Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

If the hardware vendors can't make business then it's really game over. :) Their current business model is mostly based on licensing. It's a tough market of big investments that require big operations to be profitable. The competition is fierce. And still free software is doing some progress in that area as well, so someone is putting the brain to work with business models considering OSS.

"The aim? To bring to life a shared vision to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform - and to make it available for free."
http://www.symbian.org/about/

http://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qt/blobs/...IEW.COMMERCIAL

http://store.ovi.com/
http://maemo.org/downloads/

Isn't more or less the same for the rest of pre-installed Maemo applications? Doesn't make sense to focus first on increasing the user base by selling more devices and getting a cross-platform API in place? Then when you cross the critical mass of user and developers is when you can have more promising foundations for free software collaboration at an application level.

Yes, we are all learning here about community and about business as well.

If they were commodity you would find several options to choose at the same level or better. This happens in the traditional desktop, but it's still not the case in the mobile. The foundations and the API are all public so there is no hard obstacle for the free software community to commoditize them. As mentioned before, even Nokia is a contributor supporting directly or indirectly projects like Mozilla or Canola.

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

That's not what he said.

There comes a point where the wheels come off an argument train, and then it's time to regroup or park the thing... maybe elsewhere. ;)

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

Was kidding, hence the :D.

:p

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

There's a good blog by Jason Perlow on this topic. Among other things he writes:

"While I have no doubt that many people and a number of large organizations do and can exist on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) alone, the reality is that a lot of enterprises and people are like me have to and want to use both."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=11167

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

QGtkStyle should help with that.

Not that I disagree with your point, its just that Freedesktop has come a long way.

Then realize that by buying a Nokia N900 you support Maemo development which is 99% open source software. Instead of crying about that 1%, why not applaud the 99%?

You're free to run 100% open source Mer or buy another mostly-opensource-smartphone with an OS such as Android or OpenMoko. The former is not a UNIX-like environment with X, whereas the latter does not come with 3G.

I already made example of firmware. Even OpenMoko has proprietary firmware for the GSM whereas the GSM is just embedded hardware; the firmware is software. Same with a BIOS, and there are tons of other examples.

You just insulted tons of C and Python programmers. :D has it ever occured to you that if you don't know e.g. C++ you can learn it or hire someone who knows? So lets say you found a bug in PulseAudio. You pay the developer to fix it. With Microsoft Windows that is not possible, whereas almost everything of Maemo is open source. The most important stuff is core software (usually LGPLed libraries) whereas something like Ovi Maps or Google Maps or Mediaplayer can be replaced. The rest of the software does not depend on such proprietary technology. So something like Mer can simply ship without that and be 100% open source, while proprietary software can be programmed and distributed for Maemo without making the OS less free.

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

Why? In a universe which needs no money, there's no need for protecting your code either.

The Earl Grey? Hot, please.

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

Maemo is an OS that calls itself "Open", but in reality it have got a proprietary application layer.
Don't be surprised if few supporters of free software are contributing.

If you want a large community of contributors, aim for an OS for supporters of free software -> 100% FOSS

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

Well, actually you need two key things that have been poorly done, or missing entirely (in the past) from Nokia's open source attempts:
1) release early and often (no hiding code in between releases!)
2) provide a low barrier to entry (make the released code usable)

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

This, we do not know yet for Maemo 5.
I wait precisely this information for decide buy or not buy the N900.

If I can install other OS, if I can remove each proprietary element in Maemo 5 (exept drivers) without breaking the system and I can replace these with an equivalent FOSS, then I will buy the N900.

Re: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
 

In fact the wording goes around "open platform", without any pretension of openness in the application layer. The factors of success rely more on the points made by qole, I agree.

Within the Maemo platform there are hundreds of components.

- Many of them are untouched upstream / Debian.

- In a bunch of them we contribute a lot, directly upstream e.g. Tracker or BlueZ.

- In a bunch of them we collaborate directly with the upstream maintainers e.g. GTK+ or Telepathy.

If you want to contribute to all these components just go upstream and file your patches. They will come sooner or later to Maemo.

Then we have a small list of components where upstream is basically made of Nokia maintainers or other working for Nokia under contract e.g. Application Manager, RSS Feed Reader, Hildon, MAFW... Until now these have suffered a lot of not-open development, yes. Working on the fix, patiently.

And it's true that it's very difficult to get the picture of all this. This is why I ask you to vote and propose solutions at http://maemo.org/community/brainstor..._contribution/