Texrat, when you talk about hardware uncertainty, are you talking about the rapid pace of obsolesce right now? I've been seeing that too, but then again, it's not at all unexpected. Especially since we're nearing the top arc of a tech boom period. It goes in cycles and has since the first steam engine, although the peaks and valleys are getting slightly closer together as time progresses.

This upswing should petter out in the next year or two as people grow tired of the overly rapid change of things, and we'll soon settle into more moderate changes in hardware. Things like point oh releases instead of full versions, to use software versioning for my example. So for example, once the speed of improvement slows again as it did around 2000, devices like the n810 would no longer become superseded within 9 months to 2 years by a new product. Instead you'd have things where the n810 would become the N810a with a few minor improvements, but still sold as the n810, and it would remain an active product for the better part of 3-5 years rather than 9-24 months.

I think that when the rate of hardware change slows again here soon, and people have time to catch their breath, volunteer work will pick up again, because, like myself and thousands of others, we don't like to spend countless hours on something, only to find out it's going to be obsolesced tomorrow. So a lot of people are skittish about hardware right now because it's obsolescing so fast. Of course, in the MID and IT markets, you almost have to right now until the MIDs/ITs get to a settling point, likely somewhere in the area the rumored n900 will rest.

With Maemo 5, and the n900, things should settle down for a while with the Nokia NITs and after it does, you should see things pick up again on the community side.