Don’t forget that there is also documentation, support, legal issues, updates and commercial parts to this project. New docs need to be written, support staff needs to be trained, contracts with Jolla need to be made, EULAs have to be updated, future support needs to be sustainable (we cant release and then let it be) and then there is the question: how are we going to sell it?
Will we need to change the shop and allow people to choose which OS they want when they buy? Will people be able to download it? How do they pay for it then?
Also setting up a crowdfunding campaign (which we internally discussed) is not a walk in the park, but requires combined team efforts, planning and a lot of time.
I am still not able to say if Fairphone can do this or not. But I do want people to realize here that for a company Fairphones size, it is not easy to start supporting a completely new OS. I can say many want it to happen, here at Fairphone, but we have to pick our battles and set priorities.
Thank you for your honest answer and the detailed information. I can imagine that offering Sailfish OS on Fairphone is a very complex challange.
But if I understand correctly, none of the tasks you mentioned has actually been started since announcing the Jolla / Fairphone collaboration back in February (!). For us customers this means that a supported version of Sailfish OS on Fairphone hardware will most likely not happen, at least not anytime soon.
It seems to replace our Jolla phones from 2013 we are forced to buy cheap Intex hardware from India and smuggle it into EU countries, without warranty, spare parts, or repair service. And all that under the impression that Jolla’s Sailfish OS and Fairphone hardware would be the ideal match technically, and a successful business opportunity for both companies. So sad!
Yes, Jolla could sell the alien dalvik to fairphone customers and registered customers, who paid for aliend dalvik and / or other commercial components like Exchange Activesync or XT9 could install it from Jolla Store.
Just so that everyone knows, I have like an automatic order system, which immediately orders the FP2, the moment Alien Dalvik support is announced, no matter what price.
PS: to be honest with everyone, its only half-automatic
Hi Douwe!
I think, the best solution for the first will be to sell the commercial parts for the FP2-Users without support.
So will be the licence costs covered and you will give the customers that - what they want.
I’m pretty sure, people who want Alien Dalvik on their Sailfish-FP2s (incl. me) don’t need all that things what you mention:
They don’t need support, documentation, and all the other stuff.
Updates: yes, that would be nice, but i think for the Alien Dalvik part its not so critical.
On my Jolla Phone the Alien Dalvik package was updated 2 times (from 2013) without any significant changes.
Give us only this one compiled rpm.package !
Nothing more, nothing less!
Take our money!
Sell much more Fairphones!
But let something happen…
We have a great Phone (FP2)
We have a great OS (Sailfish 2.0)
We have a great Port (Thanks mal-!)
But we don’t have one of the important part of this great OS!
Its like a full puzzle and only one part is missing.
Please Fairphone, do something!
Do something small, we don’t need Microsoft Support, we don’t need 1000 pages documentation, we need only this damn part, which is there on the cheap Intex Phone but is not there on your gr8 FP!
Fairphone can’t release anything commercially without documentation and support because, I guess, people have a right to have these things in the EU…
However, I wonder how different can documentation and support be from other phones? I mean Intex has to provide support for their phone too. Maybe a joint venture wirh Intex is possible where resources are shared in return of a much smaller investment on behalf of Fairphone/Jolla.
Intex has released Aqua Fish for the Indian Market.
I think, they have no documentation at all.
They have other rules there, than we in EU. They can sell anything without support.
They have no official retail channels.
They sell the Intex Aqua Fish over ebay.
They have no official support.
Nobody would answer you, if you write an email to support@intex.in
Well, Jolla / Fairphone can sell the Alien Dalvik as an “Developer Project” which would cover only the licence and management costs.
They can offer minimal support, which is required by the EU rules.
And the user can tick an agreement, when he buy Alien Dalvik in Fairphone shop, that he/she buy an Developer Project, without full support and if he/she has questions he/she can ask them in the forum.
I WOULD OFFER FULL SUPPORT FOR ALL ALIEN DALVIK BUYERS, IF JOLLA OR FAIRPHONE WILL OFFER IT.
If that would be so easy to just let the documentation aside, it would already be done…
When you want to have the Phone sold in Germany with SF OS you need every little sh…t documented and that also translated in german (and other languages of the EU).
A missing declaration of conformity, a missing CE Certificate and a missing manual in a german language!! got my ordered Intex aqua fish back to india (together with my now lost money).
There is no chance you can get something in a european country without all the paperwork.
Not entirely true.
If the software is sold separately and without warranty, there should be no major problems.
For example a lot of crowdfunded projects lack all of the mentioned.
The problem starts, when you want to sell it via official channels.
Edit: Furthermore there is no need for the purchase to be governed by German law, also there is a huge difference between soft- and hardware purchases.
But all the necessary certifications and documents for the hardware are already available. The same is true for the software! We are talking about third-party products that have to be payed for, nothing else.
I am a professional software architect dealing with exactly the same problems every day, but on a much larger scale (enterprise software), here in Germany. When nothing is available half a year after the announcement of collaboration, it seems nothing has been done at all. That’s the statement.
Hi!
Just some naive questions as I am not a developer and don’t know much about this:
How much man-work does it take to update Fairphone Open OS every month?
Are the updates as frequent with Sailfish?
Who would do the updates for Sailfish (would Fairphone have as much work or would they get a clean package easy to update)?
I was just wondering about that because Sailfish would be more expensive at the beginning (Alien Dalvik), but if updates aren’t needed as often and if the updates aren’t as big (= don’t need as many hours for a developer), maybe it would be cheaper in the end (and less dependant from Google’s updates).
Sailfish push Updates every 2-3 month, what is not bad for a young OS.
Fairphone push updates for FairphoneOS (Android GMS) and Fairphone Open (AOSP) every 1-2 month, because of the Android security and stability patches.
Both companies do their jobs good, Fairphone has only 4 Devs (what i know) and with this limited Manpower this is really good.
FP2 is an amazing device, but it is not perfect. With this resources and updates speed it would take some month / years? until it becomes stable enough…
I think, Fairphone build an amazing phone, Jolla made an amaizing OS. That seems logic, that they should do things together…
Being I’m software development myself, I realized that things are always more complicated than they seem: You ask for a official port. Obviously, that has to supported (even if only providing most basic documentation) and developed. Even if there were financial resources, which we don’t know, Fairphone would probably need a Develop to work on the OS if relasing the OS officially. Sailfish is a pretty niche OS, even finding a decent Android or iOS developer is hard these days. And yes, I know Sailfish is Linux based. Still, finding a developer being able to take care of that port professionally will be a challenge on it’s own.
Given there has been no official announcement, I would guess we are really month or even a year away from a final release, if that ever happens.
Add me as one more voice who is still waiting for a Fairphone with officially supported Sailfish OS! When that is released, I will buy one in a heartbeat. I don’t care about any of the other selling points, and I would not buy an Android device in a million years. In the past I’ve had 3 Nokia N900’s, one N9 and one N950. I have had a Jolla 1 since the start, and right now I have a Jolla C and a backup Intex Aqua Fish, but I will be first in line for a Sailfish Fairphone - even if it is built with conflict minerals by starving African child slaves! Alternatively I’ll buy the Finnish PuzzlePhone, but that seems to be a long way off, still…
In any case, am I the only one seeing the hypocrisy in making a supposedly “fair” phone, and then letting it be powered by an OS made by the most evil company in the world - Google?
