[Arm-netbook] What I have done so far

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo]

Hi,

2016-07-25 10:10 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 ;)

Your analysis from the other e-mail is very interesting.

I was only trying to analyse why people in or close to FOSS and libre
hardware communities didn't embrace this campaign more enthusiastically.
  
As the e-mail says towards the end:

   The question is "How do we gather enough passionate recruits to get
   this revolution going?" but that question is hard to fit into the
   realities of a marketing campaign for a couple of products.

There's the possibility to just donate money to the project, and I did a
couple of years ago (to this project and also to the related and failed
Improv).

But in the end, for the campaign to be successful, it also needs to
provide products that people want to pledge for (if nothing else, to
meet the minimum quantity to fabricate the chips that Luke keeps
mentioning), so everybody needs some kind of hook to engage with the
project.  It also serves to gauge interest in future products, once the
campaign ends.


In your case, you would be thrilled to pledge for the hardware that you
mention.  You say that it would have to be dirty cheap, but many people
are investing significant amounts of money to get the Neo900 rolling,
which probably is the closest product in the works resembling what you
describe.  This is more or less the "specialist" hardware that I
mentioned in my previous message.


In my case, I would be interested in a possible range of products, but
none of the current meet the expectations in one way or another:

- The only one laptop that I owned with <1000p of vertical resolution I
  hated with passion (partly because of the resolution and partly
  because of the glossy screen).  I happily saw it go when some
  components stopped working just after the warranty expired... I was
  relieved --rather than angry-- for missing the warranty for a few
  weeks.

  So I think that buying a laptop from the campaign with that screen
  resolution would be a mistake in my case.  Personally I also need
  something much more powerful than the A20 for tasks that I do daily on
  the computer (both in terms of CPU and memory).

- Close family are still well served by the options already available
  around the home, e.g. Thinkpads a decade old (still from IBM).

- I will need one or two mini-servers at home in 1~2 months.  I have
  several small devices around the house with different architectures,
  some not even purchased but given to me for some reason or another,
  and that I have not tried yet after 1 year sitting in a bookcase; as
  well as older x86 systems that still fit the bill and work fine.

  So I could give some use to EOMA cards if I pledge for them (still
  deciding), but in that case I would keep the other hardware unused
  (not eco-friendly, and a bit of a waste of money).  And I would need
  them now-ish, waiting until next spring is not an option for that
  small personal project.


I think that many people wanting to support the project would have
similar conflicts and are not decided about what to do.

It's a pity that RFY certification can only start after the campaign is
finished.  With lots of visibility, at least it would mean that there's
a bigger set of people in the intersection "I want to support this
project", "I need this hardware/products in a few months" and "I can pay
them now".


Meanwhile, pledges keep increasing :-)


Cheers.
-- 
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <manuel.montezelo at gmail.com>