The Freerunner wasn't canceled and Openmoko didn't collapse.
Openmoko postponed development of the successor to the Freerunner so they could focus delivering on their promise of the Freerunner as a working phone. They're also working on a "Project B" which is not a phone and is expected to be announced in August.
Check your sources Engadget, the "Openmoko collapse" story was set straight a while ago.
Thanks for the correction. It's hard enough for a small company like Openmoko to thrive, misinformation certainly doesn't help.
As for Koolu (I bought my Freerunner from Koolu) news of a Cupcake release is a bit of a surprise. Koolu's software development seems really insular, at least for open source. For example, their forum requires an account to simply VIEW posts. I think it's great what they're doing, but they'd probably have more help from the community if they kept us up to date more regularly.
I'm still optimistic about Openmoko. They're getting really close with their own distribution of Linux (which is basically the same as GNU/Linux would be on the desktop, only smaller) and we should have working, reliable phones running their platform within a few weeks.
Something that didn't get any press coverage at all (as far as I can tell) is that after Openmoko canceled the GTA03, they started collaborating with community members to design the hardware for their next-gen phone. This is done with the understanding that it could take a long time and not go anywhere, but it's very cool that a company is experimenting with involving community developers in the design of their hardware.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
influenza @ May 30th 2009 2:43PM
The Freerunner wasn't canceled and Openmoko didn't collapse.
Openmoko postponed development of the successor to the Freerunner so they could focus delivering on their promise of the Freerunner as a working phone. They're also working on a "Project B" which is not a phone and is expected to be announced in August.
Check your sources Engadget, the "Openmoko collapse" story was set straight a while ago.
Chris Ziegler @ May 30th 2009 2:46PM
You're absolutely right -- I've reworded. At any rate, it seems like OpenMoko's situation still puts Koolu's project at risk in the long term.
influenza @ May 30th 2009 3:35PM
Thanks for the correction. It's hard enough for a small company like Openmoko to thrive, misinformation certainly doesn't help.
As for Koolu (I bought my Freerunner from Koolu) news of a Cupcake release is a bit of a surprise. Koolu's software development seems really insular, at least for open source. For example, their forum requires an account to simply VIEW posts. I think it's great what they're doing, but they'd probably have more help from the community if they kept us up to date more regularly.
I'm still optimistic about Openmoko. They're getting really close with their own distribution of Linux (which is basically the same as GNU/Linux would be on the desktop, only smaller) and we should have working, reliable phones running their platform within a few weeks.
Something that didn't get any press coverage at all (as far as I can tell) is that after Openmoko canceled the GTA03, they started collaborating with community members to design the hardware for their next-gen phone. This is done with the understanding that it could take a long time and not go anywhere, but it's very cool that a company is experimenting with involving community developers in the design of their hardware.
PEZ @ May 31st 2009 1:05PM
Word, brotha.