... :-| ...

Since we're all speculating where things will be going - let me toss in a few thoughts: The one thing that I have come to realise I love the most about my N810 is not the device itself, but all the software you guys have been contributing and porting. That to me, is probably THE distinguishing factor. And yet, is open source not also a hinderance to mainstream acceptance? The fact that it took so long to get a wordprocessor working, while there are umpteen music/media players - is that a reflection of the open source community all being music listeners, but none of them caring about writing a quote for a customer to get some dosh in the door? Still no PDA apps? Spreadsheet? (with respects to gnumeric which isnt cutting it yet) The N8xx is a great leisure device, but at my office and at my desk I switch on 'mainstream' office apps. Now here is my question - Is there space in the Maemo ecosystem for software developers to write commercial apps? And before all the purists howl in indignation, think for a moment; by excluding mainstream commercial app developerment, is Maemo and the tablets not running the risk of always being the domain of the after-hours anarchic (said with the greatest love and admiration) computer geek? How does the community go about getting the tablets to be mainstream? Is that where it should go? Or should it remain the device-of-choice for the few in-the-know? Put another way - are there commercial opportunities in the Maemo/tablet world, short of reselling tablets?

Maybe the future will be segmented as follows: teenagers and trendistas on iphones, businesspeople on blackberries, middle-of-the-roaders on Nokias/samsungs etc and geeks on Maemo devices? This would be my worst case scenario - leaving the masses beholden to the carriers and a bunch of hardcore open sourcers (you guys) feeling superior and smug about making free telephone calls (to SOME people) and getting free TV (to SOME stations) and getting free 5 year old games, but wondering why all the money flows to the other side and the action happens around the latest sexy UI that we all know actually does very little, but looks good? I repeat - How does Maemo/tablets get to go mainstream?

geeks dont care about fancy typesetting, as long as they get their tab lengths correct

remember, geeks wear t-shirts, not shirt and tie...

but hey, i dont have a problem with commercial software, as long as nokia do not block of the hackers (in the classical sense) to cater to the commercial vendors.

still, geeks have other options coming, with things like bug labs products, pandora and openmoko. hell, even android may be interesting (altho im cautious about that one).

as for feeling smug and superior, i thought that job was taken by the apple faithful

but then maybe your asking the wrong question. rather then asking how, maybe one should ask:

do maemo need to go mainstream?

Talking on the same subject of UI - desktop vs Mobile (I am also interested in the UI design aspect of mobile apps) ...

There is this factor that I consider appropriate for the mobile device ...
if we look at the MS office (or OO) and see how many options its has as a full fledged word editor and then look at Google Docs (in its initial form at least), and Google Docs as a web office app - has less menus, less clutter - more web centric and quite different from the desktop counterpart (of its competitors) with less functions too.

But I can create a basic word document in Google DOC and share it collaboratively - and then on the desktop - I can export to MS Word and enhance it and upload back into Google doc again with all the formatting more or less intact.

This is the paradigm I am looking at from a mobile app perspective ...
on the mobile application it should allow finger friendly (or stylus friendly - but less menus pls) interface, scaled for a smaller screen foot-print, and take mobility into question when designing it. This way it allows for basic to intermediate functions.
The desktop counterpart of the same app would then allow to enhance ths basic skeleton with more enhanced functions and use that again on the mobile device.

This is of course relevant to apps which have a desktop application counterpart (ported apps, or multi-platform based apps).

But straight away using the desktop application on the mobile device is a bit defeating I think.

And this analogy can be extended the other way - Tablet to phone (think about Tabletblogs 'Ntropy' post).

The tablet can act as a extension to the phone apps (at least based on Nokia platform S60) and extend their cabability - like a SMS/MMS app on the Nokia tablet which actually talks to the phoe app and send the SMS thru the phone (like it already does to some extent).

Or have a Flickr app - which can view the photos off the phone and then allows one to add tags/descriptions on the tablet before uploading to web. (and I am not talking about transfering over BT and then doing the same job on the copy on the tablet)

These are just examples of what I believe would be a good symbiosis of different platforms to work cohesively together. That is were the power of a open mobile platform can really shine. (of course standard protocols are needed for this).

Just my 2 cents of imagination and thought.

Hey, not true. Which is why we have LaTeX.

Me either; I think while the general opinion is that the platform should be (a lot more) open, there's a lot of room for closed source and/or commercial apps; right now we have several third-party closed apps, but none that cost money (that I'm aware of; they're all subscription-based); there's been substantial interest in getting some closed, and presumably money-costing, apps ported, but most of the "real apps" shops are not interested, as we're even nicher than desktop Linux.

In a sense, going (closer to) mainstream is what's needed to get any apps, but that needn't indicate any change in the platform; a sufficient influx of advertising $ would do it. (Not that that would make any sense, as the benefits probably wouldn't be worth the cost, but it would be possible if some philanthropic billionaire wanted to.)

You know, the disappointing, ugly truth is that the "community" didn't work the way it could have.
I see very promising changes happening now, but during the first years, I was a little disappointed at how little software-development (or even porting) there was. PIM-suite... OMG! Remember everyone crying for Nokia to add PIM functionality? If somebody at Nokia really wanted to let the whole tablet-line die, all he'd have to do is highlight the fact that the community couldn't even produce what it obviously wanted most: a maybe simple, but solid, well-integrated calendar and contacts application.

I'm a purist, but I won't howl in indignation. There is room for commercial apps, sure. Look at this navigation software (I forgot what it's called) that's pre-installed but you need to pay for if you use it. Or Skype. Skype is a commercial application of course, even though it doesn't cost anything.
Of course there's room.

The question is if there's need. I consider myself a very average user. In a Windows world, I'd use MS office (at least World, Excel and PowerPoint), Internet Explorer, Photoshop (or more likely something slightly less powerful), Outlook of course, a few chat and IM applications, media players of all kinds, RSS readers... well. That kind of stuff.
I don't use Windows at home and I can do everything the listed applications would do for me with non-commercial programs. So I don't see a need for commercial vendors to provide anything. Free (as in freedom and beer) software is not made by amateurs during rainy weekends. Most of it is done by professional companies. The quality is the same, the business model is different.

The situation with Maemo could be slightly different. The community failed to produce or even port the wealth of software that would be needed for such a device. Maybe it would be wise to let commercial vendors step in to jump-start the whole process, show off the power of the platform, thereby attract people who say "Oh, if they can do it, let's see if maybe I can do even better"... could work.

Well, turns out the dsme open sourcing may not be as much of a coup as it should've been. In fact, it may turn out to be more of a token open sourcing, as a lot of its logic may be being move to mce (which will remain closed).

Only second-hand hearsay at the moment, but it doesn't look very promising. I suppose we'll know for sure when Nokia (finally) gets around to releasing the code.

If it does turn out to be just a token gesture, and dsme has just been stripped down to a bunch of function calls to mce. . . . Oh boy, Nokia, you're gonna get destroyed. I will personally see to it that you get nothing but bad press for pulling a stunt like this.

That would be... irritating, to say the least. Your help will be appreciated, of course, but I can't see how any other outcome is possible. If they do that, it'll be one of the greatest "What were they thinking?" moments of all history.

I suppose we should be trying not to be too upset until we know for sure, but hopefully if they are doing it, they'll read the reaction here and come to their senses.

Well, I don't expect it to get them to do anything, but I definitely can't let them skate by pulling a stunt like that.

What I meant, specifically, was your help ensuring they get bad press over it. (The "outcome" was getting bad press, contingent on proceeding.) It may not be too late for them to abandon such a plan (if they're on it), but if that is their plan, and if they proceed, nothing will stop them from getting bad press.