While I agree that there are serious issues with the build system (especially since Fremantle came online... and it's basically trashing everything because it's being overwhelmed), I've heard that Nokia is also providing several new servers along with a completely overhauled/fixed build setup so that things will be faster. My understanding of it right now is that EVERYTHING (Maemo.org stuff, autobuilder for Chinook, Diablo, Fremantle, Garage, etc) are running off of a single server. That poor little server!

However in the mean time the argument to say "the autobuilder is preventing more applications" is in my mind not accurate at all. Okay, so let's say worst case scenario your app takes 2 days to build in autobuilder... If that's your product release/app release, then 2 extra days for people to wait doesn't exactly mean "there are less apps available because of it". Sure things get backed up a bit, but you're still talking about final releases here. I think the bigger problem is that many people are using autobuilder as their "testing compiler" instead of compiling locally.

For example, when I build a new version of one of my apps, I'll compile locally, test it on my device to make sure it installs/uninstalls properly.. then I'll upload the compiled .deb to the project Garage page, and post links for others to "test install" with. Once they say it's good to go and there are no major problems/changes to be made, THEN I submit to autobuilder... sure it takes a little bit for autobuilder to process and things to show up in extras, but after you finish writing a commerical application it takes a LOT MORE time to get that application published and out to store shelves...

So should things be faster... yea definitely... is the fact that things are slower than ideal holding back the whole community and development process? No way...