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Pebble Watch software is now open source

ericmigi.com

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Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#81

Post by liampulles »

esrauch wrote: post #72
oakhaven wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the drama last week, and after seeing this, I have to side with Rebble. I think they kept the community alive since Eric M cashed out and Fitbit shut it down. As the stars have aligned in recent years, Eric revives Pebble, but if Rebble wouldn't spend all the effort maintaining the app store, his consumer base would be much smaller and it would be much harder to bootstrap again. With Repebble (Core Devices) an…

I'm surprised by this comment; after the drama last week and after seeing this I fully have to side against Rebble. The nature of driving a healthy open source centered ecosystem is that you don't control it under your iron fist: you make good contributions, users _and_ companies are able to use them in all new ways which comply with the licensing terms. And it seems that RePebble is going way beyond the licensing te…

I agree, and Rebble themselves highlight how inflammatory their initial blog post was in their most recent one: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html .

They also backed down from their ludicrous position that they are acting as protectors of other people's watchfaces being downloaded in bulk by a particular company they don't like, whereas they are totally fine with the watchfaces being publicly available for general use. It clearly reads as them trying to clutch control of the one thing they haven't open sourced.

Rebble contributors did have a legitimate gripe, which is that they were lead to develop some additional software under the idea that there would be an agreement at the end of the day. But the Rebble Foundation's response to this was totally immature and irrational.

I agree with what Eric said in his follow up, which is that it is quite concerning to engage in a partnership with an organization which reacts like this as part of a negotiation process. God knows I wouldn't, and it doesn;t surprise me that an alternative solution was found.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#82

Post by pastel8739 »

bredren wrote: post #80

I see a future where FOSS designs for consumer products compete with commercial releases. It will take far more sophisticated micro-manufacturing (like 3d-printing but different tools handling more types of materials). Get the jacket in your exact size with the best materials. Benefit from having incrementally improved from the original (for example under arm vent zipper angle improved). All of it unbranded or custom…

Really? To me it seems hard to believe that small-scale manufacturing could ever meaningfully compete with economies of scale.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#83

Post by liampulles »

jpalawaga wrote: post #73
DrammBA wrote: post #57

(Un)related new post made by rebble today: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html Doesn't address the multiple feed support for the app store, and seems to be calling Eric to action a few times, but it would be too much of a coincidence that these two posts come out so close to one another.

through all of this, it really feels like rebble didn't know what they want (as they say). the future collaboration with eric also sounds like they don't know what they want. they want a third party mediator for... something. Eric was already prepared to pay them per user, which seemed generous to me to begin with. It sounds to me like Rebble (the board + community) should figure out what they want before trying to p…

To me it speaks to the fact that Rebble is not really an organization that is in a position to actually negotiate a long term deal with another company and go through all the trials and tribulations that involves.

That is not a criticism of them nor is it surprising, their responsibility up to now has been to maintain a core set of open source software. A loosely structured control structure is entirely appropriate for that task. But it really does not work when instead of bringing one person representing the company to a negotiation, you have half a dozen people who all have their own thoughts and levels of interest and commitment, some of whom will resort to community action if they don't like something about the process.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#84

Post by Fnoord »

erohead wrote: post #62
ortusdux wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like the look of the Pixel watch 4's approach to this: https://www.ifixit.com/News/113620/the-pixel-watch-4-is-the-...

That is incredibly fantastic feat of engineering!

Exciting, except it runs Android Wear OS by Google instead of a deGoogled OS, and in the comments it says: "Repairability is admirable but only 3 years of security updates isn't near enough"

FTA: "We’re also making sure that our new watches are more repairable than old Pebble watches. The back cover of Pebble Time 2 is screwed in. You can remove the back cover and replace the battery."

So the battery of the Pebble Time 2 (the watch I bought to replace my Fossil HR Collider which replaced my orig. Pebble 2) is user serviceable. I had to open my Pebble 2 because my buttons were falling off. I bought a second hand donor (Pebble OC, since I ditched my broken Pebble OC at some point) and unfortunately I failed to succeed the transplantation of the buttons. Which made me very sad.

I also very much liked you could turn the radios off on the Pebble 2. The HR was useless though. But if I want a good quality of that, I'd go for Garmin or (if I were in the Apple ecosystem) an Apple Watch.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#85

Post by m-p-3 »

devilbunny wrote: post #64
erohead wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Material color is very tough, especially comparing metallic paint to polycarbonate. Lighting matters, reflections matter. We tried our best, but yes, obviously it's not exactly the same.

I don't know if using them would wreck the economics of the matter, but this is exactly why Pantone exists. Perhaps Rivian uses them, and someone there might be willing to share with you the exact Pantone code.

Pantone doesn't work for metal and reflective surfaces, because as the poster above said, reflections and viewing angles have an impact.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#86

Post by micromacrofoot »

oakhaven wrote: post #66
janpio wrote: post #4

Also includes news about a new Appstore, which can probably be seen as a reaction to the stories from last week: We’ve created our own Pebble Appstore feed (appstore-api.repebble.com) and new Developer Dashboard. Our feed (fyi powered by 100% new software) is configured to back up an archive of all apps and faces to Archive.org (backup will gradually complete over the next week). Today, our feed only has a subset of…

I read the drama last week, and after seeing this, I have to side with Rebble. I think they kept the community alive since Eric M cashed out and Fitbit shut it down. As the stars have aligned in recent years, Eric revives Pebble, but if Rebble wouldn't spend all the effort maintaining the app store, his consumer base would be much smaller and it would be much harder to bootstrap again. With Repebble (Core Devices) an…

He gave them a deal that would directly send cash their way, which he didn't have to do at all. The vast majority of founders wouldn't have touched that with a 10 foot pole.

This seems like an overly harsh take.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#87

Post by wvenable »

esrauch wrote: post #72
oakhaven wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the drama last week, and after seeing this, I have to side with Rebble. I think they kept the community alive since Eric M cashed out and Fitbit shut it down. As the stars have aligned in recent years, Eric revives Pebble, but if Rebble wouldn't spend all the effort maintaining the app store, his consumer base would be much smaller and it would be much harder to bootstrap again. With Repebble (Core Devices) an…

I'm surprised by this comment; after the drama last week and after seeing this I fully have to side against Rebble. The nature of driving a healthy open source centered ecosystem is that you don't control it under your iron fist: you make good contributions, users _and_ companies are able to use them in all new ways which comply with the licensing terms. And it seems that RePebble is going way beyond the licensing te…

My impression is that there is a lot more going on than just the facts provided by both sides. Core technologies managed to get Katie Berry to step away from the project[1] and that's extremely significant to me. Her tireless dedication to keeping Pebble alive (and get it open sourced) is how any of this is possible. For her to just up and leave now tells me that Eric and Core are not being as magnanimous and friendly to community as these blogs posts and actions might suggest.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/pebble/comments/1ozzsr9/an_update_o...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/pebble/comments/1p0huk5/pebble_rebb...

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#88

Post by micromacrofoot »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #3

> Yesterday, Pebble watch software was ~95% open source. Today, it’s 100% open source. You can download, compile and run all the software you need to use your Pebble. We just published the source code for the new Pebble mobile app! Except... > Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex: the heart rate sensor on PT2 , Memfa…

They don't really have a choice with those modules

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#89

Post by niwtsol »

liampulles wrote: post #81
esrauch wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised by this comment; after the drama last week and after seeing this I fully have to side against Rebble. The nature of driving a healthy open source centered ecosystem is that you don't control it under your iron fist: you make good contributions, users _and_ companies are able to use them in all new ways which comply with the licensing terms. And it seems that RePebble is going way beyond the licensing te…

I agree, and Rebble themselves highlight how inflammatory their initial blog post was in their most recent one: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html . They also backed down from their ludicrous position that they are acting as protectors of other people's watchfaces being downloaded in bulk by a particular company they don't like, whereas they are totally fine with the watchfaces being publicly…

Well said and exactly my thoughts on it as well. Eric has done more than he really had to, and it is unclear to me what rebble really wants/is positioning for.
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