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janvlug (3677453) writes
"[As of Saturday, May 31], the OpenPandora case and hardware design files have been released for non-commercial use. The OpenPandora is a hand held Linux computer with gaming controls, but essentially it is an all-purpose computer. The OpenPandora offers the greatest possible degree of software freedom to a vibrant community of users and developers."
Re:Why Non-commercial?
By TheRaven64
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2014-Jun-1 11:35
• Score: 5, Informative
• Thread
The big problem with OpenPandora was their time to market. When they started (2008), the Cortex A8 was pretty new (released 2007, but not much silicon until 2008) and there were few devices you could get with one in, although a few evaluation boards were starting to appear. They promised something in a small mobile form factor running a completely open software stack, which sounded like a fun platform. By the time they actually shipped anything (2010), the Cortex A8 was starting to feel a bit dated and was available in cheap mobile phones running Android. By the time they shipped to more than a token number of people, the A8 was ancient and you could get a dual or quad-core A9 or similar for half the price.
Oh, and their UK operation effectively went bust after taking huge numbers of pre-orders. Both the UK and German companies had the pre-order money in their accounts for 2+ years earning interest before they shipped anything, but at least people who ordered things from the German company eventually got something, even if it was worth a fraction of what they paid for it, as a result of being two years - over an entire generation of the technology - old by the time they got it.
Re:Why Non-commercial?
By drinkypoo
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2014-Jun-1 11:37
• Score: 4, Interesting
• Thread
To be honest, the Pandora actually looked pretty good when it was announced and still fairly passable when it was released. Nowadays it's decidedly unimpressive for it's price, though.
Yes, it looked really good to me, too. However, I stopped short of preordering, because it didn't look credible. I was entirely correct. They never managed to produce enough units in order to build a healthy community.
Re: Change the name now instead of later
By jd2112
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2014-Jun-1 11:53
• Score: 5, Funny
• Thread
Too late. Once Pandora is opened it can never be closed.
Re:Why Non-commercial?
By Adam Colley
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2014-Jun-1 12:39
• Score: 5, Informative
• Thread
Hi
Have a Pandora myself, excellent little machine.
It would have likely been out a lot sooner but there was a financial crash in 2009 (you may have heard something about it) which caused a fair number of delays/problems. Also Paypal decided to mess OpenPandora about to a massive extent, even refunding everyone and blocking purchases at one point!
As if that wasn't enough, the first PCB manufacturer proved to be completely incompetent, shipping faulty boards, at one time bent boards and failing to replace them, give the money back or in fact do anything to put right their screwup, it was when ED moved production to Germany things started running much more smoothly.
It was never supposed to be only a gaming platform, it is a full linux system which fits in your pocket (it can also run other operating systems from SD card, RISC OS for one)
The UK operation suffered from being operated by a liar and a thief, this was unforeseeable. (incidentally, the same person (Craig) has run off with all the icontrolpad 2 Kickstarter money as well it seems after using other peoples money to buy himself 3d printers and so on.)
Yes, the spec isn't as impressive as it was when announced but it's still a useful system.
Incidentally, the Pandora's successor (The Dragonbox Pyra) is in development now and has a far better spec. Also a Craig free system (Yay!), you can read some information about that at http://www.pyra-handheld.com/ if you're interested.
Re:Why Non-commercial?
By ShanghaiBill
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2014-Jun-1 12:45
• Score: 5, Insightful
• Thread
The hardware design is open.
Not by any commonly accepted definition of the word "open". The OSS Foundation, the Open Source Hardware movement, the Open Design movement, OpenCores, and even the FSF, consider "no-commercial-use" restrictions to be disqualifying. What OpenPandora is doing, is trying to get the marketing buzz of calling themselves "open" while restricting use of their IP by anyone than would have a reason for using it.