Naw, I just wanted to take a shot at using him as my human megaphone for inclusion of POCSAG paging in proposed FOSS phones. Sadly despite him being the famous no-phone guy nobody has taken up that challenge.
We just happen to share a desire for hardware and software which works for us not some corporation or some state's spy agency.

"Single-handedly" is a bit strong. But even if if I accepted that claim, inventing something and dictating to you what to think are very different things. You can think high of a person for one and low for the other and you can do both at the same time. There is no contradiction.

Besides, someone who blindly follows one god and takes every word falling from his holy mouth for a gospel has no right to look down on others who do the same, but happen to choose a different god ("Apple sheeple" comes to mind; not that you said that but many in this forum did).

oh my god ...


There's nothing wrong with clever people who are willing to share their ideas and exlain them to others. There's everything wrong with those who refuse to listen, to learn and who call new information "dictating to you what to think".

I wish the Neo900 release announcement was around the corner so we could quickly change topic and get back to the device.

[Edit] I'm not usually one to call off-topic and be boring about it, I like off-topic almost all the time, it is often very enriching. However here it's just a little fight over some silly argument after someone just mentioned one famous guy's opinion, to illustrate something about the Neo900. He didn't say that guy is his god or mentor, nor that he needs or follows his opinions.

This topic is mainly made of little fights among posters or big fights against the Neo900 project maintainers. While it is true that we are all frustrated and concerned about how relevant will be the device if/when it's out, there is no doubt those guys have been hard at work and have not counted their paid hours (otherwise it would be over already), it doesn't look so fair to just feed the topic with this kind of vibrations. (Now I guess I managed to be really boring, but hey. :>)

I generally agree, but:

How do you know without getting updates from the team? They could have stopped or cut down hours due to lack of money or other factors. Surely there's no cash left after all these years.

So close the thread until there's something to say - would that be an option?

I used to point people here to show that progress was being made whenever someone tried to point out that nothing was happening, but sadly there hasn't been any meaningful work pushed to Git in over 4 months.

In case you guys missed it, there was a news update posted at the beginning of the month. Nothing positive but at least I feel I'm being kept informed.

doubtless the funds are depleted...
years of paychecks and parts expenditures have done that sum in I think.

I think that "working hard" on a project for ....heading to what now? ...soon to come up on 5 years since inception ...I doubt they had the funds to be working daily ...after the first 2-3 years...

Also...
it is a board...for god sakes.
not a full device..or os for that matter.
they aren't building the bloody Louvre.
just the board...
which should have been completed in 2-3 years...
just for the neo to be somewhat viable ...spec wise and function wise...to what existed 2 years ago in the market...
with every passing year...
the relevance of the neo diminishes ...
whether it is completed shipped and in use by all those who invested...
or ..
whether more time passes...
or ..
whether it never gets to the point of shipping.

the longer the wait..
while everyone else has been buying this century's 3 door refrigerators with computerized automatic online shopping and restocking, built in water purifier, ice maker and coffee maker

the more the neo becomes the icebox of the last century ...



Chen ...I think ...is one to look to for movement
...he isn't just "working hard" ...
he is delivering.
he hinted at working on a n810 successor...
that..
I would like to see.

While I agree that there are parts expenditures, I happen to think that paychecks would not have been written without a good reason (such as, necessity for food and roof and water). They have to make sure that funds aren't depleted, that the funds are still here for reaching production stage, for being able to make the devices without asking for a 2k EUR price from buyers - they don't want a crowd of people complaining and refusing to buy the final device.

It does look like they are working on a board, at first glance. But they are also sourcing N900s, from China and the like, to be able to ship full devices to those who either don't have an N900 device to put the board into, or don't wish to risk breaking something while inserting new board into old device.

While Neo900 team isn't working directly on an OS, they are cooperating with Devuan and Fremantle Porting Task Force to move Maemo 5 to the newest Linux kernel and the like.

As for "...spec wise and function wise..."... I am not buying "3 door refrigerators with computerized automatic online shopping and restocking, built in water purifier, ice maker and coffee maker" yet, nor do I think them to be available to the general public. I am thinking on a solar-powered water purifier, but I think it will become a reality for me only way after Neo900 is released. Maybe, I will get around to making a functional solar water purifier around 2020...

As for "the icebox of the last century..." Motorola StarTac could be regarded as such. And yes, I like its form factor, and would very much like to fit modern electronics into it, in such a way that it runs FreeRTOS, supports 1G/2G/3G/4G (not necessarily simultaneously; maybe, with a way to switch between them), and has relatively low power consumption (and high reliability, to the point of being useful in space or underwater).

I am not sure how the lack of visible Git updates relates to the switch from Eagle to KiCad. Also, there is a mention of git issue on the 2017-09-16: "blind man trying to fix a git issue..." KiCad migration was finished long ago.
https://irclog.whitequark.org/neo900/2017-09-16 <-- Git issue

Just take a look at >> [main] 170c67fa86d58a4df4e79fd3156597ad9e464bf0 2017-10-10 13:24 metacollin o [proto_v2_layout] [origin/proto_v2_layout] More layout progress. << Where can it be seen online?

As it was mentioned in September 2017, "The current expectation for v2 prototype layout completion is 5 weeks." No idea how much of that work was done before the metacollin's participation was "cut short due to a family emergency and has been temporarily put on hold"; metacollin is currently MIA. He was missing in October and November, I think, and then working on layout in December again. Quoting DocScrutiniser from 2018-01-23, >> layouter [metacollin] is MIA and I'm really not able to follow up like I should, since 2 months, due to health issues and other RL impact to my life. The final price still is "realistic" (or as unrealistic as it always been, anyway stable at 1k) but we need to source our minimum count of preorders like we always had to, which I hoped to achieve with a kickstarter to kick off after we got a proto_v2 to show off <<

I would start worrying if there were no news by the end of February. And I am guessing that help with Git would be welcome, since Git at Neo900 is apparently borken.

Thank you. Best wishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...

The Droid 4 may be ancient and obsolete, but it's got a better processor, camera and display(*) than the neo900 will have.

(*) Unless you're really attached to resistive displays