From: Fred Maxwell <rockbox_at_anti-spam.org>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 11:46:28 -0500

Nielsen Feltzing wrote:


> SteamShip wrote:
...
> > Why in the hell doesn't Archos get their head out of their asses
> > and put a major link and mention of your site and program?
>
> That's something you would have to ask them... :-)

I can put forth a few reasons why they might not wish to have such a link:

1. They don't want to support Rockbox. They can put ten pages of warnings
about not supporting it, but they'd get phone calls anyway.

2. It could be viewed as an admission that Archos' own firmware is
substandard (it is).

3. If Rockbox ever "breaks" a unit, Archos wants to be able to disavow all
knowledge instead of having to deal with angry customers saying "but you
linked to it!"

Don't get me wrong here. I think that Rockbox is great and it's a major
reason that I bought the Archos unit. That said, I think that Archos has
cost and liability issues to consider.

What Archos should do is distribute the units with Rockbox firmware, perhaps
branded with the Archos brand name, and cooperate with the Rockbox
developers to help make Rockbox even better. I think that Archos is missing
a golden opportunity here. No rational user would consider Archos' firmware
to be superior to Rockbox and the inclusion of the Rockbox firmware would
make the Archos units more desirable at the retail level. No matter how
much we like Rockbox, 99.x% of Archos customers aren't even aware that it
exists -- and that's too bad for Archos, the users, and the Rockbox
development effort.

Regards,
  Fred Maxwell
Received on 2003-12-07