But it is happening. Perhaps you weren't here two years ago, but Nokia's make great leaps and bounds since then and continues to make even more progress. Now, you could argue that it's not happening fast enough, but that's a separate issue from "not happening" at all.

What makes you think Maemo wont offer a good choice of devices? There've been more than a few hints lately along the lines of multiple device choices. Besides, if you want open (in all meanings of the word), Android doesn't really seem like the right choice.

Why? Did I miss a memo about the world ending?

Er, it didn't? As far as I remember we found out about OMAP3 and HSPA in the next tablet, and quite a lot of information about Fremantle and its roadmap was revealed. The certainly sounds like something to me.

Did you miss the pre-alpha? Or the slew of bugs that have been resolved lately? Or the continued roadmapping on the wiki? The alpha's just around the corner, and the beta after that. I think you'd be pretty safe betting on a hardware announcement mixed in there somewhere.

Which all stacks up to quite a lot more than "just trust us". Again, you could claim that it's not enough, but you certainly can't claim it's nothing more hot air.

They've delivered 3 fantastic devices so far, what leads you to believe they can't deliver a fourth?

To me, it really all sounds like a lot of melodramatic sensationalism that's hardly worth wasting on stupid software platform.

Thanks for your response, Ryan. I could discuss it in detail but it wouldn't serve much purpose. Every developer and user needs to find the platform that meets their needs, and I've not found mine here despite being a happy N800 owner.

I admire the talent and dedication here, and will miss this forum. All the best, and good luck!

Regards,
Roger

Wow, I didn't think I would have to, but because of this comment I think it's just about time I told my story. It's not going to happen in this post 'cause it's long and I generally hate writing. But I will state it's conclusion in order to at least inform Roger that there are good reasons why he should stay.

Roger, this platform is so far from perfect it's scary, but it's kicking a*s relative to anything else for this kind of platform. That is a plain and simple fact. You won't find what you're looking for anywhere else, but the best part is: you won't have to. Plenty is happening right here! Or if it's happening somewhere else, it's either made its way here or it's making its way here.

Look, it seems that Nokia is making decisions that couldn't be more wrong for me, and I've felt this way for some time. But I'm not letting it affect me because the FOSS genie is out of the bottle. Nokia and others have provided me with enough infrastructure that I am getting some great work done. Yes, there are areas that either don't exist, don't work or work poor enough to be unusable. I've noted these areas and I've moved on. My n800 is one of those really fat Swiss Army Knifes, and yes, there are a few blades I can't open at the moment.

Like I said, I have a story to tell, and it's a really good story. I'm saddened by the recent dejection of qole, I'm still in shock that brontide disappeared, and I was compelled to write this because eiffel seems to be disheartened enough to fade away. But I beg all of the developers and integrators that are reading this to just take a deep breath and relax. Even though all is not perfect, all is good. Trust no one. Because things are good enough that you don't have to. More later.

Wow, this is really dramatic, the suspense is untenable... It's a good thing I wasn't going anywhere in the first place, 'cause I'll sit right here munching my popcorn and waiting for the dénouement after the break ! :-)

Me too, daperl's post got me all excited, now I'm on the edge of my seat!

Uh oh, performance anxiety. I think I'm gonna fire my manager. He said this would be good for my career.

Oh it is, it is... I promise I'll even buy the DVD and not bittorrent it ! :-)

If you examine cell phones as developed vs how the carriers limit the capabilities you will greatly appreciate the wisdom of Nokia to build a truely open, ergo non-carrier product, like the Internet Tablet. Android represents a move toward openess because of Google but it's still a product to be sold by the carriers that are being dragged kicking and screeming into open devices. The Internet Tablet despite a few bits of closed drivers is from an application standpoint totally open because the carriers aren't envolved. Android has all the appearance of an open system but we'll have to see how it ends up when carried by more than T-Mobile. Don't forget that true openess means not controlling the sources of content. Carriers want their subscribers to buy music, ringtones and other media from them and no one else. Before broadband cellular Verizon subscribers could tether their laptops and PDAs at 14.4 dialup access to data with voice minutes. This is acceptable performance for text applications like email. Their network still supports this but Verizon insists that smartphones pay large monthly fees for broadband data plans. In a truely open network this wouldn't happen. To date the Internet Tablet has avoided this closed operation with WiFi while still permitting those that required full time anywhere access to use the cellular networks. WiFi is a scary thing for cellular carriers because they loose control of your content and who you pay how much for your bandwidth. I realize many want built in cellular modems but I have very mixed emotions about the potential of giving control of my network access to cellular carriers with a history of enfocing closed networks.

Wow indeed. Although I tend to share a lot of his cynicism--I at least recognize that I'm ultra-cynical by nature. I don't think I'd jump ship, though, given all the positive reasons for sticking around. Not the least of which IS the community itself, despite frustrations caused by the closed-minded (closed-source) camps. :/ It's one thing to criticize, hopefully constructively, another to just giev up and leave. (Although I recognize that everyone has their boundaries.. so maybe this was just his.)

Sorry to see him disappear.. he was pretty good at stirring things up and I thought it was useful and good.

Nokia Has A Present For Me?

Until I started writing this I couldn't remember why I even bought an n800. Back in November '07 I was reading in some A/V forum how people were using a small wireless device to control a computer jukebox server. This was something I could certainly use, but I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. I was optimistic because of the information's source, but like most skeptics my motto is "If something is too good to be true. It is." Yet sure enough, here it was, a somewhat-open GNU/Linux based hand-held for about $225. A no-brainer if there ever was one.

From the start, this "internet tablet" was delivering nicely, and it quickly reshaped some of my routine. But where was my music control program? I wasn't concerned about finding a client solution for the jukebox server, but I needed something better than my A/V receiver's inadequate web interface. It was obvious that this next piece was gonna be on me...