I think 'a' instead of 'the' reference device is more suited. There's really no real alternatives to a handset reference device on ARM side that's out right now.

As well as price level will continually drop, making it an ideal developer platform for MeeGo as well.

We're collecting wood for making a bonfire instead of pissing ourselves to keep warm in MeeGo for N900 - the hardware adaptation has to be able to be maintained over a long time.

If you're wondering on what exactly N900 hardware specific has to be maintained:

ARM port will be maintained for a long time in MeeGo. It isn't going away tomorrow.

Besides the ARM port, we then have kickstart files specific to N900. These have very little different from what Aava kickstart has - so very little maintenance there, just adjust some text once in a while.

Then we have the blobs and such. I can't find exactly where, but the main principle is that hardware vendors (TI, Nokia (HW!), Intel) are expected to contribute these things to MeeGo directly. Be it redistributable blobs or open code. When contributing, these companies should keep them maintained as it affects their own customers' ability to build a product using MeeGo for their hardware (not only Nokia as customer).

Currently we have SGX libraries (TI/ImgTec), BT firmware (not sure if it's TI or Broadcom), BME (Nokia).

And then we have the remainder of the hardware adaptation: bits and pieces in Ofono (Things to turn on the modem, not exactly rocket science. As well as our scripts, http://meego.gitorious.org/meego-device-adaptation

Now, it doesn't exactly take a PhD to maintain what is truely N900 specific. It's a really small hardware adaptation when taking away what's shared with other devices.

However, let's say that the blobs were maintained - how many paid man-months remaining do you hope to be done, as a customer, for N900 to be maintained in MeeGo?

.. and how many man-months can the community deliver?

The more we work together on this, the more paid resources exist for the really important things. The more capable you get now, the more able you are to be putting in man-months for N900 hardware adaptation maintenance and keep it working, yourself.

On a sidenote, did you know that we've released a new weekly image on http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/meego-codedrop.php yesterday? And it performs a lot better? Video at http://youtu.be/DO6884Xzj1c

We're also moving quite well ahead in terms of fixing things: