Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

The N9 was born under odd circumstances. It was unloved by its parent and omitted from major markets for fear that it would cannibalize the sale of another product. It has a fresh and wonderfully simple UI and praised by reviewers worldwide who nevertheless pronounced it a dead os walking.

The N9’s current weakness is apps but commercial developers are not interested as Elop has dealt it a death blow with no more Meego phones hence apps like Collins/Oxford dictionaries and MS Office editors are unlikely to appear. There are some good commercial games released but the N9 will need more than a few nifty games to survive. It is clear from the onset that the N9 will have to depend on an enthusiastic user community for apps just like the N900 which was discontinued and abandoned by Nokia.

But do we have a Meego-Harmattan user community? The short answer is “No.” There is a cohesive Maemo community but this group is resisting the transition to Harmattan although their N900 phones have been discontinued and can only get less with attrition. They have not ported most of their apps over and are still talking about creating new apps for their discontinued N900 like old men clinging to their last strands of hair.

A case-in-point is the FM radio app. The N9 has FM radio hardware but no app. The API for this was done but hard for non-programmers as it could only be used in developer mode with command lines. Then somebody cobbled a rough GUI for it. It was workable but rough and had no presets. Then the app is just left like that although it is the only FM app for N9. There was no interest to polish the app but someone else is doing a very nice FM radio app for the defunct N900 called QRadio. The only way to describe this is pathetic. I’m not referring to the developer who heroically spent an afternoon to write the GUI but the legions of hapless N9 owners who are still waiting for a decent FM Radio app.

Most of the N9 apps coming out are repeats, too specialized, region specific, does a simple function or just pointless. There seem to be little interest in doing essential apps like a wi-fi analyzer or QR code reader but there seem to be an inordinate amount of timers. App development is now dependent on a new crop of novice developers who can only produce simple stuff at the moment. I’m not denigrating their efforts but where are the ones who can really contribute? Are they too engrossed in their N900s?

The N9 is the spiritual successor to the N900 but the Maemo community has not embraced the new platform. This is a devastating blow to the N9 which was depending on this community’s support for a kickstart in life, to sell massively and gain a foothold. The worldwide success of N9 may cause Nokia to rethink its WP7 only strategy. A new N9 community will eventually build up but is there time before the curtain falls?

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

Exactly what I want to say but I want to keep calm and wait a bit longer

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

I know that Lardman currently works on port of his QR code reader for Harmattan. :)

Also, the "original" Maemo community didn't form overnight.

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

Can you port mieru or cbrPager to harmattan ?
I don't like the current comic book reader of N9 ( Meecomic)

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

I hope for a stardict app for n9 that can use the dictionary data on my Oxford advanced learner dictionary CDROM

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

Isn't "Meego-Harmattan" "Maemo6"? So in a sense this is the "Meego-Harmattan" user community, right? Plus the devs here are working for your platform (I don't have an N9), there's even an ongoing Meego Coding Competition.

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

The N9 is not the successor to the N900. The N950 might possibly have been (if they'd slapped a real Maemo desktop on it), but the N9 is a botched, stymied, neutered little ****** baby who was DOA and has nothing going for it. This is not like with the N900 - you knew before you even bought it that the N9 was a dead end.

Also, where do you get off making demands for anything from a group of unpaid enthusiasts who are free to do (or not do) whatever they want? Your anger should be solely directed at Nokia.

I will stick with my N900's to the end of time - or at the very least I certainly won't look to the N9 as a possible replacement. Nokia is dead to me. Let them go the Windoze route and see if I care.

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

I'm actually working on a Harmattan GUI for Mieru right now at this very moment. :)
You can even check my progress on the Mieru project Github page.

I might even do a release this weekend, if everything goes right. :)

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

N900 was a dead end device even before released too :) Harmattan was announced a few month before N900 if I remember it correctly.

I have N900 but I don't use it - the Harmattan UI is nice one but you can still feel the old Maemo roots there.

Re: Do We Have a Meego-Harmattan User Community?
 

You seem to be forgetting that for the community to transition to Harmattan, the members of the community needs an N9(50). But most of us do not have one. This is partly due to the price and partly because many have migrated to other platforms (android) disgusted with Nokia.

Also if I remember correctly, for the N900, lots of devices were distributed to developers at various conferences. This is not really the case for the N9. EDIT: It seems I am mistaken. See pycage's post below

All you can do is hope that slowly over time an enthusiastic community forms around your beloved N9. No use calling this community "old men clinging to their last strands of hair".