Re: [libreplanet-discuss] talos

[Daniel Pocock]

On 12/01/17 17:37, Adam Van Ymeren wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 11:20 AM, Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro> wrote:
>>
>>
>> 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.
> 
> I guess that's true.  I wonder if part of the problem is the market
> for high performance workstations like the HP Z you mentioned doesn't
> really overlap with the highly privacy conscious, freedom/privacy
> concerned crowd.
> 

It is a question of requirements

As a developer, a powerful CPU and lots of memory is useful for me as I
can compile large projects more quickly or perform more complicated
database queries in real-time.

For a privacy-conscious user who wants to browse the web with Tor, any
workstation (Talos, HP, or whatever) is overkill.

Regards,

Daniel