[clug] Vaguely off topic: iPeds and other Android tablets - availability and comparisons to that Apple one

[Angus Gratton]

On Thu, 2010-08-05 at 13:54 +1000, Alex Satrapa wrote: 
> A better way to make the point is to not buy the device at all. It's not open now, the manufacturer is making a token effort to make it "more open", the device is already obsolete, I doubt it will happen.
> 
> Get into HTML5 web app development, learn how to write a good UX using HTML5 for a handheld, and you'll be ready for the first truly open handheld that turns up.
> 
> Buying something in the hope that the manufacturer opens up the hardware spec?  That's kinda like people in the Mac gaming community complaining about the dearth of games, all the while running Windows games on their Mac under Wine/Darwine/VMWare/Parallels, and not realising that they are the problem.
> 
> If you want it to be Free but it's not, don't buy it.
> 

I see your point and I've wondered about this exact issue myself.

Certainly if/when properly open source products like the
AlwaysInnovating Touch Book come to market, there will be an actual open
handheld choice.

However, I think that the current issue is realistically more complex.
It's complicated by the fact that most of the target market do not know
or care about Free Software or GPL compliance in any real sense. So as
an individual I can hold out, and encourage others to do so privately
and publicly, but despite this it's unlikely to make any significant
dent in the products' sales figures.

However, VIA releasing source is almost unprecedented among these kinds
of chipset manufacturers, especially in the lower priced market
segments. If they follow up, as promised, with the video driver source
then it is even more unprecedented.

It's clear that they are committed to OSS on some level, because the
person who is arranging all this is Harald Welte, co-founder of
gpl-violations.org, who is now employed by VIA as OSS liaison.

What I am hoping will happen is that some community development will
eventuate, and some community Android releases will appear for new
versions and offering better use of the hardware. I'm going to do my
best to help a Froyo port come into being. Hopefully then WM8505-based
devices will experience better sales and a longer life in the
marketplace, as a direct result of the manufacturer breaking step from
the default policy of releasing nothing.

It seems to me that this is a positive development, and something that
ultimately has the potential to encourage other chipset manufacturers to
follow suit and change the current culture. It might not be ideal, but
it's the best I can see from a poor set of options at the moment.


- Angus