Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

I don't understand the negative feelings here. The position of Maemo/Meego will become stronger, not weaker. It used to be Nokia only, facing competition from vendor-agnostic platforms such as Android. Now it's open and can even run on different architectures. As a consumer, I can stick to what I know (no matter what they call it) but am no longer tied to Nokia hardware. I live it. Really.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

There is another good thing in this merge. From here:

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

omg my rumour i posted early this morning came true WTG Meego

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Yes, just saw your rumour in that other thread. Well done!

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

http://www.youtube.com/user/MeeGoPro.../1/GyebXporGr8

Good sell :)

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Given that the strongest reason for this partnership is to pool together resources / experience to make a cross architectural platform, I would think it highly likely that the n900 will receive updates and future support, as the ultimate vision would be for this platform to work on as many devices as possible.

In short, I think that this is really good news :)

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

The MeeGo API is based on Qt and Web Runtime (which sits on top of QtWebKit, which sits on top of Qt). This was/is exactly the API plan for Harmattan (no wonder since MeeGo is a result of merging Maemo and Moblin).

So two conclusions:

- The arrival of MeeGo doesn't change anything in terms of API offered to developers. Except that MeeGo also supports GTK+, while in the Maemo roadmap this toolkit appeared as "community supported". Result = same or better situation than before.

- As soon as Qt 4.6 gets officially supported in Maemo 5, the building blocks to be API compatible with MeeGo will be there.

Translation to end users: getting MeeGo apps to run on top of Maemo 5 shouldn't be a rocket science and maybe they just work. MeeGo will attract more developers to this API = more apps = more joy for N900 users.

About supporting officially the entire MeeGo running on the N900 hardware, it's a business decision and Nokia hasn't communicate the plans. In any case MeeGo is entirely open source, and the hardware adaptation is already in place in Maemo 5. If someone was thinking in running Mer in the N900, now the alternative is run the MeeGo stack instead. Less work on the boring and complex low level stuff and more fun in the layers that really interest to end users.

Some people is saying that now Nokia is moving "to another platform". It's not!

MeeGo is the natural evolution of Maemo, with plenty of common components.
MeeGo is the natural evolution of Moblin, with plenty of common components.

It's just that Maemo and Moblin were sharing so many similarities at a platform level. Please understand this to realize that if you are N900 users or Harmattan-device propective users, your future perspectives only improve with MeeGo.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

In this video you can listen to Mr Sousou state that all apps developed for Maemo will run on Meego. Check it out at 00:52

http://meego.com/about/overview/big-...steering-group

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

From the MeeGo f.a.q.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Me too, despite HTC making some dodgy design decisions! The community for Android at XDA is brilliant, and I never had to worry if my G1 would get the next update...

Still going to hold out on the N900; if this is truely open source someone will port the OS if Nokia/Intel do not. Hopefully, Nokia/Intel will use the N900 as a testbed, they have no other device!

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

One of the reasons I bought the n900 was because it is open source and runs linux.

I am really happy with my n900 and it will have years of use.

However, I think Nokia has underestimated how popular the n900 had become and probably having trouble allocating resources to support this device. Especially while they are developing the next version of Maemo.

Their best bet is to continue with Maemo 6 and maybe scale-down the amount of changes to the platform. They can still release another Maemo-based device & make sure it is compatible with new MeeGo.

Ideally make Maemo-6 available for the n900.

Today's developers can write software on the n900 that should be binary compatible with Maemo-6 (ideally MeeGo too). When MeeGo is ready developers have an easy upgrade path for thier applications and the application pool should grow.
Then Nokia will start to have a healthy application catalogue and become a serious competitor to Android and iPhone.

The MeeGo development must of kicked-off months ago - I don't think this happened overnight. Nokia should have had an idea where they are going with Maemo and develop it towards MeeGo.

Of course, all this is speculation and may never happen and possibly the n900 will be abandoned.

But you know what? That's entirely up to Nokia and fine by me.

The n900 and it's software is open-source. I'm not tied to one vender hoping the software will be upgraded - we have the community to help with that.

The Mer project is shaping-up pretty well, moblin/MeeGo is open source or maybe someone will install a custom-version of some other linux distrobution.

The n900 is an open source device (apart from a few exceptions e.g. phone) and means it will have a long useful life ahead of it - I don't need to rely on the support of a corporation to develop for it.

I'm not locked-in to anybody.

It used to bother me that Nokia were going to exclude the n900 in official supoort for Maemo 6 and the lack of the free version of OVI maps that's fine. The community are developing alternate mapping applications and there is active development of Mer.

So, if things go well with the merge of Maemo and Moblin then great we reap the benefits of that.

If Nokia & Intel somehow mess things up (e.g. Intel commits Nokia to Moblin then Intel walk away with thier own idea - a tactic much used by Microsoft) we still reap the benefits because the community steps in.

It will be interesting to see what develops.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

In all honesty, the parts of the project that have been decided without public discussion are the kind of things that would not be discussed publicly anyway by the Maemo or Moblin teams alone. Maemo didn't discuss the move to Qt and Moblin didn't discuss the move to rpm, to give a couple of examples.

What has been left basically untouched to be discussed publicly are most of the community aspects, the ones that were not required to be decided prior to the launch today. These are actually the points that have a direct an immediate impact in the maemo community, and I'm a but surprised that haven't been mentioned yet.

Talk? Council? Karma? Brainstorm? Transifex? GForge? Documentation process?.... (long etc)

See http://wiki.meego.com/Maemo_and_Moblin_community_assets

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

A quick comment since this obviously also affects the Mer project. MeeGo seems to satisify all of the hopes I had when I wrote the original Maemo Reconstructed proposal.

It has a proper governance, it has structure, entry ways for developers to participate, proper development environments, it's fully open source (I think there's exceptions with HW support) and many other positive things. It is completely new land and we have a very good ability to participate in the process. Best way is not to complain but to join and help shape the future.

If you have been interested in Mer and contributing to it, I would like to say that I will recommend you to participate in the MeeGo project. This does not mean Mer will shut down, but we will be helping out with Fremantle and Harmattan afterlife. If there's no indications of MeeGo on N900, this would obviously be an area that Mer would be helping out in - to get N900 support added to the platform.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

There is one thing, which qgil also mentioned: Remember the (few for now) companies that wanted to test the maemo platform in order to find out if there can be profit for them (angry birds, hoop-frenzy, etc..)? They are not sure about maemo right now.

Now, enter the mind of some of them: If they write something for meego it will run on mobiles, tables and TVs (!). Imagine TV users buying programs! All sort of people! Now, that's a *big* and *new* market!

So yeah... 2010 will be fun :-)

p.s. This may also extend N900's lifetime since (most probably) the next device will be delayed because of the merge.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

This might just be the kick Nokia needs to release an Ovi suite for Linux.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Maluka for president...

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

i dunno what to do know? shall i sell my n900 and wait for these new devices i dont want my n900 to be forgotten!

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

How long before the N910 or N1000 is released?? Very soon I guess..By September, Just in time for Nokia's convention. I heard somewhere on engadget about the convention delivering very big news on hardware

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

"maemo" running @ x86 isn't big hw news?

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Quim, that is all fine and nice, and in the long run it might be the right decision.

However: for current N900 users it _makes_ a difference whether N900 will be upgraded to meego or not. Even if there is source compatibility of the apps, this does not mean that developers will compile their apps for both - meego and n900 aka maemo 5. esp if maemo uses deb and meego uses rpms.

What I do not understand: if it is so easy to port meego to different hardware: why does nokia not just do it - maybe as proof of concept - and make many N900 users happy instead of angry?

And if Nokia does not intend to port meego to N900: just be honest with your customers and do what is at the heart of your business: communicate. This is also a question of honor. Empty words like it is easy to backport apps doesnt help anyone.

just my 2ct as a quite fresh N900 user. Hoping toget more clarity the next days.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Believe me, we're definitely thinking about it. The changes are so huge that it's going to take a little while before everything sinks in and we see how much work this implies.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

May I ask what would you be getting? Would you be phone-less for this time? Btw, I think you missed the part that the Apps for MeeGo can be ported to N900. Qt4.6 is right around the corner... Just wait a teeny weeny bit.

One thing is for sure... I was already excited to buy the new Maemo 6 device. Now I cant explain how thrilled I am to see what the heck is going to come out from Espoo's ol'bakery...

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

so Meego has been in the offing since last spring.

N900 released just before christmas without any hint that it's OS would be out of date.

surely I've just been mugged by Nokia.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

no i wouldnt be phone-less, i really love my n900 but as you said apps for MeeGo can be ported to n900, this means that it will be done via the community not direct from nokia so will not be official.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

yeah..couldn't see this coming...
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=33750

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

from http://meego.com/about/faq:

* Will MeeGo use .rpm or .deb as its packaging system?
* MeeGo will use the .rpm format

That's just too bad IMO. .rpm is inferior in every way to .deb.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Lol @ all the people panicking to sell their phones while there is clearly more evidence that MeeGo will run on the N900 than against it (the faq). Althought nothing conclusive has been officially stated, isn't it a bit silly to assume that this means it wont?

I think MeeGo sounds great. I mean, Maemo isn't even 100% open source. MeeGo is. Long live open source :)

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

It doesn't matter if Nokia refuse to port MeeGo / Maemo 6 to the n900 - members of the community will do it - it's open source.

With these developments we have more choice and actullay more support.

One way or another the n900 will get an upgrade of some kind.

There's no way I am willing to spend at least another £500ish on the "next shiney thing" especially in the next 2-3 years - I bet many other people feel the same way.
So it is inevitable that the n900 will continue to get support of some kind.

It's all good news!

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

I dont understand what you mean with Apps then...
All the Apps, aside from the ones that come from Nokia (built in apps), are either created by community/individuals or by some company. For example, skype, evince, firefox, flash, plugins for messaging accounts(msn and so on) are all apps not created by Nokia and used in the N900/M5.

What I mean is, if Spotify decides tomorrow to create an App with 4.6 for MeeGo this App can be ported to N900. Just like they did with all of those Symbian phones.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

First of all: Hi! I was on the verge of buying the N900, but this morning my brother comes to me and says: "hey something happened with maemo." He doesn't care too much about tech/phones etc so didn't know what really happened. After hearing about Maemo - Moblin merge, I simply do not want to buy it anymore.
Reading through this thread I've found out that MeeGo apps will be ported to the N900 thanks to the community, but it's not fair to let everything to the community.
I cannot understand why Nokia released this product. I thought that it will be upgradeable to Maemo 6, but nobody knows that for sure. Or maybe somebody knows. The Maemo community (that's you guys!) can do a lot with this tablet, but Nokia cannot leave it up to the community.
What should I do? I don't like other devices, I like the N900. I won't use it at its full potential all the time, but I want to know that some functionalities are there. I hope that Nokia won't abandon the N900, but you never know what will happen.
Again: what should I do? Should I buy it or wait until Q2 when Meego should be released? I desperately want (not need, just WANT) a handset right now. I leave it up to you...

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

What always strikes me odd with these complains about "N900 not getting this and that and soon becoming obsolete" is the attitude, that when you buy a device from a vendor, now suddenly everyone is expecting to get free new major operating system releases and new features for free, for an undefined duration way into the future.

And conversely getting pissed off every time something new is announced without having an explicit mention given, that "yes it will also run on your device you bought last year".


And yes, notice they haven't closed the door on community-driven solutions. I fully expect the net to be full of MERgos and WEEgos and whatnot for the N900 in the not too distant future .)


I am pretty satisfied with the user features the N900 ships with currently, and especially the developer offering is getting better almost daily. There's all this progress happening with Qt, MADDE, Qt Creator etc. and updates are pouring in almost on a daily basis it seems.. I'll give you that the initial Scratchbox-based SDK offerings weren't all laden with honey and sugar though.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

And where can you see that nokia have announced that n900 WON'T be upgradeable to Meego? There are as a matter of fact some things that tells us that n900 will be upgradeable to Meego. One thing is that they say that Meego will have support for ARM. Another one is that there is a n900 on MeeGos frontpage. I highly doubt that they would have one there if it wouldn't be upgradeable to Meego,

Hopefully we n900 users will be able to upgrade to this one later.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Please let's not start yet another package format religious war. Both have their pros and cons, and I'm happy they picked (either) one, certainly better than allowing both and making all developers have to do twice the packaging work.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

so to make this clear to me- there is a small chance that the n900 will be getting meego, however if it doesnt(most likely), there is a great chance that it will be ported to the n900 via community, also if n900 is forgotten by nokia, it will be very easy to port apps, etc. to the n900 if the n900 gets an official release of QT 4.6?
i hope i havent missed anything out. plz remind me if i have.

MeeGo is great news for nokia and for the rest of us, its just us n900 users dont want to feel like idiots for only being testers for nokia.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Hmmmm... from all of the info I got from this forum and the FAQ in MeeGo's page you seem to be pretty correct.

But again, do not take my word for granted. I dont work for Nokia and I dont have secret sauces telling me what will happen. It is still better you to try to find your own info.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

The merge of maemo & MeeGo is a great idea.

Imagine this open-platform is available to other hardware manufacturers.

You would not have to depend on Nokia for the next Maemo / Moblin device hopefully other manufacturers will sell similar devices.

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

Mer and MeeGo should merge too !

concentrate developpement to be more powerfull !!!

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

you're a fool if you believe that a blurry photograph of an N900 is proof that it will be supported

Re: Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
 

A thumbs-up from me. I bought the N900 to show Nokia, I want such an open source Linux computer+phone. And MeeGo is the right step to join forces and open the platform.
Ok, the name "MeeGo" sounds ... strange and rpm for deb is epic fail.
Nokia should support the N900 with strong updates or with an announcement that MeeGo supports the N900, otherwise I see problems to sell this device now.

Bye

Thorsten