If Nokia is smart it creates an N900 built of the first MeeGo images. Many enthousiasts among us will try it and give it a free beta test. That way they can polish things up for their first real MeeGo device. Else I guess their first device will be buggy and "hackers only" again...

great news.

Just a few thoughts... as a N800 owner it's funny to see people freaking out that their device is already obsolete. When Fremantle came out, my old tablet suddenly started getting updates and new features to it's old apps. The device doesn't turn into a piece of suck when it's successor is released. It's still the same device it was when you bought it - only more mature because of all the bugfixes and refinements that came along the way. I cling on to my N800 because for my use cases it is still superior to N900. The same might happen to you with your N900.

So everybody take a chill pill, sit back, relax and see what's coming... I wouldn't rule out that eventually you'll be able to run MeeGo or some community version even on the N8X0 and 770 devices

As somebody looking forward to publish Maemo apps on the Ovi Store (just got my launchpad approval), I'm completely gutted.

The roadmap has been thrown into chaos; we expected the next device to be a relatively small, "evolutionary" step from Maemo 5, which wouldn't have been too difficult to support. Now it's clear that this won't be the case, as Nokia will push to have MeeGo on it.
The move to .rpm is also a huge step backward, and a further burden on existing application developers to repackage all their stuff. Hell, just repackaging the whole OS will be a *huge* effort, I don't think they really understand what they signed up for when they accepted this "small compromise".

I understand the strategic value of the merge; potentially, it gives developers the chance to build applications that will run on Nokia smartphones as well as Intel netbooks and tablets. But the reality is that all these devices will be very different (one word: touchscreen), so probably it won't be realistic to target them all.

This move makes sense also from a Nokia perspective as they will save money and gain OS developers, but they do risk losing many of the app developers -- the ones they really, really need right now -- who will feel let down yet again.

is meego site not rendering right for anyone else?

I'm very disappointed to see the only Debian-based distribution shipped on mobile devices being replaced by a RPM-based MeeGo which is just a renamed Moblin with some additional people from Nokia working on it.

Somehow I find my self wishing for a more neutral place to discuss. It's indeed very understandable that people over here want to express their worries and hopes as N900 owners and Maemo developers, who have just spent a lot of time grokking the OS.

I imagine the same thing happening over the fence ("What Qt! &¤/#!!").

I believe getting forums up on meego.com should be a critical priority, considering that it has become *the* focal point of maemo.org community, even given the choices of IRC and mailing lists. Though I do not know what's the custom in Moblin circles -- maybe we should just move the discussion to the existing meego mailing list?

A place where people from both sides can convene and where the assumed attitude is not what we are losing as Maemo/Moblin people, but what we can gain with new thing. Actually this reminds of a certain inno^Wuniversity reform project happening in Finland .

I'm not entirely sure why the panic on here. Intel and Nokia seem to be talking about MeeGO being truly opensource and hardware compatible. So, if they're taking Maemo 5 and mashing it up with Moblin, isn't it likely the current hardware support will also come.

Secondly, you brought your device for the software it had with it at the time. If Nokia doesn't support MeeGO on the N900, I'm sure they'll carry on with bug fixes and apps will still be written by the community. Also, if MeeGO is truly open-source, shouldn't someone be able to create an N900 port of it?

I for one think this decision to merge with a major hardware developer is pure genius and will provide greater longevity for the Maemo platform. It was too niché - this will give it the boost it needs.

Is rpm more suitable for paid apps? Perhaps they are avoiding another ovi store free apps embarrassment. Not that I have high hopes for the MeeToo appstore: why would anyone get locked in to one appstore for x86 linux applications?

My only hope for MeeGo is more up to date libraries so porting gets easier.

You don't really expect an answer to that, do you?