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Rockbox future strategy

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towerofbabel:
What some of the pessimistic commentators are missing has to do with the free and open source movement. Sure, if your criteria is "convenience," then maybe you won't see the utility of a digital audio player. But what if your criteria is different?

A) The free (as in freedom) hardware / software movements widely support disabled users, as the person above me has discussed in depth. This alone is reason enough to continue support for this project. Since this was already discussed, I won't elaborate here.

B) There is a decent sized community of people who are willing to develop free (as in freedom) hardware / software because they are philosophically opposed to proprietary services.

With respect to point B, there is a growing number of people who dislike being tracked, micro-charged, and locked down by service oriented companies like Apple and Spotify and increasingly Microsoft. As more people discover how much their personal information is worth--and how they have no choice with these "convenience" services but to sign the rights to that information away--people get bent out of shape. I certainly did upon this discovery. Actually reading the terms of service is an eye opener.

For computer operating systems? Enter GNU/Linux distros like Trisquel and Parabola and others. For computer hardware? Enter the EOMA68 standard or the white hat hackers known as Libreboot trying to liberate BIOS from the intel management engine or the AMD trust platform. And besides them, the maker community is getting more sophisticated all of the time.

Sure, maybe carrying a Bluetooth enabled smartphone with Spotify is more "convenient." But guess what? Millions of people around the world don't want to pay a monthly service fee to Apple or Spotify. They don't want to buy smartphones, I mean, even the "cheap" ones required expensive data plans to function. So you pay for the data, you pay for the hardware, but guess what? They serve you ads on the data you pay for! They run trackers--again, on the data you pay for--and vacuum personal data and turn around and sell it for more profit. And the hardware you bought? You're renting it. You don't even own what you buy with these "services." Look at John Deer. Farmers can't even fix the tractors they buy anymore because of DRM. John Deer is forcing them to pay expensive fees and travel for dozens of miles with their broken down tractor to fix what they could have fixed on their own in the field in a day.

We all know that trend isn't reversing any time soon. Holding signs and protesting isn't magically going to give us the power back. It's up to us to do the work.

So what do we have for audio hardware?

We have Matt Keeter's "Bumpy" which is a free (as in freedom) and open source hardware project. The issue with that is that the encoder is out of date, and, in general, the PCB layout / components could use an upgrade for 2017. And, sure, it needs an LCD screen and buttons. But imagine the impact with the free software community (perhaps with a partnership with the free software foundation) if we had a modern music player that was free (as in freedom) and open source.

What do we have for audio software? We have Rockbox.

What does all of this mean? Is it even viable?

Well, go onto the website Crowdsupply and just look at all the funding going towards liberated hardware and software. It's incredible. If we could put together a capable team, we could be on that site and get paid to develop a new music platform.

It could be sold at first but if it wasn't terribly profitable and the developers wanted to get back to their lives, they could, and then the project could go into a sustainable mode until further development was required several years from now. Or maybe a proper github could be setup and the community at large could run the project in a decentralized fashion. A dream? Maybe. But we could make it real with the right team and the right leadership.

Is a digital audio player valuable? Yes because some people like to own the things they buy and guess what? A sandisk sansa clip+ goes for 30 to 40$ on ebay right now. The price will keep rising. Eventually, someday, there won't be anymore left.

The plans would be listed under a GPLv3 license and any maker could get the plans off github, print a small run (1 to 3) with a prototyping service, and do at home surface mounting with a toaster oven. You could make 3 of these things (minimum PCB run for the company Matt Keeter uses to prototype extremely small runs, I believe they're called OSA) and probably, buying extra components even, you're looking at a total manufacturing cost of maybe $100, plus tons learned, for a maker to build three of them. That's not bad, is it? Just go with off the shelf components that are already produced in huge numbers. Right there is your economy of scale. What about a housing? Just use a 3d printer. Lots of cities have these available to the public these days. And if you can't do that because you don't have access to a 3d printer? Well, there's prototyping services that will do a run for you.

It doesn't have to be centralized and it doesn't have to all be done at once either. This could be a hobby for a few devs and people who want to learn how to make things. A contribution here, an update there--bit by bit, piece by piece--that's all it takes. It doesn't have to be hard. It doesn't have to even be crowd sourced. It just needs a few dedicated people who are willing to help.

What if you're not technically talented? Well, you could write manuals. You could give presentations at a local library to spread the word. Be creative. Maybe you could partner with a band where they would release their music on one of the devices, free and open for sharing. Why not? It's up to you and me to make a difference.

One last thing on the rant: for me, I don't see the value of companies like AGPTEK. If the hardware isn't free (as in freedom) and the software isn't free (as in freedom), I don't want anything to do with it. I already hate my existing players because the hardware is proprietary. This doesn't have to stop at digital audio players either. I mean, maybe it would for us, but developers could create a paper printer that is free (as in freedom) and open source where you can re-fill ink yourself. Have you ever been infuriated by a printer that just decides your print cartridge is too old, even though it has ink, and refuses to print? Say no to planned obsolescence. Do something for the environment.

So where do we go from here? Are you still with me? Did I make you mad? If so, I'm not trying to be offensive, I'm trying to be encouraging and positive. There is a way forward because our competitive advantage is the fact that we're not tracking people and we're not proprietary. Proprietary stuff has an end of life. Free and open source stuff does not.

A good place to start is to define requirements. I'm not great at that. But I like what the EOMA68 team is doing, though. There's a whole host of problems to discuss and a requirements definition could take a while to develop. But, hey, why not start now? What do people want out of these devices? Should there be multiple versions? Should the entire project be abandoned?

These are all valid topics for discussion.

I hope I got your brain moving. Let's make the world a better place. If you love music like I do, and if you love freedom, you know there's got to be a better way. Let's find it.

gomezz:

--- Quote ---free (as in freedom)
--- End quote ---
Have to say that repeated use of that phrase totally distracted me from any merits your dissertation may or may not have had.  :(

ljones:
I apologise if I'm posting this in the wrong place. But could a rasberry pi plus a small screen be a possible answer to a "new device that [might possibly one day] run rockbox"?

Examples:
3.5" screen - https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pitft-plus-320x240-2-8-tft-resistive-touchscreen-pi-2-and-model-a-b
4.5" screen - https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pitft-plus-480x320-3-5-tft-touchscreen-for-raspberry-pi-pi-2-and-model-a-b
a case - https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pitft-plus-pibow

All that would need then is rockbox to be compiled (guessing it can be compiled somehow on a linux system as opposed to its own os?). The only question then would be powering this device - a rasberry pi compared to a sansa is going to use a *lot* more power but in theroy maybe just use some sort of USB battery power supply? Prehaps a 18650 "power bank" and then underclock the rasberry pi to increase battery life?

*If* that worked then maybe add things. e.g. an FM Radio. The TDA7000 is an old (but I think still avaliable) FM radio chip though it is only mono. Would require custom circuitry for sure (although it wouldn't be *that* hard to make; a circuit diagram exists -- you could even buy a kit to build an FM radio from maplin electronics (UK) many moons ago with that chip).  No idea if you could control it with a rasberry pi though!

Just a thought.

ljones

saratoga:

--- Quote from: ljones on May 18, 2017, 05:06:44 PM ---I apologise if I'm posting this in the wrong place. But could a rasberry pi plus a small screen be a possible answer to a "new device that [might possibly one day] run rockbox"?

--- End quote ---

A few people have setup rockbox on the Pi in custom made systems.  It is not a great choice for a portable device however.

gomezz:
But portability isn't always needed.  I use my 10" tablet to play music through my hi-fi when at home and I could see me using Rockbox with all its versatility for that in preference to any of the usual apps.

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