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Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
Mer for Nokia 770 N800, N810W, and X86, version 0.7
Information about Mer can be found at http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer and release information and released files on http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Releases/0.7. It also has a list of known issues so please read them through first before installing. If the pages show white, force reload (temporary problem). If you own a N8x0(W), use the installer mentioned here. 770 instructions here Next release is 15th February 2009 (0.8). Highlights of this release: * Now with working osso-xterm * Hildon application manager & control panel * Now with zipped VMDK image (approx 183mb) so you can run Mer both in VirtualBox and VMware and other VMDK-supporting virtual machine software. You can use this to try out Mer on your x86 or even develop applications for Mer. * 770 support (thanks to RST38h for spotting an unaligned data access in sapwood) * Clipboard support and improved first boot wizard * Python bindings for hildon, GTK, etc * Droid Sans fonts in use in theme * Better N8x0 installer and .install file to make it easier to install * Proper localization strings (Now Home instead of home_ap_home_view) * Gnome-keyring is now pacified and not bothering you when connecting to WiFi networks. * An error is showed if incompatible bootmenu is used. Mer is still a work in progress and as such you should not expect too much of it - feel free to join and help us out if you think something is missing :) Thanks to the people involved in the sprint 0.7 that has lead to this release: b-man, wazd, zenvoid, Jaffa, johnx, DarkenCZ, qwerty12, RST38h, r2d2rogers, Meizirkki & thopiekar and others who contributed but not mentioned here - and thanks to Maemo SW for the updated Fremantle components in Fremantle pre-alpha2 SDK. If you would like to participate, read through http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/People and http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Sprints and see if there's anything you can help out with. We're on #maemo (or #mer) on FreeNode, IRC, if you'd like to hang out and discuss. -- Together with this 0.7 release we would like to ask the members of this forum a question, since we will be bringing Fremantle components to the N8x0(W), 770 devices. There are quite interesting discussions with Nokia going on about being able to provide community firmware images through maemo.org to Nokia tablet users, which could include closed source applications, drivers, etc. (see http://wiki.maemo.org/Task:Community...e_distribution). Associated with that we have to provide a list of what packages/applications, bits and pieces of Diablo we would like to distribute as part of these images, for legal discussion. We would then like to ask you users, what you would expect as part of these future firmware images, and to write why these ought to be part of the community firmware images - why are they important for you to have on your tablet. Please restrict yourself to the closed source components as part of your answers. If you know of a proper open source replacement for a closed source component, you are welcome to write these as well so we can consider these for inclusion in the standard images. If they are OK to just to be downloadable through the Application Manager, note this as well. -- Obligatory screenshots: http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/mer-ossoxterm.png http://trac.tspre.org/qwerty12/libdr...reenshot02.png http://bsd.tspre.org/~stskeeps/mer-locale.png http://www.flegg.org/~andrew/mer-ham-02.png |
Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
nice, i think i may give it a spin in a VM.
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Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
New skin for the old ceremony... err, no sorry : new life for my old 770 ? :-)
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Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
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I suppose opening Flash and many other things are not at the discretion of Nokia. Hopefully, Nokia can open the few UI elements that are not already open. Referencing but hopefully not repeating the discussion, my main expectation is that a community platform would permit the HW keys on the legacy devices to be used to their full advantage. This includes not only the D-pad; I for one would expect the zoom +/- and fullscreen/switch view keys to continue to work and be available in the software stack. The reason is that it would make it easy for people to develop apps that take advantage of the legacy devices. Second, this may be tangential but I hope from your Jaiku thread we can take solace that Mer will not use a CC NC or GPLv2 license for the base elements of the platform. The community will benefit if there can be full development of apps. |
Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
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Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
Congrats on this new release. For me, seeing the localization fixed is a big deal; you are polishing the project to the point where things are looking finished.
As for closed-source components: why don't we start with the assumption that if Nokia or the community doesn't currently provide a sufficient open-source alternative, we're going to need the closed-source component? By "sufficient" I mean a replacement that does everything that the closed-source component does, even if the interface is a bit clunky or something. The Flash player, for example, really doesn't have an alternative at the moment. The open source alternatives (gnash, swfdec, etc) just aren't fast enough for the tablet processor (at least not from my tests). |
Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
Two fixes - installer was built with a stupid libc6 dependancy, and 770 image was not complete.
770 image md5sum: 4293d50c69df172e02195f138d3fde69 |
Re: Mer v0.7 release, and community firmware contents discussion
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We cannot expect everything handed to us with source and everything, but Nokia is doing something unprecedented in mobile devices, which they should be applauded for - they're inviting the community to actively remix the OS running on their hardware and are working with the community to provide legal framework and ability to distribute the remixes from maemo.org when they are produced. Quote:
So, to get discussion back on track: I'll be missing word completion (HIM), Skype and ICD (operator wizard) - those are the closed source bits I use the most and find most valuable, and they are very hard to find direct open source replacements for. |
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I don't mean to take the topic to something you don't want to discuss and if you instead want to focus on the nuts and bots. Thanks again for all your work. |
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