FC project direction

[Nick]

Quoth Spacefalcon the Outlaw: 
> 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, but far superior in capabilities), such
> that building a Calypso-only Free Dumb Phone sans Linux would be a
> waste of time and energy?  Is the Freerunner with QtMoko such an
> epitome of perfection (better than a dumbphone etc) that the *only*
> problem with this option is that the devices are no longer made and
> the old stock has been exhausted?  Should we then direct our energy
> toward building a device that is as close as possible to a verbatim
> clone of the GTA02?

My GTA02 has about 8-12 hours of battery life when in standby. A 20 
minute phone call reduces that very significantly. I'm sure a new 
battery would help, but it was never more than 24 hours of actual 
light usage. This may partly be software, but mostly I think it's 
the inevitability of the smartphone-like design.

QtMoko is a really good UI, but if you want to do just phone stuff 
it's far more annoying than a dumbphone. The touchscreen is fiddly, 
the responsiveness when typing varies, and it has a habit of 
sometimes waking up the screen or not suspending.

So for someone like me who really just wants a free dumbphone, it is 
not very good. It is good enough for me, but I don't use my phone 
much.

I think the vast majority of people who like the idea of a real 
smartphone wouldn't accept less than 3G / 4G nowadays, as what they 
mean by smartphone primarily revolves around a fast mobile internet 
connection.

I know Mychaela you have no interest in 3G / 4G hacking 
(understandably), so I definitely think your free dumbphone idea is 
the best. A free dumbphone would be far more useful than a GTA02, I 
think, because it could be great at what it does, rather than 
essentially an inherantly worse version of a modern smartphone (for 
what most people want from a smartphone).

Also the fact that no free GSM stack exists is a really grave state 
of affairs, and changing that would be wonderful :)

Nick