Hi! After my previous blog post [1] about Openmoko 2007.2 distribution and the Openmoko community I got some comments proving that like me, some other people feel that the community is lost and uninformed. This post is a follow up to the previous post and the comments I got.
I've understood that 2007.2 still ships with the phones. As soon as one gets his new c00l Freerunner linux phone they need to flash the phone with a new distro (2008.x or Debian, FDOM, SHR, Gentoo, Qtopia, FSO.. [6]) since the software it ships with is obsolete. OK, so you get your 2008.x there and find that it doesn't really do all the magic and would like to report a bug. BUGS I don't know how others feel but I really don't feel like reporting bugs in the bug tracker [3]. OK, I'm running an unsupported distro (2007.2) so there's one reason but I also feel that it's okay to post kernel bugs only there, not anything that a normal user would see in his GUI. Is this correct or just a feeling or misunderstanding? Remember that all Freerunner owners and people here in the community are not kernel developers. I don't even know how to save back traces or hack the source code but I'm happy to report if something doesn't work and then when someone more skillful finds what's wrong and eventually fixes it, I'm again happy to try if the fix works for me. For some reason I feel that there's no space in the community for users like me. DISTROS So it's 2008.x now. No, wait.. there are FDOM [5] and SHR [2] around that are not far from 2008.x. Is 2007.2 still developed and lead by Openmoko or by the community? Do the community developers have access to the files so that new releases can be made or is SHR the closest to 2007.2 you can get to? My feeling is that there was a lack of information about why 2007.2 was forgotten and new 2008.x series was started and that something weird is happening in the official distros that creates a need for FDOM and SHR - why don't the developers feel ok to contribute directly to 2007.x and 2008.x but 'fork' their own distros? INFORMATION I think that what makes me feel lost is the lack of information about what's happening in the community. I don't know what's the development status of the software or what's the general direction the community and/or Openmoko is heading to? Having a better view on the general situation makes one feel much more comfortable and secure: now I feel that I just wait to see what the next release's like not being able to know what to wait for. NEXT STEPS People working at Openmoko and other software developers: * Please check 'Community Management as Open Source's Core Competency' by David Eaves [4] and have a good look at the the Openmoko community. It needs management! * Please write a blog post once a week or so to planet.openmoko.org and the community mailing list telling the community what's going on. Five to ten lines is enough to help the community feel better! * Please respect your community! Other community members: * How do you feel about the current situation? How happy are you with the community? * Do you feel well informed? Do you know what's the direction we're heading to? * How would you like to contribute? Thanks! ps. I posted this also in my blog: http://risto.kurppa.fi/blog/the-lost-openmoko-community/ r [1] http://risto.kurppa.fi/blog/openmoko-20072-distros-and-community/ [2] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Stable_Hybrid_Release [3] https://docs.openmoko.org/trac [4] http://eaves.ca/2006/12/17/community-management-as-open-sources-core-competency/ [5] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/FDOM_-_a_Fat_and_Dirty_OM_based_distribution [6] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributions -- | risto h. kurppa | risto at kurppa dot fi | http://risto.kurppa.fi _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community