Plasma-Active pre-installed

[Sebastian Kügler]

Hi Mario,

> Am Freitag 16 Dezember 2011, 11.56:37 schrieb Sebastian Kügler:
> Be first a quote from some Point of View support guy:
> "I have found some video demonstrations of the working tablet and it looks
> very promising." He speaks of course about PA.

Which video? Do keep in mind that there's a big difference between someone 
giving a positive comment about a video, and someone putting the money where 
the mouth is. (This of course means that PoV could just be interested in 
selling a few more devices, without any real support. In any case, it is I 
think a nice opportunity, and we should make sure we use it well.

> > I'd like to know more about it, hoping you can share this information
> > here.
> > My basic concerns are quality and Plasma Active's brand value. When Plasma
> > Active becomes available as a real product, I really want it to be good.
> > There's a bunch of unknowns for me there, which you might be able to clear
> > up, or maybe you haven't thought about that in detail, yet.
> 
> To make one thing clear at first. The above mentioned Point of View device
> will be a device targeted to developers which want to play (and hopefully
> develop for) Plasma Active. It's not intended to be an end user device as I
> think PA is not yet ready for this.

That supports my concerns actually. Shipping it as developer device doesn't 
should not be an excuse for lack of product management, issues around upgrade 
pathes, driver availability, performance, product quality reall. Developers 
might a a lot *more* critical, as they'd be actively investing into the 
platform. If you're just targeting the core PA community, the whole product 
management shebang doesn't seem worth it. 

How are you going to make this distinction between "developer device" and "end 
user product" clear? (Communicayion around these issues is really not easy.) 
How do you weigh the importance of the PA brand compared to your commercial 
interest? I think this is a complicated thing to do. 

> > - Do you create, test and support your own OS images? Is there a process
> > of
> > quality control? How do you escalate functional problems? If a product
> > featuring Plasma Active gets on the market, and these questions haven't
> > been answered, you'll just nuke brand value and make it very hard to
> > succeed with Plasma Active in the future -- for anybody.
> 
> I don't want to see the PA brand nuked as well! I plan to first use or build
> on the image done afaik by Basyskom. And then hopefully contribute back,
> patches probably, and other feedback.

Have you talked to those at basysKom who create and finance the creation of 
this image? Just slapping it onto a device is I think not a good idea, you 
really want buy-in from those that make it possible in the first place. If you 
haven't yet, I suggest to talk to Eva Brucherseifer about your plans, she also 
has very good insight into PA's brand value.

> So I hope to have answered at least some questions. Don't hesitate to ask
> back or further questions.

Cheers,
-- 
sebas

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