I'm planning on doing two reviews today to "catch up". Because I want to have a record of changes, I've decided to do two image reviews today rather than staying one day "behind". Starting tomorrow, this will give me a "full day" to test the Neo before writing my review, which should identify issues that appear after things have been loaded, unloaded, edited, deleted and left to sit for a while. This will help (in the long run) identify issues that build slowly rather than appear immediately.
Today's full review can be found at http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-01-30 In general, I find the 30 January 2008 image to be a backstep and would recommend that unless you feel like doing bug squashing, stay with the 29 Jan 2008 image. As far as I can tell, the kernel hasn't changed because the revisions are the same within the file name. If I need to dig deeper to find changes (i.e. diff the config files to see changes) I can do that, but I'm used to kernel changes getting a revision bump. So unless I'm notified that svrXXXX-rXX might actually contain differently configured kernels I'll assume that same name = same kernel. I opened a single bug today, because incoming missed calls were reported twice by dialer. The other changes I noticed were cosmetic (icons not appearing) so I didn't bother reporting them since this image is actually a day behind already. In the future, even cosmetic bugs will be reported. I noticed a general overall slowness to the 30 Jan 2008 image as well. This was first noticed at boot, which went from just over a minute and a half to over 2 minutes. Once booted, userspace apps loaded slowly (if they loaded at all). I notice that someone added a few tests in the GPS section. I have to warn, I'm a bit cautious here. Firstly, I'm still debating if I am willing to install the GPS driver. I run only Free Software both at work and at home, but I'm not exactly against installing it for the sake of documentation (because the act of installing is still my choice, and one that can be undone). The real killer for this section, then, in my mind is the fact that it's not installed by default. I can improve sound quality, for isntance, by applying a patch, but the fact that that patch HASN"T been applied in the default image is something I consider a fault. Likewise, I consider the fact that NO GPS capability exists in the default image. Furthermore, I'm more concerned with the software in relation to the overall goal of being a consumer device and if the functionality of GPS requires dropping into the CLI, installing a driver manually and then viewing "raw" GPS data then I don't think that is even worth mentioning that it's "Not functional" for anyone but a developer. I'd also like to thank Asheesh Laroia for mirroring the daily snapshots on his personal server so that my reviews can link to them. I hope to also have the 31 Jan 2008 image tested today but if not, I'll have it before tomorrow morning. -Kevin Dean
