Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Well nevermind.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

just keep it simple - its not THAT hard

A pinned sticky on the N900 and Meego forum that has the bold capital lettering "The future of N900 and MEEGO", that lists with bullet points what is known and what is NOT, and MAYBE a third section saying "what MAY be". The "What is known" part contains what is 100% known, back with links/quotes/youtube vids or whatever.

No point at ALL putting it in the wiki because users looking for answers will hit the forums first thing, and if you look at google for n900/meego google links to the n900 forum threads DIRECTLY (now THAT is spreading your "FUD"). If you want ppl to see the answers first thing, you either have the content in the pinned sticky OR link to the wiki entry in the pinned sticky.

No elaborate development super roadmaps etc are required, as the ppl looking for answers and creating "FUD" are most likely ppl who just wnat answers, they dont care about anything else.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I'm sorry, but you are not correct on this one. The N900 is a mobile computer, if might be step 4 of 5, etc. But this is perceived as such only from tech people who had some maemo experience before or who are somewhat tech savvy enough to do research, read tech blogs and all that geek stuff.

Moreover, a lot of Nokia ads advertise it as a mobile phone with lots of capabilities:
http://www.nokia.co.uk/find-products...#/main/landing

There are others that don't even mention "computer" anywhere.

When a regular user sees that, it is obvious that he expects a mobile phone better than or equal any other that are displayed at the site (That means better than series 40 or series 60, but the regular buyer would not know it).

I like the N900 too and I'm not planning on any ohter phone for now. For me Nokia N900 is the best somewhat open mobile device with phone stack that I've been interested in. Where it shines more than any other (yet) is the idea that I can develop, port or adapt any FOSS software for it, if I want to. it also has some decent hardware specs.

If it weren't for the "fixed in maemo6", "wont fix" or "make it a brainstorm, this is not easy to fix" typical responses for filing bugs, the N900 would be a real winner.

When you say: "it will be fixed on the next version, but I don't know if your device will be compatible with tat version" you are saying that it just won't be fixed. When some of those things are really expected things for a mobile cell phone, people start to get angry.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I could write a book in response to the above but I will spare you and focus on a few specifics. ;)

The council is the primary advocacy body for the community and should be utilized as such by Nokia

Example: I would have preferred a more formal process around the USB breakage issue. In fact there should have been an investigative team wrapped around it after I first reported my instance. Maybe there was internally (I doubt it) but the council should have been engaged by Nokia quickly and formally to facilitate a faster and less antagonizing resolution. I didn't mind at all running interference, but I did not care at all for the lack of communications (not blaming you Quim-- you were very helpful and responsive when needed). The council could have helped Nokia avoid bad publicity and speed up the resolution process for N900 owners.

caveat: in hindsight I realize I should have created a hardware bug report for the USB problem.

The council should have had more involvement in the MeeGo go-live

Yes I understand the issues around NDAs and such but I still believe we could have been a tremendous help in reducing the FUD following the announcement. I see our engagement in events like that as win-win for Nokia and the community. Note that council members (current and past) stepped up quickly and strongly afterward-- that's why we're here. Use us.

The council should have periodic meetings with Nokia

I don't just mean the monthly scrum stuff. I mean phone/online strategy and policy sessions. I also think there should be a midterm physical meeting, sponsored by Nokia and in the future the MeeGo organization. I grant the cost and logistics issues but this is just something I think would have great value all around.

The council should help facilitate threads like this one

Let us act as your proxy, as I suggested via email. We can help shape the message and keep Nokia from looking heavy-handed. Again: that's why we're here. I would have liked to have had a session (IRC?) where the council collected questions from the community, distilled them into a formal Q&A, then engaged you and/or any other representatives to get good, solid answers to lingering questions (rather than soft PR responses that contribute to the FUD). Even a "we are unable to answer that right now for business reason X but are working on a way to answer it" is less evasive than many answers we receive.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I could keep going but hopefully those get the point across. Thanks for listening.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

This thread has been a delight to read.

On topic and polite discontent members discussing with doers, community leaders and on topic and polite content members with hardly any troll-calling or intentional FODing. (Though I think the FOD, Trolls, Apologizers and other belittling and derailing terms are being used too often around here, like most other forums.)

The thread has few absolute statements and doesn't go into bug details any much. It may have started out as a suggestion to route some noise away but it has turned into an interesting and constructive debate on how to better handle real issues that does indeed make it harder to give this platform full commitment at this exact point in time. And as I judge this, it's unusually little "defensive mode" in this thread despite rather compressed (but valid) criticism.

konttori, in one single post you brought back most of my lost faith in this platform.

And qgil, I haven't always thought so lately, but I now think you're on the right track again. I am not equally convinced about the people further up in the business system, but then that goes for all business organizations. And I am sad that you would chose to leave your position as volunteer moderator, even if you have good reasons. I am not one of those who would think your two roles were in conflict here, and any moderator is a resource.

One thing though, I have to say though.

Yes, quite some time before the N900 was announced, I heard through threads in this forum that the next device would be step 4 out of 5. And I've seen it in tech blogs, usually with a bit of sarcasm included. I know you feel that "it is sold as a mobile computer with the Internet in its heart, and it was introduced as 'step 4 of 5' for tech leaders / lovers." As you intended for it, I am sure. I am one of those who researched before I bought, so I know what you say is true. It was announced. To a handful of people.

However, this is just not how the N900 is seen in the eyes of the world. The N900 appears like a milestone project discovered by higher level Nokia people, picked up and used as an medkit when the N97 had hurt the Nokia image in the market. Well, I'm sure this could not be further from how things work over there, but that's how it looks now.

Because, in the eyes of all the world except a handful working for Nokia and another handful of members of the Maemo community, the N900 is the newest, most advanced top of the line telephone from Nokia. There is no way around that. If you expected people to think of this as a mobile computer with phone functionality, then Nokia Marketing betrayed you. Have you seen a single ad anywhere, anytime, that even hinted that it's not equally advanced on phone functionality? No. Does it say "with added phone functionality" on Nokias pages? No. Does it look like any other Nokia phone on the Nokia lists? More often than not. And the chains have as such not picked up on this not-existing distinction. Each and every net ad I have seen for it has portraited it as "Nokias most advanced" or "A phone and more!"

Yes, it was step four out of five on the way to step one of Meego. But that's simply not what it is sold as. You have to accept that no one* outside of this community thinks of it as a mobile computer with added phone functionality.

* Making a generalization here, I am sure you can name at least one.

That said, I have been very worried about the lack of visible direction, and to some extent the lack of willingness to admit that worried customers may not be completely to blame when they are more worried than usual. Now I see that my worries, while not unfounded, are being handled in a competent way.

I still have 10 months of down-payments left, so it's good to be able to put down the shoulders for a bit.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I think what I would like to see come out of this discussion is for some representative(s) of the community (e.g. the Council) to compile a list of hot-topic questions, and for someone from Nokia (e.g. Quim) to get answers for them, and for the result to be published somewhere (probably the Wiki) as a reference to point people to when these questions come up in future.

Doing this successfully will require some changes from Nokia, and a willingness to answer questions that may not normally be answered in the mobile phone industry. If we get that, then I think the community can handle the rest.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Quim, this is the kind of thing I'd love to see in a wiki article somewhere, on meego.com or maemo.org.

Also, if there is a wiki article being worked on around these topics, can you please edit the first post and add a link to it?

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Although I am 100% behind you with this, the problem with such list is that it quickly turn into a wishlist of "bring X to Maemo 5 / N900".

Edit :

I tried to make a rough list of what was discussed here and in other topics. I did that out of memory and trying to avoid a wishlist as much as possible.

Question 0 : Will any of the answers to those questions be backed officially by Nokia ?

Maemo’s future :

Question 1 : Is Maemo 5 still a viable platform. Does it worth my time to write applications for it ?
Question 2 : What is the roadmap for Maemo 5 ?
Question 3 : What is the point of developing an application without Qt ?
Question 4 : What will happen to Maemo 5 when MeeGo 1 is on the market ?
Question 5 : What is the plan for Ovi Store for Maemo 5 ?
Question 6 : Will Maemo 5 support Ovi Services (Ovi Suite) ?
Question 7 : Why there has been no PR1.1.1 in the United Kingdoms ?

N900’s future :

Question 8 : What are the plan toward a more open N900 ?
Question 9 : Will there be resources at Nokia dedicated to bringing MeeGo 1 on the N900 ?
Question 10 : Will Nokia repeat past behaviour (770 and N8X0) with the N900 ?

Community :

Question 11 : What will happen to Maemo.org once MeeGo 1 is on the market ?
Question 12 : Will there be a higher degree of engagement with the community council ?
Question 13 : Will there be more openness from Nokia toward the community ?
Question 14 : Are we, the N900 user, only beta testers to you ?

MeeGo :

Question 15 : What is the rationale behind dropping Debian package format/ architecture ?
Question 16 : Will the early design phase for MeeGo 1 include support for N900 ?
Question 17 : What is Nokia’s commitment to MeeGo ? 1 or 2 years, maybe more ?

Nokia relation with 3rd party

Question 18 : Will Maemo 5 be able to run Adobe Flash 10 hardware-accelerated ? (Remember that Nokia can talk to Adobe, N900 users can’t)
Question 19 : Can we get the drivers for the N900 ? (Remember that Nokia can talk to TI, N900 users can’t)

Wishlist :

Question 20 : Can we expect [top 5 request] on Maemo 5 / N900 ?

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

It could, which is why I'm suggesting having someone like the council filter it down to a basic list of things we really need to know, rather than declaring open season.

It's a compromise, and it's not going to suit either 'side' completely (though, really, we're all on the same side here), but I'm hoping that it would be workable.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Folks, I couldn't resist this quote (from José Saramago's Caín, translated from the Portuguese) which illustrates to a certain extent the ongoing debate:

"Los designios de dios son inescrutables, ni nosotros ángeles, podemos penetrar en su pensamiento, Estoy cansado de esa cháchara de que los designios de del señor son inescrutables, respondió caín, dios debería de ser transparente y límpido como cristal en lugar de este continuo pavor, de este continuo miedo, en fin dios no nos ama"

which would translate more or less as:

"The designs of God are inscrutable, not even we, the angels, can penetrate their thought, I'm tired of this talk that the designs of the Lord are inscrutable, Cain said, God should be transparent and clear as crystal in place of this continuum dread, this continuum fear, finally god doesn't love us"

Regards,
Antonio

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

On your n900, there's a 1:15 video called "Nokia N900." I'm assuming that this was the n900's media introduction to the world; please correct me if I'm wrong. But not until 1:05 do we find out that the n900 can make phone calls: "Oh look, it supports VoIP." J/K. Watch it again and interpret it how ever you want, but no way do I get the message that it's "A phone and more."

And I won't even mention my favorite ad ever that had me convinced the n900 was a Decepticon. Talk about disappointment. But maybe it is a Decepticon. Maybe it has secret deceptive powers that lead people to believe it's something it's not. If so, I must have accidentally disabled that feature on mine.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Every single N900 that is made starts as a highly intelligent but unstable human being. This poor person's molecules are subjected to a special cosmic radiation that destabilizes the very fabric of that person's being. They are then placed in a protected interview room and the transformation into mobile electronic device is triggered by discussion of memory the size of sugar cubes.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I know I said I would butt out, however this deserves a heartfelt thanks. I can only hope it would never come to this.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I'm asking for URLs just to make sure we discuss about the same thing and compare in the right terms. Otherwise vague statements are left with vague discussion being a potential source of FUD.

And yes, we are putting the community high in our marketing strategy but there are other items also high so it is not the only or even the main selling point. But this is a little besides the point: yes we are being proactive with the community but also yes we need to have in place a commercial marketing strategy taking into account that competitors and media exist. Our communications (messages, timing) take into account the community and the need for openness, but we must also pay attention to other factors that many time involve confidentiality and wait for the right time to disclose information.

We are running an open source project but a business as well. The business is what pays our salaries and benefits to the shareholders. Without good business there is no platform future at all.This is evident in a case like Nokia, but worth to remind from time to time.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

This argument combined with the argument of the 'designed obsolescence' also pops up regularly.

It is true that 'Nokia sells hardware' but this is just part of the story. Nokia develops a consumer offering based on devices, software and services. Harware is very important in this strategy and so are the software platforms, the application developer ecosystem and the Ovi services. As opposed to a specific device, software and services can be continuous and evolutionary. They can support very well the very important job of customer retention.

If the owners of a Nokia XXX are happy with this offering, one day they will move to Nokia XXY, or perhaps Nokia YYY. They will recommend Nokia to their relatives and friends, etc.

If the owner of a Nokia XXX is unhappy because one or more of the pieces described above doesn't work, they will start their walk away to other competitors.

So you might get WONTFIXES and FIXED in [next release], and that [next release] might or might not be available for your next device. But don't think that Nokia doesn't care about bugs in current releases and about the satisfaction of the users getting those bugs.

What do you mean 'reduced activity'? Can you express it with numbers or some more details?

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

That too (thanks ysss for the parabole, very illustrative). :)

The MeeGo announcement implies changes for everybody and dealing with this transition period is not simple.

One concrete example: in the Maemo Summit we promised a "Maemo 6 alpha SDK" in 1Q2010. We are working on the deliverables but after the MeeGo launch some questions are to be considered. Should we keep the plan and release a purely Harmattan SDK? Should we wait and align to the MeeGo content and schedule? What serves better the plans of Harmattan, MeeGo, the developers out there?

There are plenty of other little things like this. The transitional path is worth since the goal aims now much higher. But there is indeed some 'recalculating route' process going on and it is useful to take it into account when expecting concrete answers.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Good one. This announcement was done together with their iPhone OS 3.0 beta release. We haven't even released an alpha.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

This is why MeeGo is the best candidate to fill that purpose.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Not officially supported in Maemo 5. If someone brings it fine, but not us. We have been always consistent on this.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

If my opinion is relevant, that wouldn't help anybody.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

In the 3 years I have been working at Nokia I have contributed to at least 3 GREAT news: (by chronological order)

- Qt going LGPL
- Maemo 5 launch
- MeeGo

MeeGo is the best news of all of them, since it contains the implications of the other 2.

About commitment, the MeeGo setting implies a much higher commitment from Nokia: targeting explicitly Nokia's high end devices, co-founding with Intel, under the auspices of the Linux Foundation, more corporate partners to come, many ingredients to expect OSS projects and contributors to come...

And Maemo lovers should feel much better with the MeeGo news. In the short term you will benefit from a much more attractive developer offering. In the long run you are hitting the point yourself:

MeeGo sounds to me much more fit to succeed that a lone Maemo could aim.

Not true. In terms of application developers any announcement done relative to Maemo 6 is equally valid for MeeGo. With Maemo 6 we have been always been clear pushing Qt and also Web Runtime. This is the very same deal for MeeGo, wit the difference that now they will be able to target not only Nokia handsets but also Intel/Atom based devices and whatever MeeGo devices will be announced in the future. And Symbian, but this was also explained already in the context of Maemo 6.

And yes, today Harmattan/MeeGo are still not very clear for application developers. But there is not even an alpha SDK, which is the clearest signal for them. In the meantime Qt 4.6 and the Qt development tools are comming as officially supported to Maemo 5, and we are telling them clearly that this is the best path to reach Harmattan/MeeGo.

Of course we can tell. The future is MeeGo. Harmattan is a bit in between waters but will offer the MeeGo API, which is what matters to most developers. After that pure MeeGo will come to Nokia. No Maemo 6,7,8.


What is the uncertainty? Where can I find the logs or the records to help clarifying?

The average Maemo core developer (working for Nokia) got to know about MeeGo just a little before the rest of you so don't expect all the answers from all of them right now. MeeGo is fundamentally an open project and most of those developers have access to the same information you can get.

Some of us are dealing directly with the bootstrapping process, trying to push outside all the things that need to go out from the Intel/Nokia offices. It's taking some time but we are pushing this as priority number 1.

I see it making it mainstream! Who bets an ice cream? I love ice cream and I want to win lots!!!

Ohh.. wait.. this wouldn't be fair since actually I have insider information.

Still, even without ice cream please remember this bet. :P

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

How many percent of the people who bought an N900 do you honestly believe looked through the videos stored on the turned off device inside the unopened box before they decided that "this is a phone"? Just because some information exists somewhere does not mean that people who needs to buy something knows about it. Seriously, the fact that the N900 is less than basic on phone functionality is not that easy to find out for regular people. And as we clearly see here on the forums, people never expected that they HAVE to find out something like that because 99% of rational people expect that something they buy in the phone section of an electronics store can, you know, do what every other device on that display can do.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

See, I am of two minds when it comes to this. As a Maemo user, I can see that there's a much better chance that the combined forces between Maemo and Moblin will get market penetration than these two as seperate units. Development and momentum will be noticable higher after an initial setback where you have to fight over what forum software, bugboard version, moderation system, community mechanisms etc to use for half a year.

On the other hand, I am also an N900 owner. And as a N900 owner, seeing future benefits for Meego helps little. The initial setback means focus away from my interests. And it's a simple fact that Meego means more change to the core OS than what you'd otherways expect. So fewer of the fixes/improvements might be easily backported. I honestly expect that there will be a higher pecentage of "Fixed in (next version)" when the OS main course is changing, because companies don't like to prioritize to fix code that is about to be replaced anyway. And a lower chance that effort will be used to provide an official Meego version to N900 owners. I for one would easily bet you that ice cream against the chance of an official Meego version on the N900. It's not coming. Any other expectation is wishful thinking.

Of course, we have QT 4.6 applications that in the future can be used without backporting(?). But how many of the applications I use today is QT 4.6 applications? Yes, in a year I might be able to see benefits from QT developments, but that would have happened anyway. And how long till Meego and the developers are talking about QT 5, QT 6? And Nokia will have no economical interest in backporting this. And the developers have an interest in having the best setup, so they'll move on to the next generation hardware. I have little faith in community backporting. As much as I like the idea, I don't think the MER project has done me any good as an N810 owner. I don't expect it to any time soon. And I see enthusiastic MER developers changing course towards Meego already.

As you can see, I am not as enthusiastic about this as you. Yes, it's great for the future of the OS that it's merged with another powerful organization. I am glad for that. But I don't see any of these benefits actually doing anything good for current N900 owners. QT was coming anyway.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Please keep the discussion about how the N900 was marketed since it's actually not relevant for the thread here.

volt, your reasons not to be enthusiastic about MeeGo as N900 owner are all based on the assumption that MeeGo won't run on the N900, but the MeeGo project or Nokia haven't said anything about that. You are free to make your own assumptions but don't forget they are your own assumption. Again, it would make sense to make conclusions only after a first release.

The applications you are using today will be there also tomorrow, isn't it.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Nokia hasn't said anything about my phone being bought back at full price after a year, either. Should I be enthusiastic about that possibility? These are reasons not to be enthusiastic. Unless there's anything to be enthusiastic about, I'm not.


You can say that, but as it turns out, my skepticism has always left me being right. ;)

True. That's not listed on the MeeGo list as a pro, though. If MeeGo hadn't been announced, that would not have uninstalled anything either. Instead, MeeGo gives extra motivation for all the developers of said applications to restart the development of their applications, on the QT platform. Which means less updates than one would expect if they did not have to rely on QT on the next OS platform. So these are real issues where Maemo 5 has in fact been weakened on a mid term.

On a long term, the N900 users will always have the possibility of upgrading software forever if they put some effort into it. But that too was true before MeeGo. (Thanks, Qole!)

So, as an N900 owner I see a long list of obvious short term focus, funding and effort rearrangements. And I fail to see that any of the "new" benefits that will reach the N900 (next year) outweighs the downsides (this year). No, no one will take away all the things N900 can already do. But they will take away resources from development for the N900 and where these resources are put, is less of a gain for the current owners.

Hey, maybe we should move this part of the discussion? It's interesting but offtopic.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question, but I am sorry, I don't understand your answer. Would you mind to elaborate ?

Do you mean for me to have pure OSS Maemo/N900 I would have to port MeeGo to the N900 ? In that case, can I expect all the drivers to be given to the community ?

In my opinion : MeeGo on N900 =/= OSS Maemo/N900 ... so ?

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Does anybody know when the specifics will be released?

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I think the whining should end. Nokia got the message and when they are able to do so they will, hopefully soon, put factual information on the wiki page (and provide the link). Until then it is all speculation...

While I fully understand the frustration about the lack or quality of the communication with the community (and the consumers), the serial interruption of OS's (which was a known fact anyway), and the need to vent these issues clearly, I also believe that at a certain point the page should be turned and people should go back to real work.

Only once the facts are known can real and final judgment be made. Meanwhile I am still enjoying my N810... And I will wait for the next generation to come out.

Regards,
Antonio

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Last off topic comment from me.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. That video was released before the n900 could even be pre-ordered. It also just happened to end up on the device. It was the introduction of the n900 from Nokia's marketing arm.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Thanks for taking time to reply.. I feel more upbeat now abour the feature of maemo. (or meego).. and yeah I will hold u to that bet :)

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Nokia has, however, said things about Maemo 6/Harmattan. Whether MeeGo changes anything about that for the Harmattan timeframe is questionable at best. :)

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

I have read all the 191 posts of this tread but to be honest I still as confused and concerned as ever about the future of my N900. It seems to me that nobody even within Nokia can say whether meego will work on our device (perhaps I should be realistic and read that as a "no" then?) perhaps the simple approach to take by Nokia when meego, was announced was that they would support meamo/N900 for a further, say 2 years, not just make vague suggestions that meego may be possible on the N900 by the community. I feel somebody paying £500/€600 is not expecting too much for the device to be supported until at least it's 2 year warrent expires.

In addition the lack of communication re turn by turn and the Ovi store etc is simply lacking. Why can't nokia tell us if we are going to get full free sat nav on this device and if so approx when. If the answer is never then tell us now and we will stop asking. Also does anybody really know why the Angry Birds level pack was pulled from sale, perhaps if they did there would not be 140 posts on that particular thread?

Perhaps a simply Q&A for these type of questions would stop alot of FUD continually discussing the same issues/concerns.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Here is the first draft : http://wiki.maemo.org/What_can_we_realistically_expect

Is that what you had in mind ?

I shamelessly took your idea for the title of the wiki page. Hope you don't mind.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Well this is agile development in the wild and planning so much ahead is not part of it.... *grin*

The fact that there are no answers speaks a lot, in good and bad. Things are planned, thought and implemented as we speak - and most of the people do not know what the future will entail and absolute answers - with commitments - can't be given.

This situation is rather unique in technology industry. Think about that. Nokia is doing really interesting things here, doing even the right things... but they can't produce a coherent and believable narrative about it. ( my longer rant about subject in my blog http://huima.wordpress.com/2010/02/1...ith-consumers/ )

But what they have created is a great piece of hardware. N900 - as it is now - is already a mighty machine and you can do a lot with it. I haven't yet decided whether I will keep my N900 or sell it forward, but I am looking forward next firmware updates and new software - as N900 has totally changed my expectations on mobile computing.

I see N900 as a great start towards mainstream after few revisions of pure geek and developer devices. But to appreciate N900 you really need to be a power user of online services, messaging and multimedia. I bought the device second hand with just few weeks of use from previous owner and as we speak dozen or so N900 are waiting to be sold in finnish online auctions by users who have used their new device only for a month or so and are now ready to move to Android or iPhone -- platforms with more mature consumer offering.

Mobile users, media and sales channels have been waiting for Nokia's answer to iPhone and N900 is not it, even though people who do not know sh*t try to categorize it as such. And therefore N900 is in really bad position. It is like Brian in The Life of Brian, guy who is just a regular nice fellow but who everyone thinks and wants to be the savior... and eventually the poor sob gets crucified and people sing a long 'Always think of the bright side of life'..

So.. My Expectations for the future are:

- Yes, you get to keep the great hardware you bought

- Yes, you will get firmware updates with incremental improvements to basic functionalities

- Yes you will get great small utilities from the community and from within Nokia in true open source fashion

... but

- No, there will not be cornucopia of new interesting and entertaining applications or games as people will not take the platform seriously compared to competition in consumer markets


This is linux.

You can ssh to your servers and open up openVPN tunnel to your company private network. You can run top and fsck, but do not expect to get new releases from EA or Gameloft.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

@huima:

That was funny and insightful, but my opinion is that you're too pessimistic about the future of Qt/X11/GNU/Linux on a handheld. Up until now, Nokia's really been going it alone, kind of as an experiment. But with Nokia, Intel, an even more open platform, two development communities becoming one, and the new blood that this will attract, I would think this would be reason for optimism. And everyone could finally get their UI bling-bling. This is the new FOSS; this isn't your daddy's FOSS.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

New information: the N900 will be the first ARM reference hardware platform for MeeGo.

http://meego.com/community/blogs/val...owards-day-one

If you wait a little more (PR 1.2 and Harmattan alpha SDK release) you will get more announcements and future plans. I'll do my best hunting for the Ovi Maps answer.

In the meantime I will help with the wiki page. Thanks Mandor for starting it!

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

You just beat me to that Quim. ;) Valtteri's article should go a long way toward clearing things up.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Would you mind, or pehaps somebody else, explain a little more what does it mean.

EDIT : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunk_(software) Google is your friend, Google is ...

Haha ! I know Matan and I share similar views on open source drivers but I can assure you we are distinct entities.

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Sorry! Ammended. Posting at 5:53am has sometimes some risks. :)

Re: Cleaning N900 FUD
 

Seriously, thanks for getting the ball rolling!