Only one word fits that:

D'oh!

Just got this update on Meego:

Status summary for supported hardware
=====================================


Highlights and Issues:


Handset, Aava:

* Music player crash reported in the preview release are no longer seen.
* Email icon is still unavailable (now a red block is seen in its
place) (Bug 7003)
* Logical strings appear on the settings applications (Bug 7612)
* Screen is blank on start up, tapping on the screen once shows up
the home screen (Bug 5705)
* VKB has issues launching and operating. VKB launching is not
consistent, the user is unable to see characters getting entered in
the text area. (Bug 6047)
* Email, social networking applications present in the application
matrix but they are not fully useable. It’s usage is blocked due to
the VKB issue.
* Touch screen calibration is still a bit skewed. (Bug 4985)
* The typed content not displayed unless VKB is closed. (Bug 6047)
* Certain applications have missing icons, red blocks are shown
instead. (Bug 3921)
* Calibration application is broken, on exiting turns the screen
blank, recovering to the home screen is very difficult. (Bug 5127)
* Audio still does not work on Aava, though the default media is visible.


Handset, Pinetrail:


* Email icon is not appearing in the quick launch area. (Bug 7003)
* Logical strings appear on the settings applications (Bug 7612)
* Screen remains black after boot up, tapping on the touchpad reveals
the home UI (Bug 3916)
* Tapping on text entry blocks out the whole screen. (Bug 5606)
* Applications that require configurations (Chat, Social Networking,
Email) is blocked due to this.
* Default videos still unavailable.
* X-term is not working correctly. (Bug 3551)
* Trying to open the status area by clicking and dragging down the
top area of the screen blacks out the screen (Bug 3561)


Handset, N900:

* Browser launching is still broken (Bug 4021)
* Most applications launch and work normally
* Battery charging does not work, bug listed as fixed (Bug 2260)


Netbook, generic ia32 netbook:

* Image found to be quite stable.
* No major issues spotted.

Note that these reports are about the weekly development builds. They are expected to be (occasionally and somewhat) broken.

The state of the meego project is constantly changing and like any software project may work one week but may break the next - it's the nature of software development..

I usually post these reports now and again just to give people here a general idea of the state of the meego project - it seems to be pretty good.

I imagine many people here on maemo.org are getting pretty excited about the next release.

Certainly - I was just noting it to people who might not be that familiar with development practices so we would avoid jumping to conclusions. Seeing development actually happening in the open might be slightly disorienting for users, too !

Software is a bit like sausages in that respect. If watching it being made makes you squeamish, just don't and wait for the final product instead.

Especially under tight deadlines. Some truly ugly code has been written as a consequence.

Sausages made with mashed-up cow sphincters doesn't seem so bad.

This is definitely NOT the way good software is being developed!
Regressions have to be avoided strictly (!). No commitment into the main development pool without doing specified unit tests. Everything else is (sorry Meego-Devs) foolish.

Generally you're right but with low-level hardware programming it isn't always the case.

Remember that much of the MeeGo work is integration related - and upstream stuff itself is a fairly moving target. Murphy usually makes sure you have a circular issue-dependency somewhere so if you don't commit until it's without regressions chances are you'll end up with nothing ever committed.