Re: [libreplanet-discuss] talos

[Daniel Pocock]

On 12/01/17 15:22, Adam Van Ymeren wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 7:31 AM, Fabián Rodríguez
> <magicfab@member.fsf.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 12/01/17 03:12 AM, Catonano wrote:
>>> Today, january 12, only 454 pledges have been made to the Talos proect
>>> crowdunding campaign page.
>>>
>>> https://www.crowdsupply.com/raptor-computing-systems/talos-secure-workstation
>>>
>>> This is not just a missed target. This is something more, as if there
>>> was a reection of the proect.
>>>
>>> The freedom sensble community is small, yes, but not this small.
>>>
>>> What's going on ?
>>>
>>
>> I'll share my impressions since you asked:
>>
>> * Give $10 or $250 - no options in-between
>> * No T-shirts, no stickers
>> * 6 months shared SSH-access for 250$?
>> * Absurd amount of information to digest in every update (even for me)
>>
>> Setting up a smaller goal, usable rewards and easier-to-digest updates
>> would have helped a lot. Now this only looks like another failed
>> out-of-touch-with-reality project.
>>
>> As it is, I didn't even contribute $10 as I had the distinct impression
>> the project would fail. How can I ever advocate this?
> 
> You were convinced they would fail if they got funding? Or convinced
> they would fail to get their desired funding?
> 
>>
>> I have given / donated generously to many Free software projects and
>> organizations (including the FSF) and have often convinced others to do
>> so (even refering new people to join
>> http://www.fsf.org/associate/referrers/referrerlist ) but honestly Talos
>> was outside of anything I could refer, in any way.
> 
> I really wanted Talos to succeed, but I think the core issue is the
> pieces were just too expensive  $3700 just for a mainboard not
> including the CPU.
> 

They probably need to try and offer similar pricing to other high-end
workstations such as HP Z series.



> They raised over twice as the EOMA68 project which was also freedom
> respecting. (https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop).
> 
> $3.7 million was just too big of a target.
>


Not necessarily - to raise significant sums like that, projects may need
to plan some pitches to larger institutions and not simply rely on
anonymous private donors to spontaneously materialize.

Regards,

Daniel