Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Nokia will switch from Gtk to Qt, but this doesn't mean that Gtk will be unusable. It's at a very good stage at the moment, surely better than what is Qt for now, since they're still working on the Maemo/Qt.

Gtk will be only community-supported like, for example, is Python support now. This doesn't mean you cannot use it to develop something interesting, look for example the grat job is doing that guy with gPodder or the Canola team.

I personally do prefear Qt toolkit, but it's just my own opinion, and I'm very happy about this switch.

I think that the next N*** will be a good product ;)

Well I cannot be sure about this, but.... I trust them :)

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

yes, but reviews count for a great deal in an over-populated market sector (phones) and reviewers will point out that the UI/OS is basically redundant. "Consumers" aren't stupid, and in hard times they tend to get even smarter.

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Don't know if there is universal "good upgrade strategy". I can only say what I will do: everything depends on price *and* if N900 hardware will be supported by Harmattan.

If starting price > $400 or hardware future not clear I will skip and wait for Harmattan. My aging N800 is still good enough for most of my uses.

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Why don't you say what you really think. :p

What interests me is how much of this full-on switch of loyalty (for the lack of better word) is down to Nokia's desperation to replace the much-maligned Symbian mobile phone platform as fast as they possibly can and their takeover of Qt software, and how much is down to Nokia's lack of control or lack of faith in the direction and abilities of GTK and Hildon?

I am not arguing the decision to switch per se; it must've been made at least a year or two before Maemo users and ordinary developers were told about it... Ergo, I hope Nokia succeeds while managing to keep the new system open enough.

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Commercially realistic?

a) Most if not all of the commercial developers are porting their apps (Skype, Gizmo, Flash etc.) to Fremantle and those apps will be compatible with Mer as well?

b) Some of the commercial apps will be ported to Fremantle and they will be compatible with Mer as well, the rest will still work despite linking to old Chinook/Diablo-era libraries?

c) All or some of the currently available (but generally aging) commercial apps will continue working under Mer thanks to compatibility layers with the old Chinook/Diablo platform, but the commercial developers will have nothing to do with Mer compatibility?

d) ??


I have a feeling that the majority of N8x0 users will stick with whatever was installed in their tablet or what they can flash on it using the Official Update Applet; i.e Chinook or Diablo. Most MS-Windows users certainly, and probably many Linux users too.

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Doubt that; Gnome and KDE not only differ in toolkit, and while switching toolkits is something you can force yourself to, switching philosophies is not.

I personally expect we're going to see what Mark Shuttleworth's once dreamt: QT/Gnome (Mobile).

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Reviewers are actually not that different from users: they pay attention specially when there is some product with known specs and price tag - something to look at and play with.

Let's see what they say when the announcements are made.

Of course consumers aren't stupid! Even less the potential Maemo users, quite demanding and well informed customers - with plenty of choices at hand. We are working to have something good for them (for you).

The UI/OS is not redundant: is evolving. One day Maemo 5 final will be launched with a device, and this will be the best OS/UI and the best device Maemo will have done. Of course we keep working on further releases and products that should bring better OS/UI and better devices, better developer offering, better compability with other platforms etc.

Also note that you are mixing 2 things: change of toolkit with hardware incompatibilities. Fremantle is not officially supported in OMAP2 devices (N810m N800) because we concluded that Maemo 5 was too much for that hardware if commercially supported. In comparison, the GTK+ and Qt toolkits are very similar in terms of hardware demands. They sit too high in the platform and, as we are insisting, the middleware underneath stays more or less the same, of course with significant version upgrades and enhancements.

So the discussion of Harmattan running or not on the next device has actually little to do with the toolkit officially supported and more on other aspects like what features will Harmattan bring, demanding what hardware capabilities and at what point of time.

Discussing this paragraph above when there is not even a Maemo 5 device announced is an exercise of pure Summer entertainment. (which is fine for the Summer, don't get me wrong) :)

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

Historically Qt has proven to be faster than GTK+ on slow and limited hardware, as example see the former Qtopia distro in OpenMoko. But of course a lot of people disagree with that point :D

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

i.e. it's commercially unrealistic to expect Nokia to constrain future devices' software by spending lots on supporting previous generation hardware.

However, they can garner goodwill (which translates into potential future sales) by assisting with the community taking on the work of maintaining - and enhancing - previous devices' OSes.

Re: Is Freemantle dead before it's out of the gates?
 

thanks for taking the time to reply qgil :)

that's the day we're all waiting for!