OK, so that's the disappointing news ... things have otherwise been fantastic. I have to say that I am personally overwhelmed by the level of support and interest we've been receiving. To all of you who are cheering us on: thank you, thank you, thank you.
You will be able to read about Spark in upcoming issues of both Linux Magazine and Linux Magazine Spain, and I'll be joining the Linux Action Show this weekend to talk about Spark with them. Many other journalists have lined up to help spread the word as well, and that's just fantastic. The ultimate goal is to not only be covered in the F/OSS media but break into the general technology press once shipping starts; we need to spread the word that open computing is coming to mobile and that there is something better available than application buckets for people looking for a tablet.
We've also received numerous inquiries from both ISVs and potential retail partners. The potential for using Spark (and subsequent) devices for vertical applications has not been lost on the savvy. Use in educational settings, for medical imaging applications and in customer service roles have all been raised. We're also speaking with interested parties in both Europe and North America about retail distribution, so hopefully we'll have excellent reach into these markets on launch day.
A quick shout-out to Linux Fest Northwest as well: at the end of April attendees to LFNW will be able to enter a raffle where one of the prizes will be a Spark tablet and, if it works out logistically, will be able to pick up one of a limited number of devices that will be on-site.
Work with service partnerships also is growing and by the time CEBIT rolls around we'll be able to talk about some of those more openly and with greater detail. Added to that, we've been approached by a number of software developers and ISVs who will be getting involved with Plasma Active and various add-ons for it.
If it seems like we're purposefully building a strong network of participation, that isn't accidental. One of our goals with Spark is (excuse the punning ...) to help light entrepreneurial fires and bring companies with a strong desire to work with open devices a place to congregate and work together. Apple has iOS; Google has Android; what about the rest of us .. what do we get to participate in, build on top of and work towards success (whatever that means for us individually) using? Well .. I bet you can guess my answer. ;) And I hope it becomes the answer more and more of us wanting an open future for devices, for ethical or pragmatic reasons (or both), can really around.
For a final bit of great news, I'd like to share a little video that I posted on identi.ca the other day (so some of you have probably already seen it) showing Plasma Active running live on the device:
.. and we still have more performance to yet squeeze out of the device. :)
(Note that many of the UI elements in that video will be slightly different in the shipping device, e.g. sizes of thumbnails, margins around items .. in the video it is using the optimized-for-10"-screens theming, though we'll be shipping with configuration more suitable to the smaller screen size .. thankfully our use of QML and SVG makes that beyond trivial to achieve. :)
10 comments:
"The ultimate goal is to not only be covered in the F/OSS media but break into the general technology press once shipping starts"
uhm: one of the biggest german news magazines:
http://www.stern.de/digital/computer/guenstiges-linux-tablet-fuer-200-euro-1783003.html
most read tech outlet:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/29/2756229/spark-linux-tablet-plasma-active-open-source-revealed
What else do you want in mainstream media?
@physos: yes, it was definitely an amazing start and coverage was waaaaay broader than i expected which is great.
when we get into the "shipping" phase of the product life cycle that kind of reach needs to continue, and hopefully with impactful and accurate messaging that speaks to these audiences as well.
so take the sentence you quoted in context of the paragraph it appears in: so far we've been approached by predominantly f/oss media. this is 100% awesome and hoped-for and something we'll be supporting and taking advantage of (in the good sense of that phrase).
but we also need to deliver a message that speaks to the likes of C't, The Verge, engadget, etc. we need to show up with a media-ready package that goes beyond what we can get away with when working with f/oss media. (they are super understanding / kind / supportive of our efforts, and it's easy to forget how much they let us get away with sometimes :)
so that sentence, in the contexst of that paragraph, is meant to remind myself and others involved that we need to continue to reach out to the broader audiences and not get too satisfied with just f/oss coverage that is and will happen.
Do you have numbers how much RAM is free after boot means when nothing but the Spark including Plasma Active is running?
I ask to have an idea how much room is left for Calligra Active and how much more mem-usage needs to be optimized :)
That's a good question. I'd like to test running mobile Firefox on Spark, and having enough RAM is important.
A couple of comments on the video:
1) Single row horizontal paging of icons has to be the most evil UI design construct ever. Adding more rows makes it substantially better, but you still end up spending a lot of time flicking through screens to get where you want to go. Why Apple of all folks thought that that kind of setup would be a good idea is beyond me.
2) There seemed to be a big discrepancy in performance between the activity switcher & the drop down menu, and the moving of widgets on the activity. That kind of lag on moving widgets is something that the mainstream tech media (The Verge, Engadget, et. al.) will, rightly, savage you for. Hopefully the performance improvements you are referring to will address this some.
3) This thing needs more pixels. 800x480 seems rarther cramped for this kind of a UI layout.
Thanks for you hard work! Oh and is/will there be a facility for direct donations to the project for those that aren't interested in this first generation of the hardware?
I'm personally very disappointed with the specs of the device, but I recognize the challenges of getting 100% free software/hardware out in the market. For that reason, I might get one if they have trouble selling and the price goes down a bit. I wish I could at the very least get a 100% free desktop before I got a tablet, too.
@yokem55: please read the last sentence of the blog entry. it addresses your concerns. there will not be a single row launcher.
@Grant: i'm sorry your "very disappointed", but it is an iterative, one step at a time effort.
i hope in future we'll have the right device for you and i appreciate your support in the meantime.
when is KDE going to be ported to Wayland?
Aaron, very excited about Spark. Will try to spread the word here (I am in Montreal, Canada) once its launched and available here. For distribution, I would recommend to look into partnering with System76 and ZaReason, which are dedicated to selling Linux based systems. For Canada, NCIX might be a good retail/online outlet to consider (they are a general electronics/computer store, but well established and respected in Canada).
This is really exciting, the tablet market needs more project like this one, it would be a bright future if most tablets is as open as a ordinary PC, hope that this project gets successful and spawn many more :)
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