FC project direction

[david at matthews.pm]

>I often find myself questioning and soul-searching as to whether or
>not I am on the right track with my dumbphone obsession.  Everyone
>else around me prefers smartphones, and even many of the supporters of
>FreeCalypso have said that they would prefer to have a device with the
>capabilities of a handheld Linux computer, rather than just a
>dumbphone.
>

I'll jump in here with my 2 Rand

For pure cell phone functionality, a dumb phone is best. I was a very late adopter. My first phone was a Freerunner, followed by a Galaxy2 with replacement firmware, but I now out of choice use a C139. Writing SMS I find to be a phaf, compared to the galaxy2, but if I did it a lot, I'm sure I would become better at it. Incidentally I was hoping that the Motorola and the Pirelli would have a freecalypso option someday, but since I do not have the skills to contribute I respect a decision to not go there. 

For me the advantage of a smart phone is having to carry only a single device, if you need some other functionality - I sometimes go out with the galaxy as well as the C139 as GPS is useful (at times close to essential) to me. I really don't need email access on the go, or need to be electronically organized; I can understand why people with these needs appreciate a smart phone though.

>So just how good is a Freerunner running QtMoko?  Is it really equal
>or superior to a dumbphone on every metric (no worse in terms of
>usability and battery life,

NO! Battery life is much worse and as a phone it really is not that convenient IMO, particularly since it's much less finger friendly than a modern smartphone.

> Should we then direct our energy
>toward building a device that is as close as possible to a verbatim
>clone of the GTA02?

I think that would guarantee financial ruin. I believe Radek who did most of the QtMoko work gave up in disgust a couple of years ago at still not having a kernel that would run the linux stuff reliably. The small screen (the galaxy is so much better for GPS) and slow data access  would kill it stone dead.

Modern smart phones (way past my old galaxy), disgusting though they are in many respects are seductive in terms of their functionality and even people that would never tolerate a PC running a closed OS are seduced. 

It would be pointless trying to compete here with a calypso chipset, but it can't be only us three or four that would like a simple phone that just works, runs firmware for which source code is available and has no additional spying tricks other than the unavoidable fact of being on a cell phone network.

--
David Matthews
david at matthews.pm