Open letter for Jolla about communication
Let's start by saying that I'm one of Jolla superfans who's religiously following development of the Sailfish OS.
Jolla, please consider making communication better towards your community. Many of us have already in October 2017 invested in an Xperia X with expectations that most of the original functionalities will be implemented. Now we are still waiting for crucial bug fixes (mobile data is buggy and bluetooth) and some core functionalities seems to be left to rotten (i.e. NFC).
We shouldn't have to dig out such information e.g from meeting memos , like in this case: http://merproject.org/meetings/mer-meeting/2019/mer-meeting.2019-03-07-09.00.log.txt "09:31:53 Jaymzz: I got news that it is not likely for NFC support to happen for the Xperia X, but it's not 100% yet." Now it seems to me that NFC will never come, although it was originally promised. This really should be communicated to us.
In blog post 20th Nov 2018 https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-3-day-celebration/ you have promised a roadmap for us. You say: "We are also working on a public Sailfish 3 roadmap, which we will share with you in our blog as soon as it is ready. So stay tuned!" Well, we are very much staying tuned. But how long do we need to hold and stay tuned? A decade?
You say that: "you learn as you go", blogpost comment by James Noori on February 1, 2019 at 1:08 pm. https://blog.jolla.com/sailfish-x-beta-available-for-xa2/ How can you say that you are learning, while there seems to be annoyed/frustrated/pissed off Xperia X owners all around? I'm not leaving my question into open. I can give an example of good communication by a similar small company like you who is fighting a gigantic software house head-to-head. This is an email for their customers:
Next week, we plan to launch a new Luminar update. We had initially planned to release it on February 12, but our team discovered some critical issues last week and was fixing them over the weekend. As of today, we’ve fixed 3 out of the 4 issues we discovered. But we’ve decided to take a few extra days to fix the remaining issue and double-check everything. So there’s a slight delay with the update, but we aim to deliver it to you by the end of next week. I wanted to send you this personal note and apologize for the delay. The new version of Luminar brings many essential performance improvements. Our team is working hard to deliver a quality result, and I believe you won’t be disappointed. When the new version ships, we’ll send a separate email and share the news via Skylum social channels. We have more updates scheduled for spring.
Now that's some fabulous communication. When Jolla communicates at this level, I can agree that "you learn as you go".
If you would communicate what's going on with development and give us some kind of roadmap, it would silence most of the frustrated and disappointed voices here. It would not only silence me - it would impress me. Even if there were no dates given, just a rough timeline or a prioritization list.
I happened to come across this article where we all can read why Xperia X is going forward so slowly and many functionalities seem to have been forgotten:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/09/the-other-smartphone-business/
"The main focus for the moment is on supporting deployments to ramp up in Russia, he says, emphasizing: “That’s where we have to focus.” (Literally he says “not screwing up” — and with so much at stake you can see why nailing the Russia case is Jolla’s top priority.)"
As I read the article (which by the way gives hope to see Jolla florish in future, you've even hired 10 new people and cash flow seems to be getting a bit wind under the wings) I became happy for your success. I even forgave the lack of NFC and some bug fixes almost completely :-) But simultaneously it made me a bit sad that you can't tell us this yourself - only via an article in the internet - that one needs to stumble upon.
+100 to this one! You speak from my heart!
Raymaen ( 2019-03-14 22:37:36 +0200 )editAmen brother!!
Glitchard ( 2019-03-14 23:03:48 +0200 )editIt's something I also don't entirely understand. Someone investing, let's say, 1 hour a week to write clear and concise updates to the community should not cost Jolla that much and showing some love to us, who stayed with them though good and bad could generate some positive buzz as well.
spag ( 2019-03-14 23:05:04 +0200 )edit@lumen I am afraid that the regional partner Jolla focus on in Russia is indirect the Roskomnadzor No developer here and no one who enjoy at least a bit the freedom of the web, can like that partnership. I would really like some informations from Jolla about that. Is there something to worry about? If so, I will prefer to support Mr. Sundararajan Pichai instead of Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
Glitchard ( 2019-03-14 23:23:34 +0200 )editYeah, nice one, it needs to be said, but honestly, what do you think will come of it?, Jolla is run for profit, we do not generate the profit required to advance things, let alone keep it going - OFF down the corporate gurgler goes SFOS.
Despite my little whinges every now and then, I'm largely happy with my Jolla1, but progress is damn slow, but then with around 50 or so staff members working on it, it is amazing that we have as much as we do.
I don't often give credit to the devs, ploughing away behind the scenes and I realise its way too easy to complain and be wholly negative, especially when in a down mood and your phone is pissing you about....so with that said;
Thanks to all the boys and girls at Jolla, past & present, for what we have so far, as an independent OS; KITOS!! ..........don't mind me, I can barely make a decent patch, let alone do what you guys do. I look at some of the pages of code in my device and my brain turns to spaghetti trying to comprehend it at any level, so yeah, keep it up!!........oh and if you can, say a few words every now and then to let us know you do give a sh*t at some level about 'our' community, thanks!
Spam Hunter ( 2019-03-14 23:55:48 +0200 )edit