[Gta04-owner] Some thoughts about customer attraction

[Mario Barcala]

Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:

> Well, in my view, there are no "new" directions yet. It needs to be discussed
> and based on what the community wants to know, achieve and is interested
> in.
> 
> The original objective of the gta04 project was to get new features into the
> existing GTA02 (Openmoko Freerunner): faster CPU, UMTS and some other
> improvements, and capable to run latest Linux. So it started as a motherboard
> upgrade.

It would be very important for me going towards a manufacturer
surveillance free phone (using free software). GTA04 model, therefore,
has "problems" with Wifi, GPU and GSM/UMTS in this field. Disabling
GPU seems not to be very problematic, but I think disabling wifi means
to avoid using a very valuable functionality. GSM/UMTS modem seems to
be a hard question, because there is not alternative one which include
free software firmware.

So, what I would do, or in a more clear way, what would motivate me
to get a phone/motherboard like this and what would get me ivolved in
this project would be to read in the objectives of the project.

  "We try to get the most manufacturer surveillance free phone"

Which means the same for me that to get the most free software
phone/board, that is, to build a phone/board with as free software as
possible.

And then I would try to replace in sucessive GTA versions as much
"conflictive" components as possible: wifi adapter, GPU firmware
and/or GSM/UMTS modem. If it was not possible to replace all of them
(due to there not exists any better alternative), I'll maintain the
same component and explain that there isn't any better alternative.

As far as I know, currently you cannot guarantee that wifi atapter or
GPU firmware doesn't have malware or backdoors which could get
unauthorized data from the terminal, isn't it? If I understand well
GSM/UMTS seems not to be a problem because you can "limit" access from
it to the system data, but you cannot assure the same for GPU or wifi.

Once a surveillance free phone was done, I would go throw environment
issues, fair conditions, local production, etc.

This is my point of view.

Best regards,

  Mario Barcala

-- 
Mario Barcala
http://www.mario.barcala.name