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danramos's Avatar
Posts: 4,672 | Thanked: 5,455 times | Joined on Jul 2008 @ Springfield, MA, USA
#174
Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
And if they do, they're hanging themselves. That will (hopefully) have nothing to do with MeeGo proper.
Don't you think that Nokia has the potential to make MeeGo a failure? Will MeeGo proper run anywhere else where that won't be a problem, then?

Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
With hope, MeeGo will be able to move faster than Android as it pulls from numerous other sources, each of which providing far more focus on their part, rather than banking on a single provider for everything except the kernel.

And if you're a hardware vendor? You can say "MeeGo Powered" in an about box and place -your- branding all over instead of Google's. And maybe (just maybe) they could start pressing the US carriers to not demand exclusivity and crippling branding.
Considering you're also fighting Nokia's unbelievably source code closed-mindedness and the very likely push-back from carriers, how (please tell!) do you think this will go? Simply saying, "You can put 'MeeGo Powered' on your menu!" isn't a selling point--it needs to mean something that CUSTOMERS want, and the whole "your branding" is silly--anyone can already do that with Android. I've got Verizon apps on my Droid that came with it and it's clearly a Verizon phone. Let's not underestimate things with the carriers and competition, here.

Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
Did I say that having the closed bits was OK? No, I said that it's unavoidable in the ARM space, and short of buying an Aava Mobile handset we aren't getting a fully open handset any time soon.

I didn't say you said it was okay. I said, and I quote, "I thought Nokia had provided binary driver bits for Maemo before too. How did that work out? How was getting bugfixes and updates for them? Still seems hostile to open-source. Also, I highly recommend you read http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...00704191126134"

You clearly didn't bother to actually read what I said before you reacted and you didn't read the article... I'll address this in my next response below...

Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
The best we can do is push it out of the core such that the OS is in no way crippled by its exclusion.
And crippling is the whole problem. Your OS will either NOT run, or will not run reliably or well on every device that decides that "open core" is a great idea! Effectively, open-core is crippling. RTFA. :P

Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
Unlike, say, the closed bits of Maemo that make it useless without them or the example you cite. If anyone tries to push for that, you blame the handset manufacturer and don't buy their device. I'd rather not toss in the trash all of the work done by the open source community in exchange for a stack that was never meant to be open to begin with, just because it's got a tiny lead.
Well, given Nokia's trend so far, it doesn't sound like they'll be selling like hotcakes. I'm not sure why Nokia is involved. They OWNED that whole process in Maemo. I'm not sure why you think MeeGo will be a success if it's being based around Nokia's crappy choices of open-source hostile components.

Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
Believe me, I want an open device, top to bottom. But the way things are, it's a wash so I'll support a push for a handset OS that isn't controlled totally by a single entity and keep hounding hardware companies for open drivers.
Hopefully MeeGo will see adoption by another handset vendor and Nokia's influence won't be felt.
And there's "the thing." I don't have a lot of faith in MeeGo until I see someone else involved. Nokia has been an utter disappointment. If Nokia was a guy, I would have kicked his legs out and repeatedly kicked him in the ribs, for the way they've made me feel as a repeat customer of their crap over the last couple of years. I'm only glad I'm not THAT dependent on their products, despite their attempts through crippling. I wish they'd concentrate on making the products we WANT and supporting their customers.

Good luck to MeeGo. If I had to wager, though, my guess is that it'll fade away to obscurity like a lot of similar attempts (uLinux, we hardly knew ya! Yopi was cute. Maemo.. well, you made a good first impression and then you got really ugly and mean.). heh