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LoneTech · 04-13-2011, 02:55 PM

I have paid, waited, contributed, waited more, and tried to encourage good behaviour. I'm frankly a bit tired of the results so far, which include some rather aimless development, a lot of fumbling, and some direct deception along with a huge amount of neglect. Here's a (slightly edited) copy of a mail I sent a week ago, which received no reply at all. I apologize for any inaccuracies, but simply ignoring everything is not an appropriate response.

Hello. I have purchased a Pocketbook 903 device, and am rather underwhelmed at the progress of support for it.

For starters, I was led to believe that PB were actively trying to encourage development for the device, as some sources were published in the sourceforce project pocketbook-free. I found, however, that these are incomplete and for the most part very old.

We were also promised an updated SDK which is now long overdue, as ABI level changes made this model incompatible with what you had published.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...33#post1404533

I am hereby requesting a copy of ALL the GPL and LGPL code used for the device. In particular, this includes:

Linux kernel sources, INCLUDING any modifications such as the SD slot driver, in source form. The object files in drivers/mmc you have published are inacceptable, and as a clear violation of the GPL license under which you have access to the Linux kernel. This means you have no right to use the kernel itself currently - which all your products rely on.
GNU C library
Busybox
Poppler
DjVuLibre
FBReader
Antiword
MAD
GCC
DirectFB
ATK
Cairo
libenchant
Gtk+
libgcrypt
glib
libglade
gnutls
pango
libsoup
Midori
Links
libgpg-error
djviewer
pdfviewer
Calculator
WebKit (this one may be borderline, as it depends on which portions of webkit have been enabled)

I'd also like an explanation as to why you're not fixing crippling bugs, such as the inability to pan in zoomed documents introduced in 2.0.5. It would also help a little if the release notes were comprehensible - the 2.0.6 notes were not. Another bug that was ignored is that the device causes random corruption when I attempt to write to a microSD card. I and many others have noted these bugs and more on the mobileread forum and other independent webpages.

An apology for the bait and switch tactics used in the dictionary would also be in order. I was not told that there were some sort of trial conditions on the dictionaries included with the device.

In order to be able to fix the bugs you have not, I also request instructions for how to update the kernel and libraries in the device. This depends at the least on the bootloader configuration and there appears to be a GnuPG-based update prevention system in place.

04-13-2011, 02:55 PM	#1
LoneTech Zealot Posts: 135 Karma: 7767 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: PocketBook Pro 903	For lack of a response... I have paid, waited, contributed, waited more, and tried to encourage good behaviour. I'm frankly a bit tired of the results so far, which include some rather aimless development, a lot of fumbling, and some direct deception along with a huge amount of neglect. Here's a (slightly edited) copy of a mail I sent a week ago, which received no reply at all. I apologize for any inaccuracies, but simply ignoring everything is not an appropriate response. Hello. I have purchased a Pocketbook 903 device, and am rather underwhelmed at the progress of support for it. For starters, I was led to believe that PB were actively trying to encourage development for the device, as some sources were published in the sourceforce project pocketbook-free. I found, however, that these are incomplete and for the most part very old. We were also promised an updated SDK which is now long overdue, as ABI level changes made this model incompatible with what you had published. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...33#post1404533 I am hereby requesting a copy of ALL the GPL and LGPL code used for the device. In particular, this includes: Linux kernel sources, INCLUDING any modifications such as the SD slot driver, in source form. The object files in drivers/mmc you have published are inacceptable, and as a clear violation of the GPL license under which you have access to the Linux kernel. This means you have no right to use the kernel itself currently - which all your products rely on. GNU C library Busybox Poppler DjVuLibre FBReader Antiword MAD GCC DirectFB ATK Cairo libenchant Gtk+ libgcrypt glib libglade gnutls pango libsoup Midori Links libgpg-error djviewer pdfviewer Calculator WebKit (this one may be borderline, as it depends on which portions of webkit have been enabled) I'd also like an explanation as to why you're not fixing crippling bugs, such as the inability to pan in zoomed documents introduced in 2.0.5. It would also help a little if the release notes were comprehensible - the 2.0.6 notes were not. Another bug that was ignored is that the device causes random corruption when I attempt to write to a microSD card. I and many others have noted these bugs and more on the mobileread forum and other independent webpages. An apology for the bait and switch tactics used in the dictionary would also be in order. I was not told that there were some sort of trial conditions on the dictionaries included with the device. In order to be able to fix the bugs you have not, I also request instructions for how to update the kernel and libraries in the device. This depends at the least on the bootloader configuration and there appears to be a GnuPG-based update prevention system in place.