Originally Posted by Freemantle

@ARJWright

you've made some important points there, in the context of community led development, which is one of the strong suits of this platform.

But, isn't there also a strong case for commercial development that can run parallel with the community? this isn't a problem for the community, but one for Nokia. Without a viable sales outlet for third party application development, Nokia aren't going to attract third party software, and the development of the N900 will solely be in the hands of the community. We've seen SIO2Interactive trying their best to get a paid for app in the system, whilst the Angry Birds level pack has been pulled, and the community has been left to design their own levels. Workarounds really are not the way forward, but simply the best available when Nokia cannot get it's house in order. The N900 deserves a better showcase than this, surely.

Originally Posted by ARJWright

Here's the flip of table that Nokia is (partially) betting on: that there are enough use cases that aren't covered by free open source software to create commerical opportunities for those interested. And if Nokia can foster the right devices alongside such an open ecosystem, then it effectively makes possible those efforts commercially.

Its not really different from the current market except that Nokia isn't just making the platform open, but everything the platform runs on too.

If done right, then it creates an opportunity like this thread for open discussion; if not, then this kind of thread quickly becomes a stopping point for open and commercial opportunities.

Originally Posted by pfoh

I think this is the problem. There is little the community can do and we are left to wonder whether nokia is doing something. Personally, I take issue with the calendar. People have often taken notice of my n900 and inevitably ask, "how do you like it?". You can imagine the reaction when I am forced to respond, "its great but the calendar is unable to create biweekly appointments." I mean how ridiculous is this?

As you say, we are left voting on brainstorming ideas and wondering if nokia is even taking us seriously. Whats better? Check out the bug reports filed for this. The devs seem to think that this is a complex issue and close the enhancement report citing the change does not fall under "simple enhancement". Seriously, a calendar being able to make bi-weekly appointments is a no-brainer.

I love my n900, but I am sorry a fully functioning calendar is simply a must.

Originally Posted by RevdKathy

ARJWright, here are some pretty specific suggestions for ways of improving the calendar. You will see that some of them have a pretty heavy vote.

The problem is, what does one do with the information that 77 people would like the 'repeat' function made more flexible? Compare with other brainstorms, that's massive: but because the calendar is one of the 'closed' bits of the firmware, I have so far failed to find anyone willing or able to look at it.

We have tools for finetuning exactly what needs addressing - but where do we go next?