I won't answer... I'll let the Nokia-hosted MeeGo conference about N900 DE explain it for me:



Please read line one aloud: "This is and will not be for regular end users." Period. You can read the whole text and see more slides by clicking here.

Even the presenter, near the end of the demo video, notes that the camera still has issues, and overall "it needs work... But is surprisingly overall good." Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Don't get me wrong. I would love to see MeeGo on the N900. I'm glad it's being worked on and developed. But it's simply not in a state to replace Maemo and still be a functional, stable, every-day full-use device. Maemo has that right now, and even it took time to get there. Do you really expect people to punch the reset button and go back to PR0.8 stability for an OS that's not supported and may or may not every be fully solid and released?

If anything, I see source from Meego DE being pulled by the community udpate teams to be adapted and replace Maemo closed-source code, not the other way around. Again, I'm not discouraging code from flowing in either direction. This is just what I predict. And I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time)!

In the end though, it would be much easier to make a renewed appeal to Nokia to open parts of Maemo. That's been going on, but has stalled as Nokia shifted its attention to WP7. A large community campaign may get their attention, and rattle the cage enough to get their attention. Worst case, they'll do what they've been doing: Continue to ignore the end user and consider the old product line mothballed.

I see no harm in trying again. I don't expect a different result than before, but I don't see any harm in trying. If you think it's a wasted effort, so be it: Don't participate in it. Want to see real wasted effort? There are people still hacking OpenMoko on the FreeRunner. Go check out that effort and tell me asking Nokia for source is more futile.

I say go for it. Ask again. Make a petition... Picket an office if it will help. The worst case scenario is we get nothing more than we have now. I don't see a reason to discourage it if someone has the energy to try again. Smash into that wall again... who knows, it may crumble this time? Or not...