[Gta04-owner] +++ Jolla is capsizing +++ GTA04 software maintenance secured by big donation +++

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,
maybe you already did read about Jolla Oy (developer of Sailfish OS and Tablets - continuing maemo, mer, N9):

	https://www.reddit.com/r/Jolla/comments/3teqdr/finnish_newspaper_reports_jolla_in_financial/

And now they have to rapidly leave their office and even problems of getting enough hands for moving equipment:

	https://together.jolla.com/question/122860/in-helsinki-heres-one-way-to-help-jolla-on-2611-office-move/

There was also a recent notice about financial data:

	http://en.finder.fi/Matkapuhelimia+ja+oheistarvikkeita/Jolla+Oy/HELSINKI/economy/2640873

It appears as if they really burnt investor's money (loss is 200% of revenue in 2014!) and didn't find a sustainable business model to finance a headcount of 95 - 125 employees. Looking at these figures I don't wonder why they can't find another investor. It is a very deep black hole for money.

All this is quite unfortunate for us users who want to have independent alternatives to iOS and stock Android.

So I think we should enforce our activities and try not to bloat the organization, so that lack of money becomes an issue.

Here is another fitting citation from Jolla wich describes in short words what a major issue is:

	"Jaakko Roppola ‏@ https://twitter.com/JaakkoRoppola/status/652346837907709952
	How much would you be ready to pay monthly for an independent operating system?
	No adds, no backdoors, no data mining, no 3rd party agenda."

Since we have very similar goals but run on donation basis, I am happy to tell that we have received these days a significant donation [1] to continue software maintenance work. This allows to make steps toward a more feature-complete kernel with less power consumption. And improve Replicant/SHR/QtMoko/QuantumSTEP to make the GTA04 a daily useable device. Here is what the donator wrote where he sees the priorities:

> I think the most pressing issues are:
> 
> - Rock-solid Phone and SMS functionality
> - Power usage in standby (as compare to the 3.7 kernel)
> - Bluetooth w/ car kit
> 
> In that order would best fit my needs...

So a big thank-you-very-much to the donator from within our community!

The current software team at Goldelico consisting of Lukas, Marek and myself will take this as an obligation to continue our hard work on Letux Kernel, Replicant and other subsystems. If you want to join the team to work as a freelancer/subcontractor, please contact me.

BR,
Nikolaus

[1]: http://shop.goldelico.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%3ADonation