[SailfishDevel] How do you evaluate the recent events of jolla

[Bob Summerwill]

Well said, Chris!

Like everybody else British of a certain age, I cut my teeth on a BBC Model
B.  A close friend of mine got the very expensive Archimedes (
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Archimedes) which was the first ever
ARM computer, but that was always well out of reach financially for me.
It is amazing how from that niche British educational market, the ARM
design now dominates the world, and has given the mighty Intel a complete
beating.

The giants come and go.  Incumbent status and market share only provide so
much protection against innovation and disruption.

It is easy for us armchair pundits to criticize Jolla's decisions, and try
to predict the outcomes of particular strategy, but ultimately we don't
know what will happen.   Nobody knows.

No company or person is perfect, but Jolla have an open source soul.   You
can see that the actions of their principles in turbulent times.

When the shit hit the fan on MeeGo, the response was Mer, not
capitulation.  Even in the Maemo days, the earlier Mer project had shown
the same determination and morally driven focus.   As Nokia collapsed, the
response was 'we can make our own company and carry on'.   Not which other
big corporation can we go and work for instead?

When the challenges of GNU Lib C versus Bionic and lack of X11 support for
GPUs in SoCs was the barrier, Carsten invented the brilliant Hybris, and
then joined Jolla.

When ST Ericsson died and they had to find a new manufacturer in a hurry
they did.

Despite being a tiny company with few resources, they have stood up tall
and competed as peers with Samsung, with Mozilla, with Canonical.  They
have published roadmaps, and done regular releases, and had the Together
forums, and IRC and community meetings.    They have blogged and tweeted
and been as open as they possibly can.

When they have remained silent or not open sourced everything immediately,
that has been (from what I can see) because they have needed to put their
focus on survival and health of the company for now so that the brave
journey can continue, and so that the final goal we all have can be
reached.    Not because they don't understand community.   Not because they
are open-washing.   Not because they are big corporate bastards who are
just 'doing open source' for selfish or pragmatic reasons, but would close
everything up tomorrow if that was better for their profits.

These guys are the real deal.

Don't be too quick to judge.   We are in the early chapters of a very
interesting story and I for one am fascinated to see how it pans out.
There is a degree of Choose Your Own Adventure here, because all of us can
help Jolla to get to the ending which we want to see.   Pitch in.
Develop.   Bug fix.  Build things on top.   You can't do that with Android,
or Tizen, or iOS, or Windows.

And if you want a fun docudrama to watch then I highly recommend...

Micro Men   -   (Sinclair Vs. Acorn BBC docudrama):
https://youtu.be/hco_Av2DJ8o

Cheers,
Bob Summerwill
Kitsilano Software
On Jul 17, 2015 3:53 AM, "Chris Walker" <
cdw_nokiaqt at the-walker-household.co.uk> wrote:

> On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 00:28:06 +0200
> Peter <leginee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I do not see the benefit of Sailfish without the Jolla Phone. I
> > rather buy the Fair Phone next then this Indian vendor thingy.
> > I am still waiting that Jolla offers something in their shop for the
> > other half.
> > Sounds stupid, but I want to support Jolla. And I buy at a Jolla
> > shop. Not somewhere else ...
> >
> > But now I think the Phone is dead. Sad but true. So maybe I start
> > spending my money at the third party store.
> > Wasted opportunities. Why do Companies always try to make their
> > desicions without their buyers they already have.
> >
> > So in the end. I agree with you Ville Määttä. This seperation Idea is
> > a dumb Idea, from my point of view.
> > Limitation of possibilities. Maybe the Indian Company requested the
> > seperation?
>
> I think you're both overlooking history.
>
> In the past there was a British computer company called Acorn. They
> made the BBC Micro in the 80's. They also started Acorn Risc Machines.
> They spun it off as a separate company as they realised the company
> would be more profitable if it were a separate entity. They also
> changed the name to Advanced Risc Machines. That company today is ARM,
> is profitable and is a multi-billion dollar company while Acorn is no
> more.
>
> The reason they changed the name is that they knew that more companies
> would buy their software designs if it weren't tied to a hardware
> company.
>
> So while the phone hardware side *may* die - I hope it doesn't - I see
> a strong future for the software side.
>
> As for targeting the BRICS countries, that seems a sensible choice. Why
> battle against Android in their own backyard? Americans seem keener on
> something that was invented there.
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