MeeGo's "big reveal" mentality hurting the project?

Carsten Munk, maemo.org distmaster and MeeGo contributor, has asked a question many have been thinking: does the desire for a large splash - a "big reveal" as Carsten puts it - hamper, now and in the future, the openness and viability of the MeeGo project? This desire is understandable for closed product launches, but was always the biggest impediment to true community collaboration on Maemo itself. However, the noises made by both Nokia and Intel - both of whom have a lot of experience now with open source development - at the launch of MeeGo were promising. Carsten doesn't think they're walking the walk, though: Carsten poses three questions to MeeGo's Technical Steering Group:

Has this mentality been hurting the project to date?

How will they prevent it continuing after the user interface is unveiled?

How will they prevent it the next time the commercial requirements of a "big reveal" occur?


maemo.org future direction meeting: Monday, 13:00 UTC

The maemo.org meta-meeting, which will seek to address the overall direction of the community - and in particular the paid contributors - will be held today (Monday, 17th May) at 13:00 UTC on #maemo-meeting. Everyone is invited to attend. The agenda, put forward by Dave Neary and Andrew Flegg is: It may be still early to make some decisions - and the viability of MeeGo as a day-to-day operating system for N8x0 and N900 users will play a large part - however the framework for these decisions will be made here; as well as the overall goals so that maemo.org doesn't descend into a "wait-and-see" mode for the next six, nine or twelve months.



In this edition...

1. Front Page
   • MeeGo's "big reveal" mentality hurting the project?
   • maemo.org future direction meeting: Monday, 13:00 UTC
2. Applications
   • Opera release Opera Mobile 10 for Maemo 4 & 5
   • maenotify puts SMSes and missed calls on the lock screen
   • Standalone flash launcher application
   • Lens Cover Reminder shows lens cover status on the N900
3. Development
   • Introduction to OBS build system
   • OBS and Fremantle Extras: huge success, but help needed
   • Getting Qt 4.6 apps (from PR1.2 or Nokia Qt SDK) working on PR1.1
4. Community
   • "Less is more" why big app numbers aren't everything
   • Urho Konttori joins the MeeGo Harmattan team
5. Devices
   • USB host mode on N900 possible
   • MeeGo N900 hardware adaptation layer goes open source
   • Efforts underway to get 3D drivers working on N8x0
   • NITDroid gets Android 2.1 with working touchscreen
   • MeeGo to use btrfs as default file system
6. Maemo in the Wild
   • Nokia launches N900 in Taiwan
7. Announcements
   • Diablo5 theme gives Maemo 5 look & feel on N8x0
   • QtGas: cross-platform mileage and vehicle maintenance tracker
   • Zim notepad/wiki app
   • Carbon theme under development
   • iStyle themes (in various colours)