You are looking at an old revision of the page FAQ. This revision was created by Nikolaus Schaller.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How is OpenPhoenux pronounced?
A: I do not care what you call it as long as you use it.
Q: What does OpenPhoenux stand for?
A: the acronym stands for
- Open - openness and freedom for the user
- Phoenix - a bird rising from the ashes of the more or less abandoned Openmoko project
- Phone - a smartphone
- Linux - Linux and open source based
Q: Why a new project and not continuing Openmoko?
A: Openmoko was founded by FIC and Openmoko, Inc. They own the trade mark and run the servers but have not contributed significantly since 2009.
Q: I can get a much cheaper and more powerful unit from ${BRAND}!
A: yes, if you are happy with it, please do. We do not try to compete with the big brands, we follow our own, independent, way. This obviously makes the units more expensive, since we neither have the purchasing power nor the number of developers nor big quantities. But we have and give more fun and don't try to overprotect the users. And we are open for questions and suggestions :)
Q: Which projects are covered under the roof of OpenPhoenux?
A: currently, we support GTA01 (Neo 1973), GTA02 (Freerunner), develop GTA04 on the hardware side and we support QtMoko, SHR and Replicant on the software side. Please see the "Project List" tab on this project forge.
Q: Is it Open Source Hardware or Free Hardware?
There is no general answer since OpenPhoenux is the home of multiple projects. Some are open source hardware while others are not as open. All of them are open in a sense that they optimally support free and open source software. For new projects, the project initiators are allowed to define the licenses.
For a definition we suggest to refer to: