On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 6:16 PM, Ben Scott<dragonh...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 4:49 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen<roz...@geekspace.com> > wrote: >> People keep comparing the Openmoko project(s) to the iPhone, >> also--quite unfavourably. Mainly, I think, it's just because the >> iPhone `appeared fully-formed' ... > > Well, in all fairness, there have been a lot of FOSS zealots talking > up the Moko for *years* online, in magazines, press releases, etc. > You keep telling people that something is going to be the best thing > since swap space, and eventually some people might start to listen. > > But yah, overall, I think you're spot-on.
In even more fairness, the same thing happened with Linux. In the early days, it compared poorly to Windows and Mac because it was not yet trying to be those things. Also to Joshua's point, Windows and Mac compared poorly to Linux if you wanted to turn your PC into a UNIX-workstation environment on your PC or a low-cost server. The zealots cried long and hard then about how great Linux was and only now that we have later versions of Ubuntu (and the like) do we have something that actually is better than Windows/Mac in all counts except some proprietary pet-software aside and some drivers by hardware manufacturers that STILL don't get that people are willing to do their driver development for free. I think what it breaks down to is that the zealots get excited about the cool new cutting edge for very different reasons than the general public. In many cases, the geeks are excited about the potential of a project or what it represents philosophically rather than today's practical applications for the general public. Openmoko is again a good example as Sean Moss-Pultz says as much in a FLOSS Weekly netcast (http://twit.tv/floss69). It all boils down to all people not speaking clearly 100% of the time and most of the public not listening with a true intent to understand and therefore run off on wild tangents with irrelevant comparisons based on false assumptions. >From what I know of the project, the FreeRunner has already done surpassed anything an iPhone could dream of being in numerous specialized applications. In fact, the whole concept of specialized applications does not really apply in any closed platform like the iPhone... Well... not when compared to open platforms. =) That is to say, open platforms are arbitrarily easier to apply to specialized problem domains. _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
