Thread: OS2008 upgradable to Maemo 5? Fremantle for 770, N800, N810?
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GeneralAntilles is offline GeneralAntilles
2009-11-04 , 01:48
Posts: 5,478 | Thanked: 5,222 times | Joined on Jan 2006 @ St. Petersburg, FL
#76
Originally Posted by Tintin View Post
- creating a p/t position for one person whose responsibilities is not focused on Mer,
Don't forget the long-view, the distmaster's job will make Mer easier to support (as it will hopefully reduce the number of idiosyncrasies that need working around) and, potentially, eventually eliminate the need for Mer as a separate distribution altogether.

Originally Posted by Tintin View Post
Since you have a lot more insight into what Nokia's support includes I'd be interested if you could outline them. It intrgues me how a corporation would accomplish this and, in a way, how much they consider it's worth to spend on such an undertaking.
To outline a few of the endeavors Nokia has undertaken to support both Mer and existing device owners:
  • Open sourcing the N8x0 WiFi drivers. Nokia worked with ST-NXP to get them to release the specs for the STLC4550 and STLC4560 found in the N800 and N810. They also have a full-time developer working on developing the open source drivers.
  • Open sourcing certain Nokia-owned proprietary components. Nokia has open sourced some of their in-house proprietary software for use in Mer.
  • Relicensing existing Nokia-owned proprietary components for redistribution. Those components that haven't been opened have been relicensed so they can be redistributed.
  • Working with TI and ImagTech to get PowerVR drivers released for the OMAP2. At the Summit, TI announced that that would be releasing PowerVR MBX drivers for the OMAP2 which will allow us to run Hildon Desktop from Maemo 5 on N8x0 devices.
  • Sponsoring Mer developers to the Mozilla Maemo Danish Weekend. Nokia sponsored several Mer developers (some from overseas) to the Danish hackfest.
  • Sponsoring Mer developers to the Maemo Summit. Nokia also sponsored most of the Mer developers to the Maemo Summit.

These are just some of the specific instances I can come up with from memory, there are others and this doesn't cover more generic stuff like infrastructure and development support. Nokia has definitely gotten behind Mer and it definitely wouldn't be where it is today without their efforts.
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