Plasma Active lock screen

Plasma Active lock screen - Larger version

One thing that was never really great in Plasma Active was the interaction with power and lock capabilities. We had a power button widget in the panel despite all devices having a power button. The lock screen looked pretty, but it only did locking. A new QML UI for the log out dialog was provided but it never felt quite right to me, though it looks so much nicer on Plasma Desktop compared to what we had previously. (This is a nice example of how the different Plasma workspaces help each other improve.)

Overall, this was something I personally wanted to see improved. So we did it the Plasma way: we started with use cases and worked towards beautiful design. We identified some interesting work flows with tablets used in work environments, such as wanting to lock but not sleep the tablet. Maybe there is a download or some other activity happening on the device which the user does not want to interrupt. Yes, the application can inhibit sleep, but this is not always the case.

Some want to be able to easily shutdown the device, while others just want to hit the hardware power button and have the device go to sleep in a few seconds on its own. (The latter is how most Android powered tablets work.) Each of the use cases was deemed valid. How to cater to them all elegantly?

The picture above is the solution we came to after a few iterations. You still slide the lock up to unlock, no surprise there. You may also notice there are both Sleep and Shutdown sliders. The arrows on the buttons show you which direction to move them. When the device is first locked, the sleep slider starts moving all on its own ... and when it reaches the end it sleeps automatically. To stop it, you just touch the slider.

The sliders prevent accidental triggering, they are self-documenting and it all looks rather nice. As with many of our efforts, this was a team effort. Fania and Thomas provided interface design insight, I worked on the ideas of automatic sleep (and prevention) and did the initial implementation, Marco cleaned it up a bit and provided the beautiful slider artwork, Thomas did user testing to ensure that our theory held up in the real world. Design, implement, improve, test .. it's that full cycle of development that produces great results such as the above.

Some additional notes of possible interest:

• The actual logic is found in the new lockscreen service which Martin spent a lot of time on. We will have this merged for Plasma Workspaces 4.9 into master. 
• You can use this locker in Plasma Desktop or Netbook. Even more fantastic: you can design your own QML lockers! The lock screen QML is not hardcoded into the locker .. it's a runtime configuration item as to which QML to load.
• You can upload your lock screen designs to kde-look.org for others to download and use. Which in turn means we can hook in "Get New Stuff".
• All relevant kiosk controls are respected
• Hibernate (suspend to disk) and rebooting is also supported
• Spark will rely on this lock screen and not have the power button in the panel.

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share like connect artwork

Plasma Active looks so nice in so many of the details, but there is one place that sticks out like sore thumb an which we really haven't been able to get replacement artwork for: those icons in the upper right corner.

The Home icon is nice enough and looks like it belongs. It won't be there on all Plasma Active devices either: on Spark we have a Home hardware key and so will probably be using that exclusively instead of an icon in the panel.

However, the Share, Like and Connect buttons are what we call "developer art". They were three icons chosen nearly at random from the default Oxygen icon set and re-purposed for this use case, even though they are not really designed for it at all. Every time I see them, I figure Nuno is off somewhere cursing me. And so he should. ;)

So here's a call to participation for all the artistic people out there: can you create three beautiful icons that look like they belong in the Plasma Active panel and communicate the concepts of Share, Like and Connect?

On IRC, Stecchino pointed me to this example of the apparently(?) universal symbol for share. So there are good starting points for inspiration.

Send your concepts and proposed icons to the Plasma Active development mailing list: active at kde dot org. (Oh, and don't let the term "develpoment" fool you: it's where the programmers, UI designers, artists, packagers and testers all hang out and work.)

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COSCUP 2012

COSCUP is the largest Free software event in Taiwan and based on my experience from attending last year I can certainly say that it is one of the most well organized and vibrant F/OSS events in the world. It's in the same category level as FISL in Brazil or Linux Conf Australia in my mind.

Last year I had a great time meeting members of the local KDE community as well as numerous others involved in a wide variety of Free software projects, companies and communities. One result was that Planet KDE Chinese came into being. It remains very active and full of excellent blog entries. (If you want to know how to use screenshots effectively in blog entries, I recommend a visit ..) I also made a number of new friends and found personal inspiration. I hope a spread a little inspiration in return. :)

(This is the part where you put on some awesome movie music (may I suggest the Tron soundtrack?) crank it up and read on in your best movie trailer narration voice:)

But that was last year. This year, KDE will be at COSCUP again. Only bigger. And better. And with our own speaking track.

Yes, that's right: this year we will have a KDE speaking track: one day, seven presentations. openSUSE, who we are collaborating with on COSCUP presence, will also have a speaking track.

Thanks to KDE e.V., at least two KDE community members from outside of Asia will be able to attend and share the KDE passion. (These are the kinds of key community-building and KDE-spreading events you make possible when you Join The Game.) Jos Poortvliet (openSUSE and KDE community affiliations) as well as Armijn Hemel will be there and are helping organize things.

The real story, however, is a lot closer to COSCUP. We have a great team of four people in Taiwan who are already pouring their time and energy into making this a success. We are working together to draw together the local KDE community as well as reach out across Asia to all our KDE friends and family. This simply would not be possible without them. So to Al, Max, Max and Franklin: thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

We are still working on what the speaking track will look like exactly (topics, speakers, etc) and a call for participation is forthcoming. I hope that we can use this opportunity to the fullest and catalyze the KDE community there and across Asia to whole new heights. :)

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next steps

Between now and March we have a busy schedule for the Spark efforts.

First, I'll be at CEBIT from the 7th-9th (and part of the 6th) where Spark will be demoing at the Xompu booth (Hall 9, A50) as well as the KDE booth (Hall 2, E62). I'll also be volunteering some time at the KDE booth as a community member, so I won't be there only for Spark. Still, I'll be around and available for meetings and hallway discussions about Spark and Make·Play·Live.

I'm also working on logistics for the Americas, which is starting to come together. I will also be in Philadelphia next week for a few days of Spark-related business.

The technology side is similarly busy: we're working towards having the Spark tablet OS images ready to go. This isn't quite as exciting as it sounds as nearly all the code is already publicly available, but it's an important pre-launch step to have the image published.

The current work is divided between kernel scrubbing and interface tweaking. On the UI side we have been working on things like making all the thumbnails and other visuals in Plasma Active adaptively scalable, which QML has actually made remarkably easy. Marco has tied it into the standard KDE settings for icon sizes and changing those settings causes Plasma Active to relayout ... on the fly! We have also been identifying elements slated for Plasma Active 3 that we want to include, such as the Nepomuk-backed "file manager" written in QML, and getting the Add Ons app ready.

We'll also be unveiling the branding for Make·Play·Live and Spark next month. We're working with a great team of two very dedicated and enthusiastic designers here in Zürich who really "get" the philosophy and concepts. I can't wait to share the results with everyone!

While that continues, we'll also be progressively populating the Make·Play·Live website with content covering our goals and philosophy, Spark in detail (including a comprehensive FAQ), information on partner and volume sales plans, documentation of our community interfaces and support and our roadmap.

Combined with the organizational efforts required to make it all come together, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Thanks to everyone who has supported us and helped us get this far. What a beginning its been! What a road it shall be! :)

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Spark pre-orders closed!

The response to the Spark pre-order registration program has been phenomenal. Thousands have registered and we've exchanged hundreds emails with various interested parties answering questions and receiving great feedback and input.

It has been so successful that we've reached our initial production capacity and have closed the pre-order program for now. We hope that you were able to get your registration in! If you did miss out, you can still sign up on the Make·Play·Live website to be notified when Spark becomes available for order in your area.

We did experience some hiccups along the way, including a mail server issue on Sunday that prevented confirmations being sent to some registrants. No registrations were lost, however: we've confirmed they all made it into the system. So even if you didn't get your confirmation email directly after entering your information in the pre-order form you can still look forward to receiving your priority registration order number.

When purchasing goes live, we will be sending out emails in batches to those who pre-ordered in the order that pre-orders were placed. So those who got in earlier will have the opportunity to get theirs first. Also, due to how demand ended up being geographically spread we are in the process of setting up logistics in the United States. We had thought that we could be able to service the Americas from Europe, even if that wasn't optimal, but demand is such that it just doesn't make any sense to do so. This should mean lower costs for orders in the Americas, but it also means that orders may start up to 2 weeks later in the Americas than in Europe as we have had to rearrange logistics all the way back to factory delivery to make this happen. We want the time between purchase and delivery to be roughly the same for everyone, so our delivery delay will be reflected in when ordering starts.

The roll-out plan currently looks like this:

1. Purchasing will begin for European (and some international) customers in March, in order of pre-order registration.
2. Purchasing will then open in North America (and, if logistics work out, South America) a couple weeks later, also in order of pre-order registration.
3. Once pre-order demand has been fulfilled we will open up orders to the general public

The last point is where we have have the most question marks left as we are still working out how quickly we will be able to meet the pre-order demand and then reload our logistics partners with more devices. It's a nice problem to be faced with .. but we know that the spice Sparks must flow!

We are also working a bit more concertedly on building out our regional partner network and defining a volume sales programs (discount levels, complimentary preview devices, etc.) This is likely to only increase pressure on our ability to supply, so we are having to take care here.

For those curious as to how the pre-orders ended up looking like geographically, here is a chart showing where registrations came in from:

There is fantastic demand for open devices, and many people like what they see in both Mer and Plasma Active's futureThe ball is now back in our court to deliver your devices as quickly and efficiently as we can!

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Frameworks 5 community day

This entry is rather belated, but it's been a busy few days for me. :)

On Saturday, we held the first Frameworks 5 community day on IRC. It was organized by Kevin Ottens and he did a great job of making it happen. David Faure, myself and others showed up to help people get up to speed with Frameworks 5 hacking.

It was really nice to see some new faces in the channel along with people who we have already come to know and love. :) Some attendees spent much of their visit getting their development and build environment set up and working. Others go to work on specific tasks in the code, while yet others started in on modularizing libraries that still needed it.

Personally, besides fielding questions in the channel and trying to help Kevin as I could, I worked on libkwindowsystem. This new modular library pulls the KWindowInfo, KWindowSystem (both from libkdeui) and Plasma::WindowEffects classes and their various helpers into a single library. It also resulted in some classes that had been previously exported in libkdeui becoming private: nothing was using them anywhere except by the window system classes!

There is one more class I'd like to target for similar privatization, but it's currently used by KMenuBar for global menu support. However, I believe this is obsoleted by the global menu support in Qt 4.8 and newer and if so then KMenuBar will not need this functionality in Frameworks 5. In turn that will mean another class (and perhaps even 2!) can be pulled from libkdeui as completely unused. It may also mean that KMenuBar itself is no longer needed and can be moved into a deprecation support library for Frameworks 5. We'll see how this shakes out,

In any case, the first Frameworks 5 community day was a real success, even if I was a little busier and more distracted than I wanted to be on the day it was held. Major respect for Kevin on seeing this through! We'll be doing more of these in future and you can hear about them here on our blogs (and hopefully elsewhere, too) as they are scheduled. You can also check out the Frameworks Community wiki pages which have all sorts of great details on tasks, progress and planning.

Getting involved with these days is a great way to help ensure that we get a quality set of libraries together in a reasonable time frame that we can call KDE Frameworks. :)

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on the economics of Spark

A question about Spark that we're hearing fairly often is how the economics behind it will work. This question has come in a few different forms such as requests to explain the price point we settled on or how much of the proceeds will go where. I thought since it has come up a few times instead of answering it in blog comments repeatedly I'd answer it here in a proper blog entry.

The economics around Spark have, as you might expect, been a focus point for us from the very start of project planning. To state the obvious: if the economics weren't workable then the project wouldn't be viable. So that was where we started.

As we explored the economics, we found that it could not be limited to just the flow of money due to initial purchase of hardware by customers. A more comprehensive strategy and overview would be necessary. So we started with what our goals were and ultimately we boiled it all down to this one commonality: find ways to support and stimulate development around open devices driven by Free software. That is Mission #1 from which all other hopes and goals follow.

In practical terms the economics starts with processes of production. That was a simple one for us: all development will be Free and open. Design must be done in the open and participation must not be artificially limited. This is at the heart of the Make·Play·Live philosophy. Of course, one powerful way to stimulate participation is to put proceeds from sales into supporting the development, and that's precisely what we will be doing. As product success permits, we will be employing and/or sponsoring individuals and organizations to work on relevant Free software technologies and support the communities that drive them.

Where these funds will be targeted will depend on what needs doing, what needs supporting the most and how successful the products are in the market. The more success in the market, the more funds we have to direct. The more feedback we get from Spark owners about specific features or problems, the more we'll focus funding on those areas.

This also means keeping communication going with all stakeholders to gauge what is needed. Right now this is being done primarily through one-on-one communication by IRC, phone and email. This won't scale long term, however, so we will need to create something that will while remaining open and keeping network connectivity levels high. This is a topic we've noted down  for further research.

So as you can see, it goes a long ways beyond just directing money around. In fact, there are many other means to stimulate and support development. It all starts with getting devices into people's hands, both developers and end users. This creates a space where people can create and share openly. Money aside, without open devices, we won't have freedom in computing and the cultures of open participation we want and need become less and less feasible.

This is a bigger task with more scope than the Make·Play·Live team can accomplish on our own: we need to bring together networks of like minded, positive thinking companies and communities in new constellations to create things that are beyond our individual reach. In support of this I've been reaching out to various groups directly, and even more have taken the initiative and reached out to us.

By using Spark as the lens through which to make their work available to others, their expertise can be harnessed in a way we could never do with a top-down approach.

A nice example that is far enough along to talk about publicly is a project we're working on with Xompu: they have cloud storage services that integrate very nicely with their Linux system offerings that they would like to make available to Spark owners. That's a service that takes a very specific skill set to pull off and a lot of engineering effort to ensure it works smoothly. If we were to try and do this on our own, I really have no idea if and when we'd be able to offer it. By creating a network of stakeholder level participants in this way, Spark devices will have more capabilities backed by specialists in those areas.

It also means that more people become personally motivated to help make Spark a success, which in turn increases the odds it will be. Now expand that same strategy to the hundreds, if not thousands, of different kinds of services, functions and audiences that exist and it becomes evident that a project centered around open computing for devices becomes as much a social and business networking effort as it does a technical one.

When one examines the dynamics required to make it all "go", the requirement for a commercially viable device market centered around open devices driven by Free software becomes obvious. Due to the open participation model, we can not only be relatively transparent to stakeholders, we don't need to manage them directly; instead we are aligning incentives and encouraging diversity.

Summary: proceeds from Spark will be going back into funding Free software, but we're also looking at the bigger picture beyond just the dollar signs. We believe that the measure of our success lies in our ability to do that.

We feel this is can be a significant reason for people to get involved with, and indeed invest in, Spark: the more work together on this, the more we each get out of it.

But back to direct funding for a moment: Initially our investments will be weighted towards Plasma Active and Mer. We want to grow Make·Play·Live to the point where we can expand those horizons, however. Keep in mind that some of the proceeds will necessarily be re-invested in non-Free-software-development activities such as device design and procurement.

As we expand the product lines (there is good demand for different hardware configurations beyond the first 7" device), those costs rise and the logistics behind them becomes a bit more complex. Details like shipping, storage, insurance, communication and the usual business "G&A" costs all come to bear as well. We have to have a legal entity (a company) to make orders and ship large amounts of product across borders, and that in turn means managing bank accounts, paper work, insurance and various other contracts.

We have so far managed to keep this overhead very low by being creative, organized and planning oriented. We will do our best to keep it that way so that we aren't wasting funds that would be better applied to the technology. This of course all depends on market demand, but there is enough hunger for something like Spark that I believe we can, and indeed will, succeed in this. :)

In tomorrow's blog entry, I'll be sharing what we've learned about that so far thanks to the Spark pre-order registration experience.

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Spark pre-order registration is open!

Spark tablet pre-order registration is now open on the Make Play Live website.

This is a huge and exciting step forward for the project as it starts to bring our logistics together.

By registering now you will help us gauge initial demand so we can serve that demand appropriately. When order processing open, you will receive an email with the order link and a priority order code which will jump your order to the front of the line.

We will also have a little gift waiting for you in the Make Play Live store. :)

Over the next two months we will be unveiling more and more about Make Play Live on the website. Fun things like the Spark logo and branding will be unveiled; but important information will also start to appear, such as how you can get involved as an app developer, how to join our logistics network on the retail side and further details on our long term roadmap. I'll of course keep you all in the loop here on my blog as things move forward.

Head on over to Make Play Live to register your interest now and help us spread the word around the 'net and amongst your friends. Together we can make Spark a terrific success and show the world how great an open device experience can be.

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add-ons app

As a little teaser for some of the functionality we're bringing together for the Spark, here's a screenshot of the Add-Ons App:

The app in the screenshot is populated with dummy data and I took it on my laptop so it using the desktop components, including the big think scrollbars, though on-device it uses the mobile components with more appropriate widgetry for things like the scrollbars.

It has a really nice column layout for browsing while making it easy to flick back and forth with your finger on the tablet. Once connected to the server, it shows the list of top-level categories on the left, such as "Apps", "Wallpapers" or "Books". You can then navigate through the sub-categories using a familiar columns system, which you can flick back and forth through on screen. Most top-level categories won't have many (often just 1) set of sub-categories, but for things like books supporting multiple levels was a requirement. The fluidity of it and some of the nice features like being able to tap on descriptions to get more information really only come to life when you start using it live.

It has integrated search, blends with the overall UI on the device, lets you manage your account in a screen that works just like the Settings app .. it's the kind of app we wanted as tablet users.

The Add-Ons App isn't limited to Spark, either. You can just as easily run it on any system with the KDE Platform installed. If you are a bit more ambitious, you could take the client library or write directly to the JSON API directly and create a completely different front end.

The API is still moving around a little, but once it is stable these "build an add-ons app" kit pieces as well as the Add-Ons App seen above will be made public under the GPL. This means that you can get in there and help make it even better or even make a completely different front end altogether, perhaps for a different type of device.

We will also be releasing the server-side code once we've gotten some experience with it in real-world usage. That means that organizations and individuals could self-host their own add-on infrastructure. (Textbook delivery for schools? In-house sales materials for companies?) We will also be offering custom store content configurations to those who would like that using our hosted installation. Since it isn't a package management system (though it can use them), it's quite agnostic in terms of how it is used and with what.

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a network

Before I get to the positive strides we're making forward with Spark, I want to first apologize for not having the pre-order registration online yet. We've experienced scheduling problems with our logistics partners that have been utterly out of my hands. We had a commitment for it to be live by Tuesday but they are still working on it. We will have it up ASAP, however, and when it does I'll let you all know so that you can register your interest in purchasing a Spark device. Hopefully you'll also help us spread the word once it is live via social media and general word of mouth.

OK, so that's the disappointing news ... things have otherwise been fantastic. I have to say that I am personally overwhelmed by the level of support and interest we've been receiving. To all of you who are cheering us on: thank you, thank you, thank you.

You will be able to read about Spark in upcoming issues of both Linux Magazine and Linux Magazine Spain, and I'll be joining  the Linux Action Show this weekend to talk about Spark with them. Many other journalists have lined up to help spread the word as well, and that's just fantastic. The ultimate goal is to not only be covered in the F/OSS media but break into the general technology press once shipping starts; we need to spread the word that open computing is coming to mobile and that there is something better available than application buckets for people looking for a tablet.

We've also received numerous inquiries from both ISVs and potential retail partners. The potential for using Spark (and subsequent) devices for vertical applications has not been lost on the savvy. Use in educational settings, for medical imaging applications and in customer service roles have all been raised. We're also speaking with interested parties in both Europe and North America about retail distribution, so hopefully we'll have excellent reach into these markets on launch day.

A quick shout-out to Linux Fest Northwest as well: at the end of April attendees to LFNW will be able to enter a raffle where one of the prizes will be a Spark tablet and, if it works out logistically, will be able to pick up one of a limited number of devices that will be on-site.

Work with service partnerships also is growing and by the time CEBIT rolls around we'll be able to talk about some of those more openly and with greater detail. Added to that, we've been approached by a number of software developers and ISVs who will be getting involved with Plasma Active and various add-ons for it.

If it seems like we're purposefully building a strong network of participation, that isn't accidental. One of our goals with Spark is (excuse the punning ...) to help light entrepreneurial fires and bring companies with a strong desire to work with open devices a place to congregate and work together. Apple has iOS; Google has Android; what about the rest of us .. what do we get to participate in, build on top of and work towards success (whatever that means for us individually) using? Well .. I bet you can guess my answer. ;) And I hope it becomes the answer more and more of us wanting an open future for devices, for ethical or pragmatic reasons (or both), can really around.

For a final bit of great news, I'd like to share a little video that I posted on identi.ca the other day (so some of you have probably already seen it) showing Plasma Active running live on the device:

.. and we still have more performance to yet squeeze out of the device. :)

(Note that many of the UI elements in that video will be slightly different in the shipping device, e.g. sizes of thumbnails, margins around items .. in the video it is using the optimized-for-10"-screens theming, though we'll be shipping with configuration more suitable to the smaller screen size .. thankfully our use of QML and SVG makes that beyond trivial to achieve. :)

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Spark answers

I'm going to attempt to answer as many questions about the Spark tablet as possible here. The questions I'll be answering are ones found in comments in my blog, on discussion sites around the Internet and that came in by email or irc. Let the fun begin!

Q: When can I buy one?
A: Pre-order registration will open early next week. This was one piece in the puzzle that was taking a bit longer than I had hoped for to come together, but it's finally slotted in and our distribution partner has got the necessary infrastructure settled. I'll lift the veil off of the pre-order and our distribution strategy when it goes live.

Q: When will Spark start shipping?
A: We expect to start shipping Sparks to you starting in May 2012. We have a lot of pieces to coordinate, and not just technical issues like the OS image and the content add-on store, but things like packaging design, manufacturing, shipping, import, retail channel coordination. So far we're on track, but I don't want to offer a more precise date than "May" until we pull the trigger on production.


Q: Where will it be available?
A: It will be available for order online worldwide. We will be focusing primarily on Europe first, but we will be able ship worldwide from day one. We are looking for retail partners elsewhere in the world: USA and Canada, South America, Australia, etc. to make it easier to procure.



Q: Can we customize the Spark for a specific use case, such as education, industrial control or vertical integration with an application?
A: Yes. The Spark is the perfect device for customization and project-specific integration. It is completely open and can be altered to suit your needs. We believe Spark to be the device most suited to adaptation for vertical applications available today. Depending on order volume, we can even ship Sparks to you with your customizations pre-installed and offer pricing incentives.


Q: Does it have a camera?
A: Yes, it has a 1.3 megapixel webcam on the front.

Q: What is the screen resolution?
A: 800×480

Q: What ports does it sport?
A: It has 2 USB ports, a microSD slot, a 3.5mm audio jack and, of course, power.


Q: Does it have Wifi?
A: Yes, standard 802.11 b/g.

Q: Will it blend?
A: Yes, though this does void the warranty.

Q: Can I get one with built-in 3G and GPS?
A: Not in the first run of devices. We do plan on providing Spark models with 3G (BYOS: Bring your own SIM. ;) and GPS later.

Q: Can I get a Spark with higher-end hardware?
A: We are currently evaluating higher-end hardware options and intend to expand the product line over time. Our requirements are not simple, but we have already started to identify candidate systems. As with 3G, when this happens will be driven by market demand for Spark.

Q: How will software add-ons be delivered?
A: You will be able to use the standard Mer repositories as well as the Open Build Service. However, that's not overly person friendly (unless that person happens to be technically adept and familiar with Linux), so we are providing an add-on store from which people can easily download and install books, applications, desktop widgets and services .. with more to be added with time.

Q: I'm a developer and I'd like to write something for Spark; how can I do that?
A: We recommend QtQuick for applications targeting the Spark. There are also KDE libraries, including the Plasma framework, on the device. However, Spark is happy to support non-Qt apps. I play Battle for Wesnoth on mine. ;) Developers will have access to the add-ons store as well, so getting your apps to Spark users will be dead simple.

Q: So can I sell apps on Spark?
A: Yes, you will be able to sell apps and content to Spark owners. We will be announcing details and opening up developer registration a little closer to the Spark release.


Q: Is the add-on store Free software?
A: Yes, the client will be GPL'd from day 1 and we would love to see other people making products take advantage of that. The store is not Spark, Linux or even software specific. The back-end will be released as open source once we have proven the design and implementation in production circumstances (we have written it twice already, learning a lot of great lessons in the process). Should the projects fall over and die, however, we will release the source code immediately under a permissive F/OSS license.

Q: Can I make video calls with the Spark?
A: We do not expect to have Skype available on the Spark, though it might happen eventually. There is work on nice Plasma Active of Telepathy for this purpose however. It's even on the official Plasma Active 3 tasks list and if it is ready in time we will integrate it into the Spark OS image. Otherwise, video calling software that runs on Linux and builds on ARM should do the trick.

Q: Can I install / boot something on a Spark other than what ships with it?
A: Of course! However, if you break it, you get to keep both pieces. :)


Q: Can I install the OS on a different tablet?
A: Depends. Plasma Active already supports a variety of tablets. We don't have the resources to make it run on every bit of hardware out there, nor can the Spark effort focusing on polishing other device support at the moment. However, there are images for Intel based tablets as well as nVidia Tegra 2 and other ARM tablets available, and you can help by getting involved with the amazing Mer project. It is our hope that Spark will ignite interest in other vendors as well who will pick up the opportunity to increase the diversity of options. Yes, we're looking to grow what would traditionally called competitors. We see them as co-conspirators. ;) Welcome to the world of Open.

Q: Does Spark use the Android kernel?
A: No, for a few reasons ranging from legal to practical. While you can install Android on the device, we're very happy to support the Mer community and overjoyed with the support we've received from them in return.

Q: Can I run Android applications on the Spark tablet?
A: Not currently. (Though, of course, you could decide to install Android on it yourself.) It is theoretically possible to package a Dalvik runtime for Plasma Active and make it available on the Spark. No one has attempted this yet, but it would make for a killer project.


Q: Is the Spark based on the Zenithink C71?
A: Yes. The Internet is a clever bunch indeed. Took people all of about 5 minutes to figure that one out. :)


Q: Does that mean I will be able to install Plasma Active on a C71 device I purchased elsewhere?
A: Yes, that's all in the spirit of openness. However, if you break it, you get to keep both pieces. :) Keep in mind that by purchasing a Spark you will help drive development of Plasma Active, Mer and the push towards an open ARM ecosystem.


Q: There are no GPL compliant sources for the C71, right?
A: We are aware of this, and we've been working on it. It's been one of the hardest things to accomplish in the entire project.


Q: What about other projects also working on GPL compliant devices?
A: Yes, we are aware of such great projects as Rhombus Tech's work with Allwinner on their A10 chipset. (I have an A10 device on my desk right here, actually, and have been evaluating it for a few months.) There is more than just a chipset at play to make a tablet, but it's a critical first step. We're also aware of the Mali open source driver initiative, and take our hats off to Codethink and Luc for that! We are excited to see more and more Free software projects in the ARM hardware world. We've had Linaro for a while, but the concept of making low cost, widely available ARM devices from a variety of sources is only now beginning to take root. We will continue to evaluate all the possible solutions out there as we continue to develop Make·Play·Live devices. We are also committed to work with other projects working towards open devices. It will take all of us to bring openness to the device world and to make great devices for people to own and use on their terms.

I'm sure there are more questions floating about out there .. feel free to (re-)ask them in the comments below and I'll get to it. I hope my next blog entry on this matter will be to announce the pre-order registration URL! :)

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