you're telling me that you seriously doubt that something that takes 40,000 man-hours can be done for free. i've already pointed out to you that something taking about *sixteen million* man-hours of time was merrily distributed for free (both zero-cost and unencumbered).
i know this may beggar belief, but it's true. i freely accept that doesn't mean that all tasks that take a million man-hours can be done with neither cost nor encumbrance to the end-user, but *some clearly can*.
i don't know whether openmoko is such a task, but that might make a more interesting discussion point than "i seriously doubt that such tasks exist", which isn't hugely convincing.
on the subject of QA, you've sunk a boat i wasn't floating. i happily accept that the networks will block _en banc_ devices which are shown to adversely affect network ops. my question is whether there's a strong correlation between devices which aren't tested on the expensive testbeds you describe and devices which adversely affect network ops.
i note also that the GSM hardware in the openmoko is pretty tightly tied-down on the network-facing side. even the wiki merely notes that "we cannot provide many details on the GSM chipset due to very tight NDAs", but they go on to add that "this is not neccessarily (sic) required, since it interfaces using a standard UART serial line with the S3C2410. On that interface, GSM 07.05, GSM 07.10 and other standardized protocols are used.". i'm no GSM protocol expert, and you sound like you might be, so it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts about that model of interaction with the GSM infrastructure.
WCDMA instabilities are sad but not relevant here, since openmoko don't propose to make a WCDMA 'phone.
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i know this may beggar belief, but it's true. i freely accept that doesn't mean that all tasks that take a million man-hours can be done with neither cost nor encumbrance to the end-user, but *some clearly can*.
i don't know whether openmoko is such a task, but that might make a more interesting discussion point than "i seriously doubt that such tasks exist", which isn't hugely convincing.
on the subject of QA, you've sunk a boat i wasn't floating. i happily accept that the networks will block _en banc_ devices which are shown to adversely affect network ops. my question is whether there's a strong correlation between devices which aren't tested on the expensive testbeds you describe and devices which adversely affect network ops.
i note also that the GSM hardware in the openmoko is pretty tightly tied-down on the network-facing side. even the wiki merely notes that "we cannot provide many details on the GSM chipset due to very tight NDAs", but they go on to add that "this is not neccessarily (sic) required, since it interfaces using a standard UART serial line with the S3C2410. On that interface, GSM 07.05, GSM 07.10 and other standardized protocols are used.". i'm no GSM protocol expert, and you sound like you might be, so it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts about that model of interaction with the GSM infrastructure.
WCDMA instabilities are sad but not relevant here, since openmoko don't propose to make a WCDMA 'phone.