think that
> > > Wolfgang
> > > wonders why there are not more pledges / purchasing orders from
> > > people
> > > *following* the FOSS/libre software;
> > That is my point.
> Well, I have only theories which are worth a dime a dozen, and as
> much
> of a guess as anybody else's...  but it's the end of a hard week and
> I
> want to decompress a bit, so let's go :-)
> 
> 
> <disclaimer: the following is IN NO WAY intended to discourage, or
> imply
> "I know better and you should do this or that", etc -- it is just
> dumping my thoughts on the matter of why there are no more purchases
> from people that one would expect, as Wolfgang wonders>
> 
> 
> In no strict order, but to try to organise them in coherent bits of
> thought:
> 
> 1) I think that for many people, without endorsement from FSF's RYF
> or
>    similar, this effort doesn't have enough visibility compared to a
>    myriad of other offers around.
>    
>    It's not that ARM boards / small devices are unheard of nowadays,
> as
>    they were before the RPi, and it's not even one of the first
>    competitors of the RPi that got lots of attention (e.g.
> Beaglebone).
> 
>    Almost anybody interested enough in using one of those has some
>    similar device already, so will only purchase if it happens to
> need
>    one or several /in ~8 months from now/ (difficult to guess,
> though)
>    or because one specially wants to support the project, even if it
>    will not use one of these immediately.
> 
>    Maybe Luke will hate me for telling this, and it's not the same as
>    the EOMA by any stretch, but Olimex's oLinuXinos can serve for
>    similar purposes with same or similar hardware, and have been
>    available for purchase directly for a long time.
> 
> 2) Related to #1, perhaps many people are still waiting to receive
> some
>    hardware that they crowdfunded/preordered 5 months ago (before
> even
>    learning about EOMA), so they don't have the purchasing/spare
>    time/whatever capacity to order a new one.  Think of this
> OpenPandora
>    Pyra, for example.
> 
>    Or they do need it today, not in ~8 months, or don't want to wait
> for
>    2 months to know if this campaign is successful or not, and if
> not,
>    then go find somewhere else.
> 
> 3) Related to #1 and #2, certainly purchasing an EOMA device is not
> very
>    eco-friendly if you have already a bunch of similar devices and
> they
>    are gathering dust in a corner, or you don't have spare cycles or
> any
>    particular use for EOMA devices today or in the near future.
> 
>    Sure, EOMA is eco-friendly when looking forward 10 years, if you
> can
>    purchase compatible CPU cards, but not when looking backwards --
> what
>    does one do with the half dozen devices that are around at home?
> 
>    I still have computers from 2000 or before, and even if they use
> more
>    energy, keeping them running for a few years is probably cheaper
> and
>    more eco-friendly (overall footprint) than using an EOMA.  And in
>    winter, they do warm the home, so excess energy usage is not very
> bad
>    :-)
> 
> 4) Allwinner A20 itself is not very good to differentiate from other
>    offers: not specially new, not specially suitable for those with a
>    special "fetish" for hardware-freedomness (like the Loongson that
>    Stallman used --MIPS with expired patents--, or more
> free/grassroots
>    architectures like OpenRISC or RISC-V) or some special purpose
> device
>    (Novena, with FPGAs and all), etc.
> 
>    (Although printing your own laptop it really is something
> special.)
> 
>    Allwinner itself didn't get good reputation with the problems of
>    hardware integration in the kernel (GPL stuff, old kernels), with
> the
>    thing about the password to root the device (even if it's good
> from a
>    "freedom" point of view), etc.
> 
> 5) It's does not come as very very cheap (think of RPi or CHIP or
> so),
>    and with currency conversions and shipping and so on, it ends up
>    being a bit steep, specially with the devaluation of EUR and GBP
> vs
>    USD in the last few weeks.
> 
> 6) Network effects and all
> 
> 7) Slow summer time is slow
> 
> 
> So in a way, this device ecosystem and this campaign is for people
> that
> think that EOMA can be a great idea for the future, but:
> 
> a) Not very good if you want or need one /today/, or cannot
> anticipate
>    the needs of the next X months/years
> 
> b) It is not so absolutely cheap / useless that one doesn't get
> pissed
>    off if one "invests" in the wrong silly idea and looses the money
>    (think of SMBC's monocle)
> 
> c) It is not enough cool / novel / specialist in ways that would
> appeal
>    to some crowd even if absolutely impractical or too expensive if
>    looking at it from a pragmatic PoV ("a SBC based on M68K, the
> coolest
>    ISA ever, woohooo!"; or "the fist OpenRISC / RISC-V!11!1!!!1"; or
>    "OMFG, the Jolla/Sailfish tablet!!1!1!")
> 
> 
> Still, I don't think that any of the points a-b-c is a guarantee of
> anything -- sometimes they click a button for some people and
> sometimes
> they don't.  We usually only hear about the very successful
> campaigns,
> but probably for every extremely successful campaign there are a
> bunch
> that were special in some ways that didn't get lucky.
> 
> 
> And still with 1 month to go, I think that there are good chances
> that
> this picks up pace towards the end.  I am hopeful :-)
> 
> 
> > 
> > > 
> > > while Luke interprets that Wolfgang
> > > is complaining about people *leading* FSF*-related orgs
> > > (including
> > > Europe, Latin America, etc.; and other countries similar orgs
> > > like ANSOL
> > > in Portugal or April in France) are not promoting EOMA68 from
> > > their orgs
> > > as much as they could / should.
> > > 
> > > In any case I think that it's a bit of both... and if it was
> > > being
> > > promoted prominently by some orgs, specially FSF's Respects Your
> > > Freedom
> > > campaing, would probably give the campaing a big boost.
> > > 
> > Is there a chance, to get the FSF Respects Your Freedom Certificate
> > in the near
> > future?
> Luke should know, I don't know if anybody else does.
> 
> I think that it would make a real difference and will almost surely
> mean
> the success of the campaign.
> 
> 
> Cheers.