H. Nikolaus Schaller
2016-07-01 06:29:39 UTC
Hi,
after several years of running the OpenPhoenux community, we
thought that it is time to refresh it a little and replace the awkward
name "OpenPhoenux" (it was always difficult to spell and pronounce)
with something new, self-explaining, that your mom understands.
"OpenPhoneux" was originally coined in ca. 2009 as the name of an
initiative, when it became clear that the Openmoko company would stop
to develop a successor of the Openmoko Freerunner. It finally brought
the GTA04 device to life.
Back then, this was a motivating allusion to the situation of building
something new on the remains of Openmoko, but nowadays probably
only some core members of our community are able to understand
this background.
Therefore we discussed in a small circle what the core of Openmoko
and Openphoenux is.
It was easy to find what it is not:
* it is not a 100% fair phone (we don't have the resources to track
components - it is enough challenge to have it working and being produced)
* it is not a 100% open phone (we have not found a feasible solution for
WLAN and GPU)
* it is not a 100% secure phone (we can't do security audits of every
component)
* it is not a cutting edge phone (we do not get the latest and greatest
chips as mainstream manufacturers do)
* it is not a geeks (only) phone (we want everybody to be able to use
it)
But then we found what the common denominator of all Openmoko
activities was and is:
It is a device that allows you to tinker with it, i.e. find out how it works,
to replace software and even hardware components for smaller or
bigger improvements and even repairs. It is designed in a way to enable
such changes instead of stopping you (e.g. by protected boot loaders,
undocumented code etc.).
All this is facilitated by being open (as far as NDAs and other limitations
allow) and using open source technology (e.g. GNU/Linux, Debian).
Here is a definition of what "tinkering" is [1]:
"tinker or tinker around to make small changes to something in order to improve or repair it"
"tinker with: He spends hours tinkering around with car engines."
So we are now happy to tell the world that we are members of
"the Tinkerphone community" :)
There is a new web domain representing this change:
<http://www.tinkerphones.org>
I hope you will agree with us and stay here, contribute and share
your ideas and achievements. And invite new tinkerers to participate.
Happy tinkering,
Nikolaus
PS: it will need your help to update the documentation pages...
[1]: <http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/tinker_1>
after several years of running the OpenPhoenux community, we
thought that it is time to refresh it a little and replace the awkward
name "OpenPhoenux" (it was always difficult to spell and pronounce)
with something new, self-explaining, that your mom understands.
"OpenPhoneux" was originally coined in ca. 2009 as the name of an
initiative, when it became clear that the Openmoko company would stop
to develop a successor of the Openmoko Freerunner. It finally brought
the GTA04 device to life.
Back then, this was a motivating allusion to the situation of building
something new on the remains of Openmoko, but nowadays probably
only some core members of our community are able to understand
this background.
Therefore we discussed in a small circle what the core of Openmoko
and Openphoenux is.
It was easy to find what it is not:
* it is not a 100% fair phone (we don't have the resources to track
components - it is enough challenge to have it working and being produced)
* it is not a 100% open phone (we have not found a feasible solution for
WLAN and GPU)
* it is not a 100% secure phone (we can't do security audits of every
component)
* it is not a cutting edge phone (we do not get the latest and greatest
chips as mainstream manufacturers do)
* it is not a geeks (only) phone (we want everybody to be able to use
it)
But then we found what the common denominator of all Openmoko
activities was and is:
It is a device that allows you to tinker with it, i.e. find out how it works,
to replace software and even hardware components for smaller or
bigger improvements and even repairs. It is designed in a way to enable
such changes instead of stopping you (e.g. by protected boot loaders,
undocumented code etc.).
All this is facilitated by being open (as far as NDAs and other limitations
allow) and using open source technology (e.g. GNU/Linux, Debian).
Here is a definition of what "tinkering" is [1]:
"tinker or tinker around to make small changes to something in order to improve or repair it"
"tinker with: He spends hours tinkering around with car engines."
So we are now happy to tell the world that we are members of
"the Tinkerphone community" :)
There is a new web domain representing this change:
<http://www.tinkerphones.org>
I hope you will agree with us and stay here, contribute and share
your ideas and achievements. And invite new tinkerers to participate.
Happy tinkering,
Nikolaus
PS: it will need your help to update the documentation pages...
[1]: <http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/tinker_1>