Does anyone know when Mistral is planned to be published? Or does anyone have a copy which is testing and could tell us whether it is worth the time we are waiting ;-) ?

Thanks and bye!

My question is... What's so special about the 2006 OS?

Like what does it hold for us. I don't want to get all excited just because of something not worth my time like one or two new additions (voip, IM client). We need something B-I-G~BIG!!! Is there a difference between a software update and a OS update (in this case)? Also, does this mean we can port it like a regular software update?

my guess is not any time soon. ill figure 4th quarter the earliest

a subscription list form appeared on the main nokia770 web page. They will ring you when it comes out... (this doesn't sound good, too many work to do on it or they are just internally fighting on the packaging shape? hope nokia still far from the microsof habits)

Well, I think a repository-based installer is pretty big -- in a year or two there could easily be hundreds of pieces of software we can install (relatively) securely and easily from a single UI... It can also mean easy software updates.

Um... Didn't get all that technical terms in my brain... I'm guessing that it means that there will be more software that will be easy to install in about 1 to 2 years... If this is correct... Why is that so big? Don't we already have that on the 2005 OS where you just select your setup file and presto! You install your program.

Apparently swap space will be easy to enable - - making the thing very fast and allowing you to do more at once. A lot of the little stupid bugs will have been squished (giving rise to fiercer, larger bugs with boards with nails through them).

The advantages of real package management are not obvious to someone who hasn't used it, I know from experience... personally I will never administer a computer without it again.

Let's see what advantages I can think of:

1. Currently there is no way to keep your software updated -- this is important because we're often talking about internet-facing apps that might get security updates.

2. Currently you need to download some unknown binary from an unknown website. Using a repository doesn't suddenly make this more secure, but it does give the repository maintainers the possibility to 'control' what is offered to users (e.g. they can refuse to accept a package that doesn't uninstall cleanly).

3. When the amount of software increases, it gets more difficult to remember and find all the sites and installation procedures, a repository system scales a lot better (info is in the same place in the same format).

4. automation becomes a possibility. If you have 15 packages you like, but must flash the device (maybe because of OS upgrade), the system could automatically install all 15 afterwards -- of course checking that they all work and are available on the new OS.

5. Less space is used. With the current installer if software A and software B both need library X, they'll both have to include a copy in their installer. With the new system X is installed only once and both A and B use the same version.