Wolfmans Howlings comments

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by Harmen

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:58:45 -0700

Carmen: The F3 is a fine phone, really. Just don't expect other people to believe it's not a fake phone.

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by engrish crits me for 2000

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:43:41 -0700

He's reviewing the phone, of course he's going to be pointing out the parts that suck. Oh noes! He said something bad about the FreeRunner!!!

He's giving an accurate picture of the current status of the FreeRunner. Suck it up and stop "whining" about his criticisms. Speaking about hating whiners and wanting them to do something about it. Why don't you write a better review of the phone or contribute to correcting and helping him write a better review instead of ranting in broken engrish?

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by wolfmanjm

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:19:03 -0700

I take offense at being called a whiner :) I do not whine, but you can if you like.

Anyway they added that phrase I believe fairly recently, the next paragraph however says...

"The Neo FreeRunner is a Linux-based touch screen smart phone aimed at general consumer use as well as Linux desktop users and software developers. "

It is aimed at the general consumer, but without a time frame of when that will be.

I was fully aware of the developer status, however from reading the ML I was under the impression the Freerunner was usable as a primary phone out of the box, so were a great many others. However not many people had actually gotten one, so no actual user reviews were available. I did check up on the important features like bluetooth headsets, and the first set of posts in the July Archive made it sound like people were able to use a bluetooth headset, however I have not heard of anyone actually being able to since I got mine.

Anyway I am entitled to my opinion, I have written what I believe is a fairly honest review on my blog and as I said I expected a few people to flame me for it, there are always a few ;)

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by Void

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:51:45 -0700

I'm stuck in between with my opinion:

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner -> "Software available on the phone suitable for advanced users and developers but not the average consumer." It's in the Wiki and it's in other places too if you want to read/see it, so what you do (Wolfman), sounds a like "whining"to me: "OK so I am being harsh here, but the damn thing costs $400! and they imply your average user could use it as a phone" "It is also twice the price of an IPhone" ... "to get a phone that I have to write the software for!"

Jim Colt is completely right, you buy the Hardware the software (however bad it may be) comes free und updates are also free. I don't know the US and i don't care enough about the iphone to look it up, but in Germany the situation is as follows:

Freerunner 330,- Eur (299 each, if you purchase at least 10), no strings attached = 330,- Eur

iphone 3g 170,- Eur + 29,- Eur/Month x 24 (months) = 866,- Eur (worst case, no calls) if you use all of the included 50 minutes calltime: 866 - 0,29 x 50 x 24 = 518,- Eur for the phone and 350,- for 50min phone calls / month (best case, 50min calls / month)

So actually, the Freerunner costs considerably less than an iphone... if you use fair terms of comparison. For more iphone considerations see: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g

However Jim Colt was way out of line with the choice of his wording.

Null & Void

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by Brian

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:19:33 -0700

@jimcolt --whoa, there! You're totally out of line. Wolfman is absolutely right and not whining. With the exception of the wifi issues (the wifi on my FreeRunner is one of the few things that is solid as a rock), Wolfman's commentary is confirmed by the experience of most everyone with a FreeRunner. The public perception of this release was that it was going to be ready for non-developer use and it really isn't. Most apps mostly work most of the time, but the number of quirky bugs and weird user interface choices currently existing are far too high for normal users. I just filed a bug this morning on the calendar explaining how you can't change an entry once it is entered--this makes the calendar completely useless. I also confirmed a bug re landscape mode that makes it completely unusable. The device doesn't include any email application and none exists in the official repositories. It's not clear how to get the device to play video. The (audio) media player won't work without flashing the device to a more recent kernel and rootfs, Etc. Etc. Normal users would not expect this or find it acceptable. I'm doing my part too, trying to improve the documentation and report bugs, but we're at least six months away from having reliable software that takes advantage of most of what the hardware is capable of doing.

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by wolfmanjm

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:20:37 -0700

You are welcome to your opinion of course, but you are wrong :) I am nor bitching or whining. My main complaint is that this version of the phone was advertised as being a commercial release, not as a developers tool like the first version. It is also twice the price of an IPhone, not that I would ever buy an IPhone, but only a developer (like myself) would pay twice the price to get a phone that I have to write the software for! I have every intention of fixing as much as I can, but if you have doe any work on this phone you know that the tools have a very steep learnig curve and the documentation seems always to be out of date, it is not easy to come up to speed and simply fix it.

The WIFI is flaky sorry to contradict you, I know what I am doing and the phone did not go to sleep, actually sleep has not even been implemented yet. What causes the flakiness I have not yet discovered, it may be the same issue the GPS has, I'll try without the SD card. Once I debug it I'll report it. I actually have a real job, so I can't spend all day playing with this thing, as much as I would like to. I felt compelled to write my findings, so others who may not be developers don't buy something they can't use. I suspect in about 6 months the phone will be very usable.

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by jimcolt@gmail.com

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:25:24 -0700

Overriding everything is DON'T B#$%TCH about the software, you bought the hardware and the software is for YOU to make or else don't B@##$CH.

Not sure if the author was using the "minimo" browser. Everything works for me in it. The matchbox keyboard is very usable. The author's net connection probably stopped because his phone went to sleep.

I find the interface easy to use within an hour.
Saving and updating contacts works fine. Dialing from contacts works fine. GPS maps worked fine. I've not tried the blue tooth yet.

All the boot messages don't need to be covered up yet. If you don't like it then put a startup graphic in place!

Geeze I do not like winers. I like people who do something about it rather than wine.

The phone is usable and is a great accomplishment hardware and software wise. The software will get better if YOU do something.

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by Travis K

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:12:56 -0700

Great article. I am in total concert with your initial findings.

I've been working over the past 24 hours on a site that will be focused solely on getting this phone usable and understandable to the average person. If you'd like to contribute, let me know!!

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by radtek

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:21:58 -0700

I'll have it in the next 24 hours. You can bet I'll be asking questions...

I was thinking that the beauty of the situation is that all the new FR's are the same hardware (right?). It's not like there is 100's of different configs to deal with. I'm hoping that with this model, it'll get dialed in functionally real soon. Everyone will have the same problems as far as base functionality of all of the device's aspects.

I'm behind it 100%

"OpenMoko Freerunner first impressions" by Evan

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:23:32 -0700

I have a FreeRunner, and have many of the same impressions. I do think that the software will be improving, and I appreciate the fact that it is open source very much.

But I am doubtful that there are thousands of eyes on the code. I think it would probably be more fair to say... tens maybe? It doesn't seem likely that every single purchaser of a FreeRunner is a skilled software engineer who has the time to debug their phone :/