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Michael Shiloh wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4AAE7317.50407@gmail.com" type="cite">Openmoko
has departed the cellphone business and no longer makes the FreeRunner,
although you can buy them and there is still very large community
support.
<br>
</blockquote>
Quoth the man who has worked for them and have been burned... :-(<br>
<br>
Actually, that fact matters very little, if you think about it. If
Nokia goes out of business one day after you bought one of their
phones, does that matter to you? For that matter, if Nokia issue a new
model of their phone, priced exactly the same as the previous one, one
day after you bought your phone, does that matter to you (beyond the
"damn" effect, of course). A cell phone is a consumer product. Once you
own it, it's yours. If the Neo Freerunner is a good phone, then the
fact that FIC is no longer contemplating a new version does not really
matter to you.<br>
<br>
Having said that, I have moved off the Freerunner myself (except as a
portable battery powered Linux machine). It had something to do with
the fact that my GSM receiver stopped working, but also with the fact
that it suffers the classic "market pioneer" syndrom - it's not very
good :-(. It is bulky, heavy, has a small screen (with too high a
resolution), and doesn't have a high enough battery life. It's a
wonderful dream, and I still hope someone realizes it. Furthermore, the
FOSS model triumphs again, in that, despite FIC not being "the one" to
produce a completely free phone, the next one to come along and try
will have a better starting position, with much more mature software to
work off of.<br>
<br>
Shachar<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lingnu.com">http://www.lingnu.com</a>
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