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Posts: 94 | Thanked: 44 times | Joined on Feb 2010
#130
Originally Posted by qgil View Post
The MeeGo API is based on Qt and Web Runtime (which sits on top of QtWebKit, which sits on top of Qt). This was/is exactly the API plan for Harmattan (no wonder since MeeGo is a result of merging Maemo and Moblin).

So two conclusions:

- The arrival of MeeGo doesn't change anything in terms of API offered to developers. Except that MeeGo also supports GTK+, while in the Maemo roadmap this toolkit appeared as "community supported". Result = same or better situation than before.

- As soon as Qt 4.6 gets officially supported in Maemo 5, the building blocks to be API compatible with MeeGo will be there.

Translation to end users: getting MeeGo apps to run on top of Maemo 5 shouldn't be a rocket science and maybe they just work. MeeGo will attract more developers to this API = more apps = more joy for N900 users.

About supporting officially the entire MeeGo running on the N900 hardware, it's a business decision and Nokia hasn't communicate the plans. In any case MeeGo is entirely open source, and the hardware adaptation is already in place in Maemo 5. If someone was thinking in running Mer in the N900, now the alternative is run the MeeGo stack instead. Less work on the boring and complex low level stuff and more fun in the layers that really interest to end users.

Some people is saying that now Nokia is moving "to another platform". It's not!

MeeGo is the natural evolution of Maemo, with plenty of common components.
MeeGo is the natural evolution of Moblin, with plenty of common components.

It's just that Maemo and Moblin were sharing so many similarities at a platform level. Please understand this to realize that if you are N900 users or Harmattan-device propective users, your future perspectives only improve with MeeGo.
And what are Nokia's immediate plans for the future of the N900?
 

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