OpenMoko was founded by a Taiwanese company and initial development efforts were handled by four people.
| If something doesn't work right in OpenMoko, it's your fault for not fixing it.
Ah, of course. Well, since I am responsible for all of OpenMoko's various problems, I am going to make the executive decision that it is beyond my ability to fix it, and abandon the project altogether.
Your attitude may be correct, but it is not helpful.
There's no reason to expect that someone who is knowledgeable in human interface design, or graphic design, or workflow, should also be capable of patching a system themselves, let alone dealing with the process of submitting patches.
Whether you like it or not, criticism does drive development in user interface in open source projects. The programmers build something, users say, "this sucks" -- but the really helpful users say, "this sucks because ..." -- and then while a handful of people (like you) tell those users to get bent, other programmers go out and fix what the users are complaining about.
No, it isn't. You can just decide to use something else. There's zero buy-in unless the device is already the closest thing to what you want. When it isn't, the open source community supporting that device has a major problem.
And what about hardware issues? The bezel that gets in the way. The slow processor. The pressure sensitive (vs. capacitive) screen.
The idea of a completely open cell phone platform is nice in theory, but based on what I saw in this video they're going to have a hard time getting a critical mass of users/developers to shell out $400 for it and actually improve the thing.
Don't underestimate open-source fans. I know a bunch of guys who just can't wait to get their hands dirty with this phone. I believe OpenMoko will be a success later on.
