No QA ?
 

This will probably end up being more of a rant then anything useful so if you're not interested you can stop reading now. :D

Why does it seem just about any app you install or un-install has the possibile ability of killing your NIT/OS forcing you to reflash ?

Is EVERY app available then considered a beta ?

If you download any apps from Maemo why don't these apps go through some sort of a QA process, even by other members before they are "approved" for mainstream consumption.

Perhaps a rating system or a readiness rating could be incorporated on apps avail through Meamo, something that more or less guarantee's the app not to kill your NIT's OS ?


I realize that many apps discussed here in the ITT forums are new, on the bleeding edge and as such maybe we need to have some sort of separation between apps that are tried and tested and those that aren't.

I'm just getting sick of having to re-flash my system and go through and re-install all my apps because someone forgot or missed something in their coding, that should have been caught before hand.

I've had to re-flash at least a doz times since I got my tablet a little more then a year ago, this is ridiculous.

I'm not even gonna bring up the whole Open Source OS vs MS Windows thing, because could you hear the endless screams and rants from every Windows owner if they had to re-install their OS just because they DL and installed an application and it either messed up their OS' registry or you no longer want it but can't get rid of the residue from the app unless you reformatted and had to start all over ?

These types of things are holding back the NIT from ever going mainstream.

We NEED applications that WORK period, and don't require learning command line utilities etc. to either make it work or to fix it when it messes up our systems.

It seems the more and more I use my NIT the less I want to because everything seems to be twice as hard to do then it would on any other platform.

We are on our 3rd gen/iteration of OS and we still have these types of problems, it's inexcusable and unacceptable.

Re: No QA ?
 

For apps from downloads.maemo.org I would have to agree with you. Some basic sanity checking and QA should be part of the process. There *is* already a rating system there, though, so please use it and comment on apps that have broken your system in the past. Maybe that bug doesn't happen for other people, so it's worth describing what happened to you.

Re: No QA ?
 

It does? Never happened to me.

Most Linux software is considered permanent beta. But it is beta than nothing, right?

Nokia's in-house apps go through QA process, but it is unreasonable to expect general open-source stuff to undergo the same rigorous testing.

I installed dozens of apps from maemo.org and did not manage to kill NIT OS so far. While it may be possible, it is very unlikely.

You may have some other problem not related to general quality of NIT community-developed apps.

Things you are talking about do not seem to happen with 99% of users. You may have some other problem affecting your NIT.

Re: No QA ?
 

I have never, ever been forced to reflash my tablets because of installing or uninstalling an app from maemo.org. Not once.

It sounds like your tablet might have hardware or other problems if you're forced to reflash, especially if it's happening so often. You might want to consider getting a repair or replacement under the guarantee.

If you want to troubleshoot this, perhaps you should give some specific examples of apps you've had problems with rather than saying "just about any". We could then try installing them and compare what happens.

Re: No QA ?
 

The last 3 issues I've had were 1-before there was a Canola Cleanup script, only way to get it to work was a reflash which I did, 2-Yesterday OMWeather, updated it and had the white box of doom, (was finally able to disable it after half a doz restarts) 3-Last night I installed then uninstalled Statusbar Clock, now I don't have the ability to show Battery level, Connection or Status, the check boxes for those are grayed out now.(I've not reflashed yet, but looking more like it by the minute) And how annoying is not having the battery indicator ? In the middle of an earlier post my tablet shut off midstream.

Re: No QA ?
 

I still think this Bora repo should be removed from gronmayer OS2008 list. Probably the main reason for reflashing. I'll drop 'em a mail now.

EDIT: I did install the statusbar clock and omweather and removed them at least once. No problems at all. But you're right about the Canola Cleanup - at least once for me it didn't detect the OS version and refused to run.

Re: No QA ?
 

I'd heartily disagree with that assessment. I've had the Bora repo enabled since I flashed OS2008, and I've installed a lot of things out of it without any trouble.

Though the necessity of it is certainly less significant since most everything important has been moved to Chinook extras (unlike November 2007).

Re: No QA ?
 

Yes, but how will the user know what to install out of it and what is dangerous?

Re: No QA ?
 

There's nothing in there that's particularly dangerous as far as I can tell. If it's a Bora/Chinook issue, then it simply wont install due to dependency issues. . . .

Re: No QA ?
 

Okay, then i won't contact them about it.

Re: No QA ?
 

I should reiterate. Yes, contact them, all of the important stuff has been ported and is in Chinook Extras these days, so it's really no longer necessary to have Bora Extras around in the OS2008 section (Python was moved long ago).

I'm just being argumentative because it's almost 4 in the morning and I can't sleep. :p ;)

Re: No QA ?
 

Sent.

[random gibberish to fit in the limit :)]

Re: No QA ?
 

Maemo Bora repo was removed from OS2008 repo list.

Re: No QA ?
 

I too have never ever had a problem like the OP described. I've flashed 1.5 times, first to upgrade to the Skype-compatible OS, then another where I flashed the kernel only, for the SD corruption fix. Never had to reflash because of an application problem. I install a lot of software, although not Canola or other media player stuff. I'm on OS2007 though.

Re: No QA ?
 

So, are you volunteering?

Re: No QA ?
 

See also http://www.maemopeople.org/index.php..._muliple_repos - some of the ideas contained therein (although I take no credit for them) are progressing under the misnamed maemo2midgard project on garage (autobuilder, promotion interface)

Re: No QA ?
 

I've installed things that I didn't even know what they were just to get an idea, and they didn't force me to reflash. We have been getting some wonderful apps that seem to me to be practically miraculous, such as Numpty Physics and the screen rotater, etc, so I think this is a funny thing to complain about.

Here is my complaint: Damn! This stuff is all free! Damn them, how dare they!

Re: No QA ?
 

uhh half the fun of this is seeing what does what and how to fix it....i do sorta agree with there needs to be some sort of peer review but i understand that that is bad as well....so theres got to be a middle ground