Why should I develop for the N800?
 

Ok Nokia,
You got me to register here JUST so I can rant...

So here it goes:

<rant>
I am a programmer by trade and got an N800 a few months ago, mainly for the VOIP capability since I'm heavily into that.

So here it is a few months later and time to upgrade. But, before I hose my system with your update to OS 2008, I want to be VERY familiar with your OS 2007. I also want to investigate it more thoroughly, and to back it up before I hose it with your flash image. So I do what any self-respecting programmer would do, and attempt to install the OS 2007 SDK and play with that a bit, and attempt to load my existing N800 image into it eventually. My plan, if that was successful, was to then do the same with the OS 2008 SDK, and then develop for that.

Unfortunately it seems I picked a particularly bad time...
It seems that all of your N800/810 users are busily downloading the latest OS image and packages and hammering your site. So my SDK install is all screwed up and I can fix it since your site is down.
</rant>

Unfortunately the problem with the downloads got me thinking and reconsidering about my ambition to add some functionality to Maemo:

I mean WTF, any self-respecting distro has at least one mirror... Even Parsix, 99th ranking on Distrowatch, has a mirror. How many mirrors does Maemo have. AFAIK there are NONE! :mad:

Even worse is that the single repository that is Maemo is hosted on an actual N770 connected via 56k wireless router. Even my wireless router's software distro, DD-WRT, seems to have better bandwidth for their server, and they host theirs on an ARM-based server too. . . an actual Linksys WRT54GS router. ;)

So this makes me wonder . . .
What good would it be to develop for this platform when the manufacturer doesn't take it seriously, and when they seem to intentionally restrict distribution of the OS packages? I don't see how anyone can take Nokia seriously after this fiasco. Whether they are intentionally trying to kill Maemo or not, they seem to be doing a good job at the moment of it.

Why am I posting here at ITT, rather than at Maemo.org? Well at least this site seems not to be hosted on an N770. :p

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

Give it time. We're only at step 3 of 5 on their 5-step-plan to total world domination. As things get further along, maemo.org will get the resources it needs. Perhaps *****ing to Nokia Support might be productive?

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

well, nokia sees this as a side project, and really its going to be an accessory for the phones, but as they move to smarter and smarter phones to be competitive, we're falling through the cracks. but we have great guys working on the project, and even though they dont have the resources now, its still a great piece of hardware, and if you program, do it for yourself and the community. make it a better device, and maybe, just maybe they'll take more notice of it. if your looking for a reason to do it, then for the community and yourself. make it what you want it to be. turn it into the mobile device you need. btw, i think were still at step 2, not too sure

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

You thought wrong. Count them, one: 770, two: N800, three: N810. Hey, Presto! Step 3. ;)

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

oh, i thought that the N810 was still step 2 because it was the same generation of devices, sorry i guess i wasnt paying attention

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

But why isn't there a mirror?

ROFL. Maybe it's actually step 3 of 5 of surpassing the only Persian Linux distro with maybe a few users... I mean, seriously, exactly how many Linux users are in Iran, and they at least have a mirror. They also probably host their mirror on something other than a N770. I mean, seriously, doesn't Nokia at least have a something like an N90 server in the US with a cellular connection and not just an N770 server in Finland connected via Bluetooth?

If Nokia wants to be taken seriously, they need to act like Maemo is a serious Linux distribution, and not like it belongs on the Distrowatch has-been list of Debian knock-offs.

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

>> Why should I develop for the N800?

Because you can make some cash. If I had time to develop for the device, I would write a satellite radio app compatible with XM and Sirius. If you create it, I'd buy it.

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

gnexus: Hi. Nice to meet you too. By the way, great way to introduce yourself to the group here. Nothing quite like starting off at a new forum with a rant. What's especially impressive is that you managed to post such a redundant and unproductive one.
0. Could you at least *try* titling your posts appropriately. Maybe instead of "Why should I develop for the N800?" you really meant "Listen to me whine about the mirror situation WRT maemo.org"?
1. There have been like a dozen threads started with this exact rant. Maybe adding your post to one of those would have been better?
2. We're not Nokia. It's not our fault that Nokia's servers are overloaded (except insomuch as we're mobbing them, downloading files.). Many of the users here actually have mirrors up, but they are partial, temporary and/or intentionally not publicized.
3. The situation has already been addressed by Nokia. Nokia is supposedly paying for decent bandwidth and apparently using Akamai for caching but obviously it looks like their setup is in some way screwed up and/or Nokia or a third party dropped the ball.

So, why not send a note to Nokia corporate about it, or call their customer service. AFAIK the only people who work at Nokia and are active on these forums agree with us that the situation sucks right now and aren't in a position to do anything about it. You're preaching to the choir here.

For further reading, please see here

Have a nice day!

-John

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

er, what does afaik mean anyways, sorry i'm new
@john
he's saying that since they have such poor er, server or whatsit, they dont care, so they probably wont come out with any real support for the device that he would be putting time into
really that post was annoying, are you trying to convince him not to better our community, i mean really
just chase 'em away if they dont follow everything exact, really man.
well now i'm ranting, go ahead flame me too....
sorry, that was out of line, going to post it anyway, but still out of line on my part
anyway, the problems show that they didnt expect there to be many of us, or something along those lines
and personaly i like to know what i'm in for, cause i dont like to waste time with somthing that i'm only gonna use the one generation of.
like spending 5 weeks on a program just to find the product is discontunued, dont want crap like that.
rant ended
we need people who can and will program, because this is what the device is about, these ports, and programs. an opensource machine, whose software you can mod like you would on a computer, without those heavy restrictions, and using debian gave us a head start
sory, rant ended now

Re: Why should I develop for the N800?
 

@asqwasqw
AFAIK = as far as I know (I should probably try not to use so many acronyms...). Yes, you're right, sometimes I get carried away. Mainly, when new people show up here and the first thing they do is complain to us about Nokia it rubs me the wrong way. I guess I'm becoming a cranky old geek far before my time. :o Don't be afraid to call me on stuff like this in the future. In fact, I'd appreciate it.

@gnexus
Sorry if I cam across as too snarky. The constant repost of "the servers are slow" is just getting to me a little. Take what I said with a grain of salt, and also realize that the beating Nokia's download servers are taking is a sign of how many users are current N800/N810 owners who are interested in the new OS. Even the unofficial user mirrors have been transferring more than 7GB in an afternoon right around the 2008OS launch. Yes, Nokia should have had more bandwidth, but I have a feeling they really had no idea how many users were going to be stomping on their servers when this was released. What I'd really like to see from Nokia is a promise to get this bandwidth issue fixed ASAP, but also their transfer logs for launch day. I have a feeling that them coming along and saying "We had x many thousands of users downloading 2008OS on launch day!" would go a long way towards getting some more small commercial developers interested. Anyways, sorry if I cam across as too sarcastic/snarky in my reply to you. Hopefully you will stick around here and develop software for the Maemo environment (once you get a chance to download the SDK ;)).

-John