Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

I hate that article. It entirely forgets PalmOS. This was PalmOS on the year 2000, a whopping 2 years before the Hiptop. The blackberry pager they quote is just that, a pager, and in no way representative of the state-of-the-art of nascent smartphones back then.

The VIIx had web browsing over cellular data, push-notification mail client, PIM, messaging, and fully programmable in C (& C++). Unlike the Hiptop Java crap which on a much more powerful device was slow as molasses.

The article even goes out of its way to mention that they were the first to do proportional fonts. PalmOS was doing that since '96.

And it is not possible they forgot PalmOS because of its "obscurity": it basically had a _monopoly_ from 1998-2004, the year MS finally overtook them. Despite the fact MS had been burning money ever since '96.

And to be honest, I still think the PalmOS' PIM and workflow was superior to everything we have today. They really did things like counting the number of taps required for the average action. The hiphop, on the other hand, had an almost unusable, "keyboard-first" interface. Think Android 1.0.

The only thing Danger did which PalmOS did not was multitasking. But PocketPC _did_ multitasking in a PDA as early as 1998, almost a full 4 years before the hiphop.

Almost nothing the article asserts "they did first" is true. Palm supported Bluetooth since _2001_ and Bluetooth headsets since _2003_ (not A2DP though) yet they claim they were the first to support headsets "in 2005".

The worst part is that it seems Danger's employees really have this "we were the first at _everything_" mentality deeply ingrained, since I know of another Danger employee who keeps repeating that they at Danger were the first to do a "software MIDI synthesizer". Go figure...

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

This is not my point...
Where is PalmOS now?

Who was first - does not matter.
Better technology - does not matter.
Openness - does not matter.

Worse is better.


P.S. I do not have the way for OP. The most I can do is to raise dead-end awareness. Hope it's better than not.

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

Being the first one makes things alot more complicated, as followers will learn and take huge advantages from your mistake. Avoiding tailwind!

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

Maybe caused by Apple-background?

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

The best OS for such a device? Probably Symbian. Mozilla were boasting about FxOS running on a device with 1Ghz Processor and 128mb of RAM like that was astounding :rolleyes:

Of the current options probably Tizen Lite (if it hasn't been abandoned) with it's plain C API but I doubt Samsung would want to go so cheap.

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

Remember Asha's express browser? The JavaScript actually ran on Nokia's servers and a compressed data stream was then sent to the device for display on the screen. When the network becomes fast enough and wide enough that we're 'always connected' then the phone only needs to be a thin client. Your OS, apps and data could exist on a server and be automatically updated. The device you're carrying wouldn't need as much grunt and so would consume as much power.

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

I've read all pages of this topic. Seems to me that you guys forget the most important thing.

Whatever this new disruption is, it needs to be pleasant to use and bugfree. It doesn't matter if it doesn't do everything, but what it does it must do well. This is where Jolla fails. There is not a single place on the phone which doesn't have a bunch of bugs or glitches or crashes. And that is the real trouble.

We have enough issues already in our lives without needing to mess around with the OS, tweak settings, run a command in a terminal to fix that ugly bug, or reboot my phone because that's the workaround for whichever glitch.

More to the point of what I'd like to see in mobile: a device that gets out of the way. It should do what I want it to do and not the other way around. It should be reliable and likeable. Not something that is an annoyance to use.

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

:eek:

Surely not you, Dave?

Re: Alternative history: What if Jolla never existed?
 

I agree with this.

I bought my Jolla because I thought it was the best hope of us getting a sucessor to the N900 (and not the N9). It's unfortunate that Jolla saw the future of Meego as being closer to the N9 rather the N900. While Harmattan and Sailfish both do a lot things well, there just isn't enough there to differentiate them from what exists in Apple/Google land.

For me, going into 2016, I would (and I think many others would) like to see Sailfish go in this type of direction.

1. Firstly open source the entire project. Right now there is simply nothing to lose. The OS isn't really wanted anyway, but by opening it up completely, we can allow it to be supported and built upon. It should be a lot easier for the community to contribute to the OS than what it is now.
2. Move the OS development back towards a more Maemo type desktop environment. Like someone else said - Maemo was so fcukin' close to being where most users wanted it to be. It still has the hardcore nucleus of support. The only question is - is that support enough?
3. Keep Android support. Yes, I know this is despised by many, but imagine if you had the power of the N900 but also the flexibility to support Android? That is absolutely huge.
4. Jolla's ability to use native Android HW drivers is critical, it's a no brainer to continue to leverage this.
5. Avoid getting into HW. There is no money to be made from hardware due to the commoditized market and let's be honest - the Jolla phone wasn't particularly good. I like the Cyanogenmod perspective on this - let the Chinese cut each others throats trying to make the devices. Focus on getting a tested/certified build for maybe 2-3 popular devices. I would also look at IOT as someone else suggested - Raspberry Pi a perfect place to get Sailfish running on.
6. Consider a new revenue model. Windows 10 for devices is apparently ad-supported. Maybe we could offer Sailfish that was certified on a device (i.e. a Moto G) for free but supported by ads? The second alternative is a subscription based model. Perhaps a yearly payment for the OS and updates? I'd happily pay $10-$20 a year for Sailfish if I could run it on a cheap $80 Moto G.

The only problem in all this is that if Jolla (the company) does go pop - then surely we're back in the same boat as Maemo was (massive chunks of the OS being closed source and lost).