I don't think you understand just how much code INdT has contributed to open source and to this platform. Please don't try and use your 'unequal players' nonsense to apply to Canola, as they've contributed more code to open source than any other single outfit on this platform that I know of.

Why do you think we have Python on the platform? Who do you think wrote pretty much all of the 16bpp code for EFL? Or the Python bindings for EFL? What about lms? The maemo vmware image? Eclipse development plugins? PluThon? The list goes on and on, and I think it would do you some good to understand the situation more clearly before you go weakening your argument trying to use such a terrible example to support it.

Besides, any way you slice it, the 'community' benefits from new applications, so applying open-source zealotry to who can and cannot participate in the community hurts everybody in the end. As they say, it takes all kinds. . . .

As with the other comments here, that may be true today - but there's no reason it has to be true in the future. "maemo" is a name which any user will see sometimes (e.g. the home page of the browser) - but there's no reason users can't be educated on it.

Really, is maemo.org any harder to remember or find than thedefinitivenokiainternettabletsite.com? URLs have to be found somehow, very few URLs are so intrinsic to people's lives that they can type them without resorting to a search engine, bookmark or known link from another website.

maemo.org should be the centre of the NIT community for everyone - the question then becomes how should things be structured and/or redesigned to make it nicer for very new, inexperienced community members?

I doubt many of these kind of users will visit any website involved with a gadget they expect to "just work". The role of tableteer and other standard bookmarks is to guide them to new places to discover the power of their device.

As the consumerisation of IT OS and the related hardware progresses (roll on step 5!), the percentage of the NIT-owning public registered and using ITT, or visiting any maemo-related website will diminish.

mhm... i'm not sure, but could it be youre talking about INdT in general and i'm talking about canola, the software project?

anyway, i'm no longer sure what this thread is about, especially after qgil's last remark on "stating clearly what is a reality today". there were some statements in here that scared me to death and really hurt me by being so indifferent about things i thought were essential about maemo, but i doubt they've a lot to do with what qgil actually wanted to ask in the first place.

so the bottom line is... i should get drunk tonight.

Canola is made by the INdT guys, you can't easily separate the two.

And who pays nokia's bills? The people who buy their products.

I am pro-end-user and I understand that there so many levels of users. I would just like to point out however that all of the folks who visit maemo.org, Tableteer, itT, ITS, Tablet Blog comprise merely, if we are lucky, only about 5% of the total Internet Tablet users. The challenge here is how can we have the other 95% use their internet tablets to how it should be used -- to browse the internet and provide them the means to expand the use of their tablets. I say maemo.org should cater for everyone and everything Internet Tablet related -- developers (wannabe to advanced), users (curious to advanced), open source and commercial apps, how-to's, problem solving articles, glossary, discussions, everything. Section the site by categories and provide different views of the site according to the level of the users.

We have Diablo, Fermantle, and Harmattan coming and I think the over-all success of the Internet Tablet relies heavily with maemo.org, becomming more visible, and really focusing on the end-users (common not hard-core), improving the quality of applications and support. There is no other choice but to improve the quality of the Internet Tablet -- interface, apps, and really sell the idea that everyone needs a tablet along with their phones/laptops, or to replace them. It's time to improve on the goals, sales pitch, and commitments. Everyone on the team should be on-board and well focused.

Let me know how I or itT can help.