The GnuVision Blog

I was creating some LaTeX Beamer slides for a presentation on FreeBird when Mobin and his Google SoC friends came with a box:

What’s inside the magic box? The world’s first freed phone, yes, an OpenMoko based Neo 1973!!

The world’s first “freed” phone, and the first phone whose developers encourage you to take it apart and have fun!

I hear the critics saying: “*hack* a phone - isn’t that stupid - we just want a pretty phone which works”. I shall ask them to go and read Computer Programming for Everybody (CP4E) . And, think a bit!

Today’s kids are growing up with computers - `programming’ as we know it today, will no longer be an `elite’ activity limited to a profession called `programmers’, `scientists’ or `software engineers’. The `computer’ will no longer be a mysterious box to be worshipped but a dear friend `embedded’ in all kinds of appliances. `Programming’ will be more of a basic skill like Reading, Writing and Arithmetic - and everybody will be a `programmer’, to a certain extend (just like all of us are `writers’!).

Now, imagine such an `Information Society - ver 2.0′ full of people who have the power to understand and control the computer (and not just click at pretty icons) surrounded by a sea of devices and software which screams out `change me NOT’, `understand me NOT’, `modify me NOT’, `share me NOT’ … doesn’t that sound stupid?

Look at GNU/Linux, the Free Software movement, and the world’s first freed phone from this perspective, and you will appreciate it better.

Thank you, Mobin and friends, for such a wonderful gift!