A Pandora Was Born !

[Chero]

Have you ever thought about how nuts the pandora project really is ?
Just think about it. A community, not a huge factory or giant multi-national, but a community has an idea, a few guys go ahead and decide to do it : create the ultimate gaming device !
They must be crazy !!

Then paypal is giving them a hard time, they continued.
Then the banks are giving them a hard time, they continued.
Then factories are giving them a hard time, they continued.

Then the community, who should support them no matter what, starts giving them a hard time.
Wining about cases, wining about timelines, wining about communication-skills, wining about screen protectors for shipping the beast, wining about ...
But they continued !

These guys have been climbing the highest mountains and been swimming the deepest seas, but they never gave up !
But they continued and still continue !

They hardly sleep, work day and night, and they will never surrender !

There is no one on earth that has done such thing before them and I doubt there will ever be something like this in the future !
They must be NUTS ! And I like it !

I'm sure there have been quite a lot of days and night when they thought : "Man, what am I doing, I must be crazy !" and they wanted to give up. But they didn't, they just didn't.
I'm sure there were times they thought :"Just f**k off you all, i'm all fed up with all your wining about details !" but they didn't give up.

And what are they doing it for ?
For the profit ? No, they won't earn a single Euro on this batch, they will be in debts after this batch.
Maybe the next batch will be break even, maybe they will have to wait until after the third batch (if there are customers enough, what they just don't know)
So why ?
To create an ultimate device !
For us !
For you, who is sitting back and enjoying the ride !
For you, who is giving them a hard time and wining about whatever !
They must be really crazy ! And I like it !!

So Pandora-team, when you have time to read this, just realize there are more people out here supporting you and appreciating what you are doing then people wining, you just don't hear us to often.
That's why I created this thread !

Congrats to the team (hardware-guys, software-guys, shipping-guys (and girls I guess), and all those I forgot) !
You made it ! The Pandora is alive !
And I like it !

 

[Sofox]

I am in full agreement with Chero.
Everything he said, just imagine it coming from my post too.

 

[michie4life]

This is very emotional...

Lol, So true!

 

[bustaballs]

I wonder if he likes it.

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Well said! I like it !

Now shorten/change some of the sentences and make it into a song

 

[SomeGuy99]

Sorry if this posts comes across as cynical, I just like to provide a bit of balance where I can.

The Pandora project is currently in a grass-roots stage, but that's not to say it'll always be that way. A lot of things can change over years or decades.

If you look at any major success story in the world, you can see how small it started.

Tesco was just one green grocer. Apple was two hippies building computers in their garage... but if you say Apple or Steve Jobs to people now, people think 'Mega Corporation' 'Control' 'Power'. If you mention the name Tesco (kind of the British Wall Mart) to a greengrocer today, or a farmer, they might just look at you with a depressed look on their face.

Based on Craig's comments in the past, he has his targets set on Apple and Steve Jobs. Maybe that seems inconsequential now, but ten or twenty years down the line...? Ambition isn't a bad thing, and it can take you to amazing places when you have determination and tenacity - something the Pandora team have buckets of.

Having been part of this community since the Pandora was called 'The Craiginator' I've changed my stance on what makes this project special and unique. Is it us? Is it our involvement and input? No, I don't think so. I think the special achievement here is that a bunch of guys built a commercial-grade, high-quality handheld almost entirely over the internet. That seems pretty unique to me, and something history will probably recognise over all of us - history will remember Craig, Ed, Mweston, Fatih, DaveC etc. but none of us.

The second thing I think will be remembered is the Pandora as part of an anti-consumerist, engineer-led electronics force. By that, I mean the machine is directly opposed in philosophy to a plethora of mobile phones, media players, handheld game consoles and gadgets. It bears more in common with classic computers from the 1980's like the Amiga than an Iphone. The buisness model is based entirely on hardware profit and leaves the users and developers free to use the platform as they wish... this is becoming increasingly rare in a world where money is generated from other sources, and control over the platform becomes a requirement.

The Pandora is engineer led, and focuses on power users. That's also increasingly rare in a world of commodity hardware designed to be used by as many people as possible. We've ended up in landscape where devices are bland and lack character, and manufacturer control needs to be fought against in the form of hacking to make using them interesting to many people.

Just my two pence.

B)

Note: This community is still great and very special to all of us. Also, I don't think Craig will be turning into some megalomaniac tycoon any time soon, but even if he does I'm sure it'll still be entertaining.

 

[Aninhumer]

Sorry if this posts comes across as cynical, I just like to provide a bit of balance where I can.

Most of it seems to be highly optimistic speculation.
I wouldn't exactly call that cynical.

Having been part of this community since the Pandora was called 'The Craiginator' I've changed my stance on what makes this project special and unique. Is it us? Is it our involvement and input? No, I don't think so. I think the special achievement here is that a bunch of guys built a commercial-grade, high-quality handheld almost entirely over the internet. That seems pretty unique to me, and something history will probably recognise over all of us - history will remember Craig, Ed, Mweston, Fatih, DaveC etc. but none of us.

I think the community is exactly what made the GP32 and GP2X special, and it is exactly what will make the Pandora special.
The GP32 as a homebrew device would not even exist without the community.
Neither of them would have been successful without the masses of free software available.
I have not seen as strong a community anywhere else, although granted I haven't looked especially hard.

The counter example I have is the Nokia 770/800/810.
When I got my 770, I expected a fountain of awesome software to pour forth as had done for my GP2X.
It didn't happen. There were a few interesting apps, half a dozen quick ports, and little else.

What is special is the spirit in the gp32x community:
"Hey guys, I'm going to make this awesome app/game/emu/thing" someone says.
"OMG this is going to be so great!!" says everyone else.
And then in two months a short while, it is done.

Sure people will not remember us, but they will remember playing a Dreamcast emulator at 7fps and it still somehow being the best thing ever.

 

[torpor]

I'm reminded of the Access Virus synthesizer days .. those guys went from a little startup to major players in this industry ..

 

[SomeGuy99]

I think the community is exactly what made the GP32 and GP2X special, and it is exactly what will make the Pandora special.

I couldn't agree more. The community is the reason I bought a Pandora in the first place. I consider it second to none!

But I guess in the long run, when the history of the Pandora is compiled, we might not feature in it.

I wonder if a retro Pandora scene will exist in say 20 years time? You like, like the C64 and Amiga have.

 

[Aninhumer]

But I guess in the long run, when the history of the Pandora is compiled, we might not feature in it.

It would be pretty hard to talk about the Pandora without talking about the apps, and it would be pretty hard to talk about the apps without talking about the devs.
The OpenPandora team know perfectly well they owe a great deal of their success to the community, they have said so in the past, and I think they'll keep saying it.

 

[SomeGuy99]

But I guess in the long run, when the history of the Pandora is compiled, we might not feature in it.

It would be pretty hard to talk about the Pandora without talking about the apps, and it would be pretty hard to talk about the apps without talking about the devs.
The OpenPandora team know perfectly well they owe a great deal of their success to the community, they have said so in the past, and I think they'll keep saying it.

I have no doubt they will!

 

[bce23w]

Based on Craig's comments in the past, he has his targets set on Apple and Steve Jobs.

That is the best news I've had all week. Great minds (ie him and me) think alike, apparently.

That other stuff you said was cool too. As far as the place of the community in history, I think it's likely that from our churning primordial froth will eventually rise people whose names and accomplishments do earn a place in the books. Like, for example, the people that you (and I) hope will follow in OP's footsteps and start making more all-purpose free-as-in-freedom electronic products.

Though, if by community, you mean us here on the forum right now, then I definitely think you're right, because at the very least, we're going to be dwarfed by the eventual user pool. <---bright-eyed optimism

 

[SomeGuy99]

Though, if by community, you mean us here on the forum right now, then I definitely think you're right, because at the very least, we're going to be dwarfed by the eventual user pool. <---bright-eyed optimism

Yeah I meant this forum. And I do think the userbase will grow larger than people think. The Pandora has more mainstream appeal than people give it credit for! A lot of power users are crying out for a well specced handheld with the features it has. I must know at least twenty people who showed an interest after telling them about it, not just handheld or Linux nuts.

I think it has the appeal of the old Psion machines crossed with the fun factor of the original Game Boy - and the engineering class, and attention to detail of both! And this community - boths devs and users - has the same magic as the Amiga about it. People loved those machines. How many people actually love their PC? It's just commodity hardware now. There's nothing special about a desktop, laptop or even most netbooks. Everything is the same: bland, safe, lacking in spark or creativity. Even Apple desktops and laptops are the same, just in a different skin. And the Ipad? They didn't even take any risks with that.

Even in poor city in the north of England like the one I live in, I see people everywhere playing on an Iphone. I saw two people on the bus today, for example. The desire for little handheld computers is quite mainstream, and for many, the Pandora will suit them better. People just haven't heard about the Pandora yet. Wait till they hear about it... wait till the devs polish all the software up and iron out the bugs.