Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Well yeah, I decided to sent an email to nokia instead of open-published letter. I asked the guy if he minds me publishing the answer here or would rather me re-phrase it. Anyway, i'll keep you updated when I'll get an answer.

Cheers.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

N900 big problem!!:

cant use # in dialling pad!
example: *141*1# >> incorrect number
:( plz resolve it :)

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I don't get all the fuss about Nokia dropping support just because Meego is "around the corner" (if it makes a 2010 release I will be very surprised).

Just look back at how many updates the 5800XM has received over a year after release. What about the E71, that's still getting updates.

Nokia's track record for supporting devices, at least with firmware updates is very good in my opinion. Why should it change?

And once again, are firmware updates the only form of support from Nokia that is acknowledged? Isn't this open platform already quite a token of support, as we can do anything ourselves?

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

But thats my point exactly tho, why are there so many firmware updates, why cant there be 1 big 1 that fixes the problems? Even the n900 was delayed bcoz of a firmware update release an they didnt want the same thing happening as with n97 issue wen it was released. Yet the n900 got released an we are still waiting on updates to use other features of the device. I mean its not like we all bought this for 50quid at the market, lets be honest! So we should moan an make noise abt it.
Nokia get ur head out ur a*se an sort things out.......its time for a change!

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Nokia just make those things work as they suppose to:

1. Front camera support in all calls.
2. OVI Maps with voice guidance or release Gygic at least.
3. Make USSD codes work

That's all I'm asking, support the hardware by adequate software as it should be done as per device for 500euro!

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Dear Nokia,

forget them. (:)) I simply want you to finish the device. Not much, nothing fancy, I don't even want the new Harmattan, just finish the device. You promised loads of stuff when I bought it. I understand they aren't ready and all, so i got it anyway, on an IOU.

I paid, you promised. I want the phone to work like an S60 device. You know, with the ringtones and the voice-over-ringtone, and the number of the message instead of just contact.

Finish those maps you promised, it's laughable - I can't even search unless online. I can't have waypoints I can save, I have to type in my own address to go home. It's silly. Latest phone with the best GPS and I'm using a pen and paper to scribble over coordinates from a third party GPS app to remember that restaurant I enjoyed so much. Oh, and, let me cache stuff from the phone? That get maps stuff was cute like 5 years ago.

Get me a menu. A real menu, with the folders and the dragging and the categorizing. Everyone has that. I had that on my last phone. When you do to a restaurant do you get a business card that says "coffee" and a tab that says "more" which unfolds a toilet paper roll with all foods and drinks in alphabetical order?

Get me a finished phone app. Hold button stinks. Call waiting is odd at best, if I get another call the last call doesn't resume, I have to fiddle with the menu. If i move the phone from my ear for a second my face pushes the buttons, I end up talking muted like an idiot. Where's the hold? Where's the resume? The conference?

Could you make some apps that can handle it? Wanna have fun? Copy 2000 songs on the device. It's clogged. File manager has trouble scrolling. There's no search feature. Wanna fave more fun? Copy over 2000 images. It takes the phone 5 minutes to display. From index. Why did you build 30 GB into it and another 16 minimum on the card if I can't have anything in there? At 100 videos, I have to not touch anything for about 15 seconds until they all get in there otherwise they fly from under the pen as they get added.

Look, you get the point, dear Nokia. Am I the only one who doesn't care if QT is the wrong version? Am I the only one who cares not what the code name for the OS is? I just want it finished. For once, stick with a phone until the end. Your 5800 gets updates? Good for you, but let me make it clear: IT'S STILL NEW. My N80 still has bugs. Yes that was 2006.

In closing, I'd like to express my thanks. Great device, great specs. If only they were put to better use. I still hold hope, though, because I see people working on stuff, good for you. Just ... you know, finish first, candy later, Ok?

Ok.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

hahahaha dunno why ur bein so nice to em?! wots with typing out a full letter lol haha
U paid over $500 or Euro's or GBP for it and u are so calm abt it. The product shudve been completed as it was delayed for that long as it was gettin completed but as it turns out it wasnt the case. And no one wants symbian anymore, they are slow an outdated. Whole point of the n900 was to start something new and different.

nokia hurry the f... up an quit takin the p.ss. For an european company u released the device in US first, why?! are u related to Tony blair by any chance? sucking up to the yanks.

overall my statement to nokia is....i love the device but just sort us out with the firmware to have everything that folk have been asking for on here and stop giving us small updates, thats like giving us biscuits when we have paid for a few ounces worth :-/

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

a) because I was raised like that

b) because you either hit helpful people that will likely help or pricks who will not. Difference is, helpful people might just flip you off if you come across like a raving lunatic, while pricks still will not care either way.

So, basically, by going to any store, shop, maker, whatever, and acting like a 15 year old you only lower your chance. And while I don't mean to berate youth (some are certainly good people), attention span and patience are usually associated with maturity.

I also work in IT and while I don't have millions of customers, I sometimes answer to as many as 30.000. And I want to help, I really want, but bugs are inherent, sometimes it's not even a bug, a power failure corrupted some database record somewhere. Maybe an idiot pressed Cancel.

I want to help and fix, I really do, and apologize and be quick and prompt, inspire professionalism and trust. But no matter who you are, if you stop five meters away and raise your voice so everyone can hear how you've been wronged and berate me and my job we just might have run out of bytes to fix your issue. That's on a good day. On a bad day, I might just be honest with you.

Always be calm and polite. If nothing else, at least let them come across like raving lunatics. ;)

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Personally, I just recommend not buying anymore Nokia stuff until their policies change. The usual "vote with your dollars" along with a healthy dose of explanation as to why you don't spend your money on their products might finally catch their attention more than a simple pleading letter. There needs to be a carrot AND a stick (carrot being the constructive suggestions, the stick being a withdrawal of purchasing the brand).

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

ndi,
Really really nice post that basically sums up quite many things :)

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Well I have been very professional with nokia and yet I don't hear back from them. I have contacted both nokia us and nokia uk and none have replied other than the confimation that they have received my email. This has been what like 4 months ago i sent them?! So u expect me to be nice, i think i have been patient enough so for me to be a raving lunatic is understandable.

u can carry on sucking them off coz it aint gona work and Ive worked in the IT in the past so i knw hw things work, i dnt need to be taught etiquettes or manners.
If they flip us off then why not flip them off, at least that way they can understand and come to senses 1 day.........maybe.....or maybe not

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

This is good in theory, but in practice, it doesn't work; no longer buying lowers R&D budget and gets people fired.

By the time they have that darned meeting about focusing on fixing and leaving the candy aside it'll be too late. No market share, unhappy customers, less money, less everything.

You can't force light on people. I learned that the hard way, many times. You'd think that dragging people into the light would make them grateful. It never does. People in the dark like the dark. Transition hurts the eyes and nobody wants that. You either grind your teeth and do it or not.

Look at Microsoft. By the time XP was out, they had the reputation of writing OSs like Swiss Cheese - holes everywhere (partly because people didn't understand what NT was). They learned their lesson while people started migrating out. Service packs for XP were officially declared halted for improvements and focused exclusively on security, user experience, stability. You can't tell an XP from and XP SP3 by looking at it.

I hate to put MS in a good light on an essentially Linux forum, but whatever you might think, it paid off. XP is stable and by far the preferred OS all around.

I have since purchased W7. Yes with money. You know why? Because Windows XP was out in 2001. In 2008, SP3 was out, proving sustained dedication to the customer. By this time, Vista was 2 years old already. XP is still supported and will be actively patched until 2014. It was eighty bucks.

That's 13 years from first release to last security patch. And I mean in XP, not scheduled to be fixed in Vista.

"Fixed for Harmattan" is not in these guys' vocabulary.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I submit that nothing good has ever come from a flipping contest. Why do it?

Additionally, there's been some misunderstanding, I never aspired to teach you manners, mostly because anyone who thinks manners can be taught over a forum conversation by a stranger needs to have people in white coats take a good look around the ol' box. I was simply answering a question.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Hi. Nokia..

I spent 550 dolars.. my economy is not so good like the other people here ( I live in Ecuador and 550 dolares means 1 month of my salary)... I decide to buy this for supporting a website on the internet.. (computer mobile+ internet-> ideal machine for supporting)... but hey.. what up with you.. if I buy a computer... I expect upgrade the operative system to the next version or Next..

(this is not computer mobile ).. In example.. I bought a desktop computer or a laptop computer.. I can upgrade my Operative System.. from Win 98 to Win 2000 and I can put Win 2000 Server.. and then Win XP and now Vista.. okay.. maybe the performance is a little slow.. but it works..

What about your computer mobile?... I spent my salary for some accesory temp.. If this is what will you do .. then you are working worst than Microsoft..

Hey.. this is linux world.. and I always believe that I bought a computer mobile.. not a linux version.

Thank you.

Mauricio (Ecuador)

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

With the way you spell and talk, let alone the way you are 'reasoning', I'd be very surprised if you are old enough for a high school, not to mention working in the IT industry :rolleyes:

Just my two cents...

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I want MeeGo on my N900 but Nokia gave me NooGO instead.
I guess NooGo is as good as MeeGo lol

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Just a quick note:

Has Nokia ever asked you to pay for an update? No. Do you have to pay to get a new version of the OS from Nokia (whether it's named Maemo 6, MeeGo or Grobelsnock doesn't matter)? No.

Don't say that when you buy a computer you can upgrade it to the new version of the OS, because that's simply not true. If you buy a computer with XP, you need to shell out again to move to Windows 7. If you buy a Mac with Tiger, you need to shell out to get Snow Leopard -- and the hardware needs to be compatible.

How many people couldn't upgrade to Vista because their hardware wasn't beefy enough? Plenty. How many bought a new computer in order to get Vista/Windows 7? Plenty.

And for latinmau, or anyone else who says "OMG this device is expensive, I want lifetime support": Don't spend your money if you can't afford it. Your N900 won't stop working the day Maemo 6 or MeeGo comes out. People are still using the 770 with OS2007 or HE and are very happy with it.

If you bought the device, you bought it for a reason; those reasons won't cease to exist the day a new version of the OS comes out. If they do, you bought it for the wrong reasons.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

i think NOKIA is used to old ways, selling crappy phones in albaniand developed world, but when it comes to the real competitive world their software and customer support are subpar, hence.......they will do well in developing countries with their penny devices but will slowly lose out the high end game...

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Dear Nokia,

Thank you for not making me wait two years for copy-and-paste. And thank you for not calling me a criminal because I have root access to my device. Oh, and thanks for opening up icd2, and MeeGo looks like a good move. It's cool that there's companies in the West that still believe in freedom.

Keep up the excellent work.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Exactly - so the best thing to do for everyone who is disappointed with your n900 is to SELL and RETURN your n900, tell all your friends and aquaintences that you will NOT get support from Nokia like you would with Apple iphone/google Andriod.

Spread the news, get people to understand that Nokia only wants to push handsets, once they have your money they will move onto the next handset with no expectations of providing any support - that is the NOKIA way.

So if you buy Nokia, ONLY BUY throw away low cost models which require no support, and NEVER ever buy high end handsets from them.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

How long have you known this? Do you own an 900? If so, when did you buy it?

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Hey All,

Read this thread with interest... I don't own an N900 (happy N800 owner)

Maybe the issue is that the previous iterations were all known to be beta products.. they were 'internet tablets', they were tinkering devices with the onus on the community to develop. And to an extent it was successful (OS2008's 500 available applications for example)

However the N900 is a different animal.. its essentially a high end smartphone.. and that brings different expectations and, quite probably, a different consumer that has more of an expectation that things 'just work'

Besides Nokia really should expect some flak with their announcement of Meego.. they have announced the end of Maemo.. with, as yet, no reassurance that current N900 owners are ever going to enjoy the full potential of the device they have shelled out top dollar for. I would be concerned.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I don't understand this. Did anybody ever have the Tmobile G1 (first ever Android device) When it first came out? The app store had 10 APPS!!! The firmware SUCKED and was full of bugs!! It took forever to get updates for it. I also paid 450 for this device.

Now Android is pretty rock solid, and has over 10,000 aps.

The ovi store already has what 50? And to be honest the android store didn't grow until they allowed paid apps.

And everybody that still has the G1 are pissed that they can't get android 2.0. If companies never released new upgraded phones to go with their new software, well you wouldn't have new cooler software and you would have out of buisness companies.

My n900 is far more stable NOW than my G1 was after even my 1.5 update (1.6) got much better.

If nokia comes out with a new device to run Meego and the n900 get's left behind. I will be the first to buy it, as long as it has a bigger screen. :p

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I believe the N97 and even the N95 cost more than N900, so his question about Symbian^3 on them is as relevant as Maemo6 on N900 ;-)

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Motorola Droid/Milestone.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Hi everyone,

I have received my own N900 for christmas, and I have been very happy since. I downloaded quite a few applications, toyed around with root access, and use its excellent web browser (what have you done Mozilla!) everyday.

I do not see any reason to be concerned about MeeGo.

First, what I have in my hands is a mobile phone. As with almost every mobile phones that I have owned (all from Nokia since my second one), I kept them for about two years before changing to a newer/more powerful phone. This current phone lacks some features that I had in my previous Symbian phones, that's a fact. But we know that there is a Nokia team working on it and that we should soon receive an update, hopefully with some feature updates.

This device is also a tablet, and as such it has an OS, drivers for this OS and so forth. The OS for the N900 is Maemo 5. Even before the announce of the MeeGo, I do not recall reading anything about a backward compatibility of Maemo 6 for the N900 tablet. So whether it is Maemo 6 or MeeGo 1, it does not make much difference.

On the application side, we know that Qt 4.6 will be soon available for Maemo 5, and that the MeeGo development environment will also be Qt 4.6 based. Therefore it gives a rather good feeling that in the future, cross-platform apps will be quite common. It won't matter if they are open-source or commercial, as the difference will mainly be the computing power of the device, and maybe some hardware capabilities.
I personally doubt that a multi-touch application be ever ported to the N900, even if the compiler allows it. But that does not mean that single-touch applications may not be developped and deployed simultaneously to the Nxxx, the N900, and Intel based platforms.

When I bought my N900, I did not expect it to have a software base as large as the IPhone's, or to be the ultimate portable unix machine. There are a lot of limitations to the device, and newer devices will of course get newer applications. I will download the MeeGo development environment as I downloaded the Maemo environment, I will learn how to use it, and if I can use it to create applications that can be installed on the N900, great! If not, well, that is not the end of the world.

I am a happy N900 user, and there are happy N800 users. There will be newer devices as technology evolves. The next N-series linux based tablet-phone may get multi-touch, usb3 (I know i'm dreaming) and an new tech battery that will allow us to surf away from a plug for more than a day. Many tech-lovers will rush to that one and evntually the N900 will join its predecessors in the museum of mobile computing.

To everyone worrying about the N900's future, I would advice to just make the best of it now, as whatever happens next I do not believe that it will be lost.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Apple's iPhone users are lucky thus far, I suspect the original iPhones may be getting the great shove-off at some point, at which they're stuck. Ditto for any carrier-provided Android phone, unless the buyer *gasp* turns to the community for updates.

So you're saying that buyers should essentially spread lies, based on specious bits of information.

Or from any other vendor, for that matter. I don't know of any who have provided OS upgrades more than a year out, if ever, aside from Apple and they were essentially the first to offer such extended support.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

http://europe.nokia.com/support/down...re-update/news Not sure how anyone can say that Nokia doesn't provide "any support" after sales. My E71 has had 5 updates, the latest being 16 months after release. E90 got a firmware update 2 years and 2 months after release. Same story with many other Nokias. N900 has had three updates already and there's more coming.

And now that we're at it, where's MMS, video recording, A2DP and stuff like that for older iPhones? Didn't get those in an official update? Luckily the community took care of that, but you're a criminal if you jailbreak.

Now Android, if everything is as rosy as some of you describe, I should be able to get any Android phone and update it to 2.1 right now? I don't think I can, even though 2.1 has been out for some time already. And community stuff doesn't seem to count so don't suggest any images from xda-developers.

Maybe I should start a whinefest about Google maps free navigation? N900 users feel let down by the Ovi Maps free navigation announcement? Well, Google's left out the whole world except the US.

How many current WinMo phones do you think will get Windows Phone 7? HD2 maybe, we'll see. The bulk of them? No way.

I personally think it might serve Nokia well to release Harmattan on N900, but I don't pretend it's a simple issue, or that grass is all green on the other side of the fence.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

This is about XP versus XP SP3, not XP versus 7. Nobody cried about Harmattan (well, me at least), we cried about fixes. When issues get "implemented in Harmattan" then the issues blur together.

Sure people are still using old versions, but nobody is updating that software. Many people didn't afford (to run) W7, but XP is still being patched and the new technologies like indexing and search and whatnot are still being back-implemented.

I get what you say and even agree with some (such as price not being and arm and a leg), but I still say that Nokia should get back to patching M5 until bugzilla is empty.

M6 should be M5 with new UI and libs, and additional functionality.

@jsa: There are counterexamples to that. N80 still has bug in contact searching, still has cursor blinking when calling, and last time I checked (didn't check in a while) "restore" was alternately not working and "backup" wasn't always successful. There is no backing up messages, bookmarks have their own issues, sync as well, images get re-synced with dupes in certain conditions, movies with double extensions showed up twice. I got a few, some with N80, some with PC Suite, which is worse IMO. Not exactly cheap device, either.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I completely disagree... it's not about XP vs XP SP3. It is also not about XP vs Windows 7... It IS about Vista vs Windows 7.
Many laptops bought recently only shortly before Windows 7 came out (same timescales as N900/MeeGo really) came with a free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. Older machines and those still on XP can pay for an upgrade.

The problem really is that Nokia won't say anything about anything. They don't announce firmware updates, won't give any reassurances about how long firmware updates will come... nothing.

What I do know is this was heralded as the next big thing, the N900 and now only months after release Nokia are potentially besting it and never releasing another Maemo5 device. This instantly limits the lifespan of Maemo5 as it will simply just become unprofitable to keep maintaining and innovating.

The other thing I know is that Nokia have dropped new devices like a stone before. They've released unfinished devices and never finished them, instead favouring the release of fixed/"updated" new devices.

The only real information we have to go on is Nokia's past behaviour and sadly their current actions fit those same old Nokia patterns.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

And Nokia has never announced that they would stop supporting Maemo 5. Please, do not misinterpret the announcements -- Maemo 6 might be in the works, but Maemo 5 is very certainly still being worked on. I don't see Nokia stopping that in the near future, and neither should anyone else. Nokia are responsible, they know that if they have a few million devices (I actually have no idea what the sales of the N900 are), and there are major issues to be fixed, they will be.

No, and I'm sorry to see you being that wrong.

The bugzilla will never be empty. That is what prioritisation is for. The urgent bugs or enhancements get fixed, and if we have we look at the less urgent things. That's how the software industry has always worked, and that's how it most likely will always work. The customer requests new features (and there are tons of new feature requests in Bugzilla, even if they aren't marked as such) and then begins a contractual tango between customer and vendor.

I could (if you had the clearance) show you dozens of contracts where this happens at this very moment. Governments, banks, telecom companies -- and those are just our customers. They raise issues, they try to make us modify things, but they all come to realise, at some point, that the money they spent on the contract isn't going to be enough to pay for our developers anymore, and thus they prioritise massively, to only get the major 2 or 3 items fixed.

The thing works, it isn't broken (except for Guber, but then again there is nothing on this planet that could make him happy). Some things need fixing, sure, but the Bugzilla will NEVER be empty.

Do you even know, on average, how many issues get reported per day, and how many get fixed?

Well, initially this was a long reply, but I was getting kind of off-topic, so I'm going to summarize.

a) Harmattan might or might not be OK for N900. Might be slow, lose some app base, whatnot. I have no idea what it would be like exactly, but it's a major version change and we all know what guarantees major versions bring. As a result, I feel fixes and improvements should be brought to M5 as well as M6. Shouldn't be all that hard, if codebase is derived it's not impossible, especially UI improvements and stuff like searching in lists, filtering history and whatnot.

I see you're optimistic, and sure hope you are right about the M5. Maybe this will be different, I've had some poor experiences.

b) I know bugzilla will never be empty, I'm a coder myself, and approaching my second decade as one. What I mean was Bugzilla as it is now (or when M5 was released) should be empty. That is, fix stuff that should be there in a phone, bring the phone app to S60 standards, bring multimedia to the level where it handles 30GB of data, etc

And yes, I do scan bugzilla periodically and I saw the list of bugs and the list of fixed bugs, I and assume more are internal. I never said they aren't DOING it, on the contrary, I'm impressed this far. I'm just worried about it slowing too much after M6 is out.

I don't understand what you completely disagree with. My choice of examples, XP and 7? I picked a well supported OS while a much newer is being actively developed.

On a relatively unrelated note, the free upgrade wasn't from the goodness of their heart, it was because announcing 7 while Vista stinked meant that embedded systems sales as well as OEM licenses would slump because people would hold out for W7. So basically what they did is allow Vista temporarily so people would keep buying. it wasn't free upgrade, it was pre-ordering. You still paid for W7, only you got it way after.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I would just like to straightforwardly say that Maemo history is much more relevant here than Symbian history.

Nokia 770: OS2006, OS2007HE, OS2008HE
Nokia N800: OS2007, OS2008.
Nokia N810: OS2008.

Look at the track history. All devices were supported in one way or another all the way up to OS2008, with firmware updates increasing as time went on.
Previous NITs could not run Maemo 5 due to drastic hardware improvements.
Hence the Mer project's re-stated goal.

If we were to continue Nokia's "release schedule,"

N900: Maemo 5, Maemo 6, MeeGo-Community
N910: Maemo 6, etc.

Again, this is even more speculation, but even Nokia would not be stupid enough to drop a device not even a year after it was announced. (Announced 09/2009, Maemo 6's FUDded release: late Q2 2010)

Oh, and did anyone notice the demos in extras-devel? ;)

EDIT: To prevent any more flames of dissent from forming, my position (and post) in this argument is NEUTRAL, and I will not be returning to this thread. If you're still unhappy, then go help with Mer.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

well this is my 2 cents.

the iphone 2G, 3G, 3Gs, 4G and Ipad will all be running 4.0 when it comes out.

the iphone 2G came it in juneish 2007.

I still hate the iphone, but they r killing nokia in the high end market. think about how many iphones u see. the New OS new device thing was ok in the old days but not anymore. if your a 2G owner you are still missing features from the 3Gs. but if you cant efford to upgrade you are still supported till you do. Nokias way is to forget about you which has to change. think about it as a normal consumer.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Is that even an option? Or are you illustrating the lack of support contracts and options? I, for one, wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee if I were to rely on this product for a long time and wanted major upgrades to be available... but it's not like we can fall on a competitor to do this for us for a fee like Red Hat or Canonical. Can we? Does anybody know whether they can be supported by the community in some way to help develop support for older Nokia tablets and/or to improve Nokia's current N900 phone? I expect that many of these Linux companies are much more experienced at writing good, solid code than Nokia has been so far. Just curious to know whether it's even an option to donate to pay for someone to write open-source code for these devices, given some of the closed-source and other legal roadblocks at the Nokia or hardware end.

And for a long time we were often met with 'fixed in fremantle' or WONFIXes for even some of the most mundane, easiest things to fix. This does not instill confidence, no. I've recommended against the Nokia tablets and N900 for all the people I know who wanted portable awesomeness to do actual work. I can't, in good conscience. I hope I can be swayed someday but my experiences from the N800 were that I love the hardware but dreaded the company and it's virtually non-existent communications and support.

Oh well.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

Well.....here is another few cents and a different point of view. First there are arguments about comparisons to windows and versions of XP vs the move to Vista etc. But we are talking about a device...not the purchase of software. If i buy a PC i expect it to run a new OS released or 12 months aftter i bought the computer. However i may not get the software free.....but I do believe my device should be capable of running the software and if i choose to run the software i expect that support should be available.

Now for Nokia and the n900.
Simply put, whatever policy Nokia adopts must be profitable. When people buy a device, support is factored into the price. The support bundied into the price is for one (1) os. For handling new OS versions, there are 3 possibilities.

1. Leave the original OS as the supported version. If you want support, go back to the original version. This doesn't stop the new version being available....just not supported.

2. Make the new version the only supported version. If you want support you must upgrade to the new version first. This is a problem if some people could have a reason to resist the move.

3. Charge those who do move to the supported new version in order to recover the additional costs of supporting a fragmented user base.

Really....they are the only 3 options from an economic perspective. Nokia have traditionally chosen option #1, and for phones and even smart phones, it makes sense. Patches are treated as option #2.
However for a major release with the n900, i suggest they should offer #3. A supported upgrade attracting a price in an open source world still allows those not seeking any support to get the upgrade for free. So free if no support is needed, but for those who wish to get any support a fee.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

sooo right

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

You are correct about the options but not your text.

You are trying to compare a linux dist with windows. The big differens with windows and linux is that linux is free and open source. Windows you pay for. Thus this is not a workable and neither logical explanaition for a linux dist. In the linux world you try to make the kernel to work with as much devices as possible. I.e i can run Ubuntu on both my Pentium 1 and my dual core.

so the option 1 is good. The extra functions a new device will give is actually just another module for the kernel. The new OS:s should work on the old devices just as good.

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

It is just i did not make my point clear enough. With linux as well as windows if you want support (beyond forums like this), then you pay,

Meego is open source and the community will provide a distro for the n900. That much is certain. The only question is if Nokia will support this distro- meaning customer support and service centres need to be aware of any differences. Supporting two OS versions raises the support cost. This is the cost I am discussing.

Without support from Nokia if you run the new OS and your phone breaks, service wont touch it unless you reload the original OS. As I said, being open source, the code will be available to all who wish to find it. The question of cost relates to support. I hope what i said makes more sense given the extra explanation, Think Redhat vs Centos

Re: Letter to Nokia.
 

I don't have time to read through every post in this thread, but did you compile that letter and send to Nokia yet?
If not, what's the holdup? (assuming there is at least some additional content you were looking to obtain in the 12pages that make up this thread)