Thought I Would Share A Story

[Phawx]

One day after work, the bus I take was unusually crowded. At the last stop one person took a little longer to pay his fare because he had a notebook opened and those few extras seconds cost him a seat. I had enough space for him to sit next to me, but he decided to stand there with the notebook opened while it was performing an operation.

Some time passes and I tell the person that they can sit next to me because there is enough room. So he does. A few seconds go by and I start to talk to him about his notebook with Vista on it and he is preparing to install Fedora on it. So we got into a little discussion about Linux in general..all the different distros and we start talking about Ubuntu.

And for some reason Ubuntu 9.04 shot to my head and out came the question, "Have you seen the OpenPandora yet?" (As if everyone should know about it) He says 'no' and inquires further.

I than proceed to give a five minute infomercial at a blistering rate about all the amazing things the Pandora is capable of, how ARM has a good chance to break into the netbook arena, how OpenPandora is the first of its kind and its absolutely amazing for the price. So, he says, "When does it come out?" and I tell him the story of all the delays and how I anticipate a March release and now I've sold the guy, so he wants to know if he can buy one and I'm like, "Oh no, it's much to late for that, you would have to wait for the second batch which might be June or July if at all."

Than I get a look, quizzically wondering why I bothered telling him this story...and I don't know. It just came out.

That's all. I just found it funny how I met a stranger on the bus and we barely talk about Linux and I felt that was enough to springboard into an advertising campaign for the OpenPandora.

Anyone else sell someone on the Pandora and than crush their dreams by telling them they can't buy it?

 

[Yigguth]

Cool story, bro.

 

[adamorjames]

Hahaha... the Pandora makes you want to tell everyone about it but then when they ask if they can buy one you feel stupid. Nice story.

 

[kloplop321]

well the second batch might come a month after the first batch so maybe march or may.

 

[Frogboy]

Yeah, it'll be much cooler when we can pull that bad boy out and show people.

 

[Alpha2]

I mentioned it to a co worker once and he seemed pretty intersted from a gamer standpoint until I explained that it was still being put together. At that point he figured he'd wait to see it in my hands before he could decide if he wanted one or not. Not because he didnt think it could ever exist but more because he wanted to test drive it for himself before punking down over 300 bucks for one.

At that point I also decided I wasnt going to bring it up to anyone unless I had it in my hands too because it's just kinda depressing that we DONT have it yet when you think about how cool it'd be to have one.

 

[Azure]

Nice story, but you could have mentioned that there are a couple hundred units left in the first batch due to canceled orders, so it would still be possible for him to get in on the first batch.

 

[Hooka]

Think I've done the similar... mind you I've been talking about it since last march
I'm such a nerd...

 

[Pleng]

I have only told some hardcore geeky friends about it. People who I know will be interested.

I will tell others when I actually have one to show off. Else I'd feel a bit stupid.

 

[lvyelion]

Personaly I wouldn't recommend Pandora to anyone who need a computer for their work. All the office applications are quite standardized, and you can't really "type" on a pandora. I wouldn't even consider Pandora a typical product since it's a community based developed device, only aim for very small amount of people at the moment.

For the future Pandora 3, or even Pandora 4, it might grown into a more mainstream thing that more people can use without much of difficulties. But for now, I will only tell people about Pandora who more or less a computer geek.

 

[verm71]

I've been keeping it in my geek friend circles who are Linux-aware, but I think my 3-month-old son's first word will be "Pandora" just from hearing it around the house a lot. (I think my wife is tired of me talking about it all the time.) But given that's a lot of syllables, he might shorten it to "Dora", to which I may mistake it for a request to put in a Dora The Explorer DVD.

I hope he says "Pan", not preceded by "Peter".

 

[Eternalodyssey]

I have told several of my friends about the andora1: and three seem intent on getting one after mine arrives and they get a chance to test drive. We also need to remember that it will take a few weeks if not months for more major software to be developed to show off even more potential for the andora1: But nevertheless, there is serious interest out there in the general public for a device like this, just most people aren't apt to follow the project. They just want to see what they want, purchase it in a store after fiddling with it, and then be happy with a supported product. I think this project is capable of such, but it just takes time for us to get there.

 

[cbox]

I've told a couple coworkers about the Pandora but that was back last year and now they are pretty skeptical and think it's vapour ware. I personally can understand the leaps and hurdles involved in creating a new product from scratch but most other people are used to seeing a PSP and then going down and grabbing one and playing with it. The one coworker who has a PSP when I tell him the Pandora will blow it away and won't penalize you for trying to hack it says, yeah but can you play GTA in 3d? He's a newer gamer who thinks if something isn't photo realistic it's crap.

 

[Phawx]

PSP is photo realistic?

 

[WoD]

Nice story, but you could have mentioned that there are a couple hundred units left in the first batch due to canceled orders, so it would still be possible for him to get in on the first batch.

Okay... that's me refreshing OpenPandora.org and the forums every 3 seconds for the next two months, then.

 

[Azure]

Nice story, but you could have mentioned that there are a couple hundred units left in the first batch due to canceled orders, so it would still be possible for him to get in on the first batch.

Okay... that's me refreshing OpenPandora.org and the forums every 3 seconds for the next two months, then.

I recommend using the Update Scanner Firefox plug-in

 

[typs lik dis]

. . . Or maybe just signing up for the mailing list? If your cellular service provider lets you receive emails via SMS or you have 3G service (damn i am jealous), just sign up the phone and keep Openpandora.org bookmarked; you should be able to order from any decent device at any time once (pre)orders are open again.

 

[CCmachined]

Anyone else sell someone on the Pandora and than crush their dreams by telling them they can't buy it?

Normal consumers don't tolerate multiple failed dates, which is completely reasonable. I'm keeping my mouth shut until i have the device in my hands and there are set dates for the second batch. It kinda sucks for everyone. Not that i like to sound negative but that is the current situation. "Wait. Again."