Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

The first three headlines I saw on Maemo.org just now:

Leaving Nokia by Xan Lopez (posted at 13:14)

Leaving Nokia by Tommi Komulainen (posted at 13:14)

Leaving Nokia by Lucas Rocha (posted at 13:17)

Can't be a coincidence, so what is going on?

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Hmm, 2 of them made comments like they all got recruited elsewhere.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

I don't see them, and can't find them...?

EDIT: never mind, they show up in side bar under News.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

On the Maemo.org website?

Go a bit down and you will see in the News section.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Is this the end of internet tablets!!

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

I bet Craig snatched them away.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Rather end of Maemo as we know it.

First results of Trolltech acquisition?

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Benson, yeah, it sounds like they all decided to go somewhere else together (or were they pushed?).

They all used exactly the same headline and posted at almost exactly the same moment, there must be some kind of message they're trying to convey here.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

I was going to post about this too :)

Wonder what's happening over there.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

yes, by all means, rather than perhaps asking one or more of them, let's all just speculate and start rumors.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

They said in the posts that they couldn't talk about it yet, except vague stuff about wanting a new job, so there's not much more we can do except speculate.

It's not them leaving that is attention-grabbing, it's them announcing it simultaneously.

Re: Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

Sounds like a change of direction, and certain roles are not key to new the strategy. If you know what their roles were, it may give a clue...

Re: Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

The next version of ITOS will run Pepper's f*cked-up Keeper software as frontend; nobody will be able to install applications anymore; stylus support will be terminated in favour of iPhone(<spit!>) herd-following finger navigation; the next hardware version of the tablet will run either Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Only joking, I'm sure.

Re: Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

Well, I've tried looking at their blogs but as I know nothing about programming I drew a complete blank.

They were obviously involved in Linux and the tablets, but beyond that... it's all Greek to me. :)

Re: Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

I believe they are from hildon/hildon-desktop team...

Start the speculations :)

Re: Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

OK, I'll start speculating! You say they're all from hildon teams. In light of that, with Canola seeming to be the most aggressively developed Tablet app, and it being developed under the auspices of the Nokia Institute of Technology, this excerpt from a message Marcelo (the public face of the Canola team) sent me might seem relevant:

"we are not a "integrated" application, in a sense that we don't use hildon, gtk, and we do not agree with the UI guidelines for maemo (they are old, and not good for the device, actually they were even not made for the device, it is based on the nokia 7700 and 7710 touchscreen phones from the past : / )"

(Maybe some old-timers or developers know hildon is on its way out, and this is old news; I don't know; but it seems maybe more than coincidental that Canola is anti-hildon and these hildon programmers are exiting.)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

they'll switch to QT ;)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

There are four of them and they are leaving to the same place according to Tommi:

So someone hired them all together? Maybe someone with interest in linux tablets?

Or then again maybe Steve's evil world domination plan? :)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Internet and idle speculation go hand in hand like ... salmiakki and chocolate (actually quite good). :)

Re: Three Nokia Maemo types all post about leaving at once
 

It's not old news if no one knows about it! :)

I certainly hadn't heard this before, that speculation sounds very interesting GeraldKo. Canola certainly does LOOK like a plausible new interface, though as I'm not a developer I have no idea if it's up to the job in other ways.

EDIT: I misunderstood the brazil comment, apologies.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Let's remember there are actually real people we're talking about here - some of them may well be reading, or friends and colleagues.

Idle speculation with pretty much no evidence to support it is probably not helpful. Not everything that happens in the world is connected direcly to us as users of the tablets ;-)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Why did three of the four post absolutely-identically-titled leaving posts simultaneously then?

That can't be a coincidence, they must have been trying to deliberately draw attention to the fact that they were leaving.

If they want attention, they've got it. :)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Why does it have to mean Maemo/Hildon's demise?
IF <(big if), they are leaving simultaneously because of new, common employer; and they all have Maemo/Hildon experience; couldn't that indicate that a new player is adopting it and needs this experience?

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Absolutely. Anything is possible. I think it's already been said before that other companies may use Hildon on their devices, so it would make sense to poach Hildon experts from Nokia.

None of us have the slightest idea what is really going on, this is all speculation. :)

Regarding Maemo/Hildon, I think the above comment was just suggesting that Hildon (the graphic interface) might disappear, not Maemo (the software platform).

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

$sudo drama-mode=1
I think intel and ubuntu would not use a "die-out" technology, eh? :)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

I can speculate too (this is where my nickname came from) they're all off to work at Trolltech, or maybe Fluffy Spider, or maybe Adobe, or maybe Microsoft. Ok, that last one is a bit implausible!

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Perhaps Ubuntu wouldn't... but have you forgotten Itanium?

Yeah, almost everyone did. That's the problem.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Ack! Salmiakki is such an acquired taste... and I haven't. :p

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Canonical? AFAIR Ubuntu Mobile uses Hildon, at least Matchbox.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

ASUS.....,?

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

What Asus have to do with Hildon?

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Maybe they just got hired by Google...
If this happened in Redmond you'd find out if chairs were flying. But in Finland? :)

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Ubuntu Mobile and Intel's moblin (the exact relationship between them is now a lot less clear) both use Hildon.

Hildon is an official part of GNOME, targetted at mobiles. It ain't going anywhere any time soon, and ain't gonna shift from Gtk+.

I suppose it's conceivable that Nokia could stop using Hildon on Maemo, instead going for some Qt4-based thing; but I'd put that in the "extremely unlikely anytime soon" bucket.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

I reckon they are off to Espoo based ElektroBit...

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6420689639.html

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

I think, being capable programmers, they have all simultaneously discovered the exact date they will be abducted by aliens...

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Well, it depends what Nokia understands under term "long term". When buying Trolltech Nokia said they will stand by Hildon in short and medium term - omitting "long term" is IMO significant. Now, what does "medium term" means in mobile corporation world? Texrat probably knows ;)

I suppose this is about year, maximum. Depending how works are advanced on next versions of Maemo/HildonIT it means that they don't need all developers much longer.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

Long term in Mobile world is not an accurate term. Things change so quickly that there is little point in making public the "long term" plans, as you rarely achieve them.

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

...as long as we speculatin', is there a Finnish equivalent of the "Power Ball" jackpot lottery?

Maybe they all chipped in on a winning ticket. :D

Re: Three Nokia types all post about leaving at once
 

As Moby says, companies rarely speculate about their long term plans - especially technology - especially mobile technology - companies.

We don't actually know (and nor should we) that Nokia have a long-term investment in the Internet Tablet concept. We know we're at step 3 of 5: WiMAX could be step 4 in the short term, and then step 5 in the medium term; and then they stop producing them as the "end-goal" of consumer acceptance is still missed.

In fact, they could pull the plug at any time (or, conversely [try to] make it their main revenue stream). I'd say it's general corporate conservatism, rather than an indication of different long term goals.

Software doesn't work like that: you start work on the big features of the version after next whilst the next version is getting polished and ready for release.