[Freedombox-discuss] Suitability of Globalscale as partner?

[Oliver Le]

Hi John,

   Not sure if you've seen this page on the wiki, but there are some other
suggested hardware platforms listed there:
http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TargetedHardware.  I suppose that doesn't
exactly answer your question about vendors, though.  I am considering
developing on the http://www.pandaboard.org platform (and using their vendor
of Digikey), which will hopefully prove reliable since it seems there is a
developer community around it (thanks to its older sibling platform the
Beagleboard).  Not exactly a plug computer, but I am also considering using
it for some non-Freedom Box related development.

Oliver

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 10:41 AM, John Gilmore <gnu at toad.com> wrote:

> I thought I should perhaps do some development toward building actual
> FreedomBoxes, so I ordered a pair of DreamPlugs from Globalscale
> Technologies.  The website says "DreamPlug - IS HERE!", took my order
> for two, and gave me an email reciept on March 19th.  There is no way
> to track orders on their web site.  I guess I'm used to dealing with
> reliable suppliers like NewEgg.com, who pack the stuff within minutes
> of when you order it, and immediately get it out the door.  When
> nothing had arrived by March 23, I asked their sales team by email.
> They promptly replied:
>
> > We have started to ship DreamPlug(US) orders based on FIFO, your
> > order#113354 will be shipped around next week.  You will receive a
> tracking
> > number by email later.
> >
> > Thank you for your patience
>
> "Around next week" was last week.  I still have seen neither a
> DreamPlug, an emailed tracking number, nor an update on when they'll
> ship it.
>
> This company doesn't look like the sort we want to base our software
> on.  Either they're undercapitalized (e.g. they're taking our payments
> and using the money to buy the parts to build the products - they have
> no inventory) or they don't care much about supporting small
> customers.  We could spend years making great software that runs on
> these boxes, and yet the ordinary joes who want to run it will get
> stuck for weeks dealing with a flaky vendor, give up on us, and lose
> their freedom.
>
> Anyone have other suggestions for hardware vendors?  I'm keeping my
> order in, just to see how ridiculous they get, but I'm looking elsewhere.
>
>        John
>
> _______________________________________________
> Freedombox-discuss mailing list
> Freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/attachments/20110406/3aa1a503/attachment.htm>