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The woes continue for Jolla, the Finnish producer of mobile devices and the Sailfish mobile operating system.
Tech.eu reports
The company just announced (PDF) that its latest financing round--which was scheduled to conclude at the end of this month--has been postponed indefinitely.
Jolla says it needs to "adjust its operations accordingly", which means it will temporarily lay off a big part of its staff, starting in December. The Helsinki-based company has also filed for a debt restructuring program in Finland to stay afloat.
[...] Reportedly, half of Jolla's 100 employees will be let go.
[...] Earlier this year, the company split in two, effectively separating (PDF) its software and licensing business from its mobile devices business.
Jolla says its Sailfish OS has "reached commercial maturity" and is ready to be licensed to commercial partners, primarily other device manufacturers.
[...] Antti Saarnio, chairman and co-founder of Jolla, [...] remains convinced that Sailfish OS is "worth fighting for" and believes Jolla can still become a profitable venture, hence the corporate restructuring program.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2015, @07:49PM
What is the point of Sailfish OS? Why would anyone want a Linux-based operating system that's even more proprietary than Android? Sailfish OS doesn't seem to have any benefits to users, with respect to Android.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Sunday November 22 2015, @08:13PM
What is the point of Sailfish OS? Why would anyone want a Linux-based operating system that's even more proprietary than Android? Sailfish OS doesn't seem to have any benefits to users, with respect to Android.
The core OS is open source. Some of the applications are proprietary. You can see which parts in the color coded chart here: https://sailfishos.org/about/ [sailfishos.org]
Sailfish remains mostly open source, so it is not more proprietary than Android.
But Android's big failing is that it is very good at what it does, but it is a massive spyware bundle, for Google, the Manufacturers, the Carriers, and retailers.
Sailfish is supposed to be an alternative to that model. Privacy is the Sailfish principal attraction. How true that will prove to be remains to be seen.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2015, @11:58PM
Yea, after blowing an evening or two trying to get wifi working on a laptop running Linux, the first thing I want to do is go through the pain of getting Linux working on a device that I use 7 x 24 for real work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @06:04AM
Snapchap and facebook is not "real work".
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @06:41AM
SN has truly grown up! We even have the M$ shills now!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday November 22 2015, @07:54PM
The phone, and he elusive tablet are from the Device side, and both look more and more like abandon-ware devices that will never see version two.
The software might live on, but even that is doubtful without some white knight buying them up.
Rumor has it that what is left of Nokia (the pieces not gobbled by Microsoft) might come to the rescue.
(Some suspect Jolla (which means small boat, or maybe lifeboat) might have been a hiding place for Nokia development projects and engineers to survive the Microsoft buyout with the plan of eventual reuniting with the remainder of the Nokia mother-ship. The fact that just about all of of the parts of Nokia that Microsoft did purchase have been shuttered lends more credence that Nokia might have played Microsoft.)
Still it doesn't look good at this point because Jolla still hasn't delivered the tablet, now expected to ship by the end of November, which is something like the third or fourth delay. see https://blog.jolla.com/ [jolla.com]
They've had manufacturing issues with their China tablet supplier. Nothing but sampling sized quantities have been delivered to a few select users. They are running a real risk of defaulting on their Indiegogo crowd funding campaign [indiegogo.com].
Disclaimer: I bought into the Indiegogo campaign for the Tablet, and am a little unnerved by the cascade of delays. I still expect to eventually receive the device, perhaps only to have it abandoned by Jolla.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 22 2015, @08:58PM
This all saddens me. I had high hopes for them. They told a nice story, and they had pretty devices. I hit their site twice, thinking real hard about buying in, but I didn't click the button because there was some nonsense about only shipping to the EU at the time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Sunday November 22 2015, @08:02PM
I was wondering who on the staff would come back after Jolla "temporarily lay off a big part of its staff" especially given how in-demand experienced mobile developers are. If I was in that situation, I'd be more proactive in finding another job.
Maybe Jolla ought to ask Microsoft and Blackberry how well "can run Android applications" has worked out for them. So far, no one has succeeded with this strategy that I know of, including the Nook which capitulated and became a true Android platform.
Yeah, I don't get Jolla, Firefox OS, Tizen (or Tigen or whatever it is) and all the others that are going nowhere. If you can't take AOSP (ASOP? whatever) and make something out of it, how are you going to make a new OS from scratch? The only success so far to-date as an alternative to iOS and Android + Google Play has been Amazon's Kindle ecosystem, where they build on the work Google did, and they're struggling mightily (how's that Fire Phone doing?). Even Microsoft, which used to move the technology industry by fiat decrees, can't get Windows Phone to succeed.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Monday November 23 2015, @06:07AM
Depends on how close knit the people were. I've been in a small, close knit company before as it was downsizing. You hug your peers. You shed tears. Some people curse management, others don't. Many say "When things pick up, we'll see you again"... but no one really believes that. It's just words to help soften the blow because you know that you won't see that particular set of your work friends again. Lies management feeds you. Lies you feed yourself.
But those lies don't tend to be believed by anyone. Especially IT people who have been around the block. I remember a lot of people who said "We'll stay in touch" on my last day and, of course, that didn't happen. But, for a few select people, I have stayed in touch.
(Score: 2) by Celestial on Sunday November 22 2015, @08:45PM
Unfortunately, there's only enough room for two mobile OSs, and Android and iOS are it. With the bad to mediocre reviews of the new flagship Microsoft Lumia 950 smartphone, Windows is done on the mobile side. Blackberry is on its way. Jolla appears to be next, and honestly their decision to not make hardware for the North American market hurt it. It's now at the point where your smart device runs Android or iOS or bust.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 22 2015, @08:56PM
Isn't Blackberry some kind of curated Android now?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Priv [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday November 22 2015, @10:43PM
there's only enough room for two mobile OSs
horseshit! pulling an assertion out of your ass doesn't make it true.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pTamok on Sunday November 22 2015, @09:15PM
Both iOS and Android are developed by American companies.
Sailfish is predominantly open source - as far as I remember, the proprietary bits are the User Interface and, as ever, the modems (or anything that requires a 'binary blob' as firmware).
From my point of view Sailfish provides a much needed other choice in mobile smartphone OSs, and I would very much like it to succeed. I have put my money where my thoughts lie, and a Jolla phone running Sailfish is my main personal phone.
Jolla encourage people to tinker, so it is trivial to get 'developer' access to your phone - it is not locked down.
If you look at the PC landscape, you can choose Windows, iOS (if you buy the hardware from Apple), Linux, BSD, and lots of other possibilities (OS/2, ReactOs, Plan 9...). If you look at smartphones and tablets, there is no popular choice that preserves freedoms in the same way as Linux and BSD on PCs.
I hope Jolla survive, but the omens are not good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2015, @02:15PM
http://blog.replicant.us/2013/11/fairphone/ [replicant.us]
Freedom's the ticket.