A great post from coll900 about comparative openness Maemo and Android for developers and users. Maemo designated as a clear win. The one point missing in the original post is a platform fragmentation. Android try to get around fragmentation using Java virtual machine (albeit with non-standard bytecodes). However native code will not be binary transferable between devices. That is especially relevant for augmented reality and other cpu-heavy apps. Here is a question – will Maemo be any better? For some mysterious reasons Nokia afflicted by irresistible drive to fragment it’s own software platform as much as possible. If Nokia manage to gather enough strength of will to keep Maemo on a single but mass-produced device line, like Apple with iPhone, Maemo could become developers dream and a serious competitor to iPhone. However if Nokia keeps its bad habit of producing zoo of semi-decent not-quite-compatible devices, with introduction of a new just-little-different device every quarter, just to break whatever compatibility still remaining, Maemo, with all its openess will not have practical advantage over Android.

Originally Posted by sxr71

Whoever wrote that deserves an award.

Originally Posted by MountainX

The question is, What award do you have in mind?

If you (or anyone) is/are suggesting the above post deserves an award for helping educate the community about important issues, I agree with you.

But in no way do I care about an award for pointing out Nokia's "bad habits". Nokia, like any company, has shortcomings. But Nokia is the only company that has been willing to offer the consumer a phone/pocket computer device with official root access! (No need to jailbreak and take all those risks.) Nokia is the only company that backs up their vision of openness by actually delivering a product that embodies the ideals. (Read the link above for full details.)

I feel that it is up to us to shape our future. Stop playing victim. We are not simply victims of Nokia's past mistakes. This is especially true now that Maemo/N900 are out. We have an open platform right now -- some of us have it in our hands. The way we use and support this platform will do a lot of determine Nokia's future direction with it. None of us need to be captive, powerless consumers now that Nokia has taken the initiative to empower us. We can take this opportunity and run with it.

We can do that through our purchase decisions. We can do it in the way we educate others about what to expect from the N900 and how to use it. Those of us who can afford it can donate to the community. (We could donate devices or money or something else.) Many of us can do development work. Others can be evangelists. Some of us can be critics too, but it needs to be constructive criticism. (If you have a problem, state it clearly and state what your desired solution would be. Then ask for help and offer what is needed to get people motivated to provide that help.)

Purchasing an N900 can be a statement about one's sophisticated understanding of personal freedoms in the technology age. Or it can be a much more shallow statement.

If you own (or will soon purchase) an N900, think about what your role will be. Will you be one who doesn't understand the opportunities available to us and who therefore risks letting them slip away? Or will you be one who is an ambassador of open source?

Originally Posted by sxr71

I used to have a need to carry device that reflects my philosophies on software control. Then I grew up.

The people I work on would prefer I have access to Epocrates rather than to show my personal philosophies on technology with my choice of device.

So if anybody thinks this platform means a damn in the world - make it useful to people in their daily tasks. Otherwise it is useful only to open-source chest-thumper nerds.

Originally Posted by sxr71

The people I work on would prefer I have access to Epocrates rather than to show my personal philosophies on technology with my choice of device.

Originally Posted by jjx

It's your choice to work for those people.

For me, having an open source phone is a smart choice. It means I'll be able to make the phone do things which are useful to me.
it?

Originally Posted by Holyshit

The N900 is not an "open source phone". You probably mean the phone's operating system is open source.

Or even better: You want to mean that Maemo is Free Software. As " open source " doesn't necessarily mean you are free to redistribute any changes to it as you like.

Seriously, you've been an OSS developer for 20 years: and make basic mistakes like this

"I'll be able to make the phone do things which are useful to me"

Even a Wintel is not open source, but still it's sort of an open development platform, as anyone can write and publish software for it and make the computer do what is useful to people.

Originally Posted by sxr71

I used to have a need to carry device that reflects my philosophies on software control. Then I grew up.

The people I work on would prefer I have access to Epocrates rather than to show my personal philosophies on technology with my choice of device.

So if anybody thinks this platform means a damn in the world - make it useful to people in their daily tasks. Otherwise it is useful only to open-source chest-thumper nerds.