Symbian^3.

Is Symbian^4 Open Source too?

Yes: http://www.symbian.org/symbian-featu...mbian-releases

New Maemo/MeeGo is looking a lot like new Symbian. And it's good.

This is how Microsoft managed the DOS to NT transition.
Put the new library layer on top (WIN32) and once people start using it only, switch the underlying OS layer.

I meant the business operations, sorry.

Nokia make money off hardware. They must do like M$ sell eg. the N900 owners a NoGoo OS. If they dont start with this they must continue to make hardware that dosent last to long in the technology cycle as a user want it to before the user feels the urge to shell out new $$$ for new hardware.

... urge to shell out new $$$ for new hardware withe the NEW promising OS

Even though I might typically oppose Texrat and GA, I can appreciate their intelligence and insight on many things that I, admittedly a consumer first, then Linux enthusiast about third or fourth (I like solutions that maintain an upgrade path that's known), tend to overlook... but I find myself on the very same page right now pertaining the community treatment of Maemo by Nokia.

In an oddly relevant conversation today, if any company were willing to show that they truly saw worth in the community, they would place people that would interact with people and assure that community of not only what the community was doing (that's in place) but also what the company is doing that will affect the community (that's not in place fully, imho). And thrice that I've been around - I came originally for the 770 then later for for the N810 - I've seen Maemo relegated from initial "great thing" to very soon (13 months for the N810, 6-7 months for the N900) overlooked, ditched and proposed to have community support.

Community support, while great; fatalsaint said it best, it doesn't quite equate to same as company support. And the public knowledge that certain parts will remain closed - Diablo has parts that are still closed 2+ years after the fact - also seems to be repeated once again on the N900.

While I sat on the edge of a N900 purchase, I kept having a feeling that Nokia would treat this great community once again as it had in the past; forgotten, overlooked, barely communicated to in an indicative, concise, and clear pattern that didn't sound like the evasive answers that politicians give. I understand that we will never know what all goes on inside of Nokia. That's what their quarterly reports, their stock price and the quips given to use accomplish.

But to see Maemo start, stop, drop, restart, promise... then repeat... three times over, the message becomes diluted with fear, uncertainty, doubt and allows for a lot of negative discussion and feelings that simply were not around during the days of 770, N8x0. It wasn't that the community was smaller during the ITT days (it was)... we just had a clear progress and a future that was offered to us that was called Mer.

I've frequently stated my lack of faith in Nokia due to the failings of Mer - I do not point the finger to Stskeeps, but moreso that Mer just didn't happen for a lot of reasons - but it's mainly for the lack of coherent communication from Nokia that I'm presently disgruntled the most. I mean, Maemo is a platform that I've become entrenched into because it offers hope, choice, and openness that is clearly lacking in many other choices out there. I don't like being walled in... despite being in a company that gives out iPhones, I'd like to be free to choose something that supports my IT/Linux demands as well as my Adobe Flash/Flex demands. Maemo hit both of those with the 770 and later the N810.

The missteps of Nokia are numerous. But they can be boiled down to just a few things. Nokia seems like a company that has a killer platform but do not know how to properly push, market or show off what Maemo could do for others. It's not about comparing yourself to Samsung Bada, or Apple iPhone's iOS, or even Microsoft Windows 7 Phone... it's all about being an open source choice that supports the geek (root, ssh, Python, Qt) as well as the media (Flash, mp3, HTML, e-mail, Skype) and how they are leveraged equally in one OS quite well.

This community gets that. fMMS, The One Ring, Tear... just to name a few that I use daily. There are many others of course. But my point though is that people in this community get Maemo. Apparently better than Nokia gets Maemo.

But to see that Maemo 5 will fade, just like Maemo 4.0/4.1, just like OS 2007, just like OS 2006 and the support is ripped from under the folks that held out for Mer, Mer^2 and now we're supposed to have faith that MeeGo will get support for the N900 by the community and "perhaps" for the N8x0... there's nothing to hold onto now.

Just opens the door even wider for negativity. Which, I don't personally like.

I'm long-winded, I'm unhappy with what's going on and my future with Maemo is questionable not because I'm unhappy with the OS. I'm unhappy with the lack of direction, the lack of continued support and ultimately the lack of communication from Nokia.

That last one can be easily rectified. Nokia needs to embrace people like GA, Texrat, Fatalsaint, qole, bundyo, lcuk, among many others. Embrace the newer folks, the ones still with faith... and communicate well for once.

I've had an n810 since January '08, and an n900 since January '10, so I've watched the transition from internettablettalk.com to talk.maemo.org, the Diablo transition on the n810, etc...

To qualify my POV a bit, I've been a Linux (Slackware) user since '96 or so, CS degree, Unix administrator by trade, etc... and my interest in most open source development is very much driven by a real enjoyment of community, contributing, volunteering, if you have the time and interest to do so.

That said, in the last six months, it seems that this forum has devolved to a bunch of very unproductive whining and negativity, and I'm not sure how often this translates to useful, actionable bug reports.

On a positive note, I think the QT SDK is a nice development lately, and I'm hoping to do some QT development for the N900 in the very near future, in the form of a standalone Netflix queue manager app, mostly because I don't like navigating the Netflix site on the n810 or n900.

My own take on the n900 has always been... yeah, like my old tablet (n810), but faster, more memory and storage, and now it has a phone... which for me just meant pulling the SIM out of my work cell (Razr v3xx) and throwing it into the n900, and using Wifi for 99.9% of all internet access, except for absolute emergencies.

I couldn't care less about cell phones in general, and I'm not really a gadget chaser, but most of my gadgets are linux-based devices... Phatbox in my car, Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, Roku Netflix player for streaming Netflix @ home, n810, n900, and a hackintoshed Dell Mini 10v, although I really don't care for OS X or most of Apple's stuff.

It would be really nice to see at least one more official update for Diablo on the n810, and at least a PR1.3 for the n900, but I'm guessing that my n810 will mostly be my favorite device for watching occasional tv episodes and movies while I'm sitting around, light web browsing, checking email (Claws), checking RSS feeds (RSSyl plugin in Claws), and listening to Rhapsody every so often... and a little Xmame, if I can find the Diablo-friendly copy again.

I think the n900 is a really cool piece of hardware, and I was looking forward to it for a long time, for reasons that are largely unrelated to any sort of interest in 'smartphone' technology, but wow... I can barely stand to look at this forum lately.

On a more productive note... please take a look at some of these real bug reports

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10326
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8555
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5033
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10540
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10625
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10628
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10656

Well, if you ask me (which you did), then:

a) It's Procter & Gamble (not Proctor), assuming you refer to the corporate giant

b) Predictions by all kinds of people are still predictions. If these people could really predict stuff, they'd corner the market. Predict a lot of stuff and some will happen. If that were me, I'd use the trend so far to make a point instead of referring to authority, it carries more weight.

c) I think the mobile gaming ecosystem is missing for good reason. Screen too small, controls are bad, sound is annoying to everyone, battery drains fast. Mobile phones make for a bad gaming console.
While I agree that the system needs to be patched to fill slices, I think that the list should be headed by good office integration, better media, mobility reinvented, widened features, more desktop likeness. The reason people don't buy a simple 10$ phone is because they want as much of their desktop with them. I'd move accent to other areas that are missing. But then again it's a personal opinion so feel free to disregard completely.

d) It's a nice presentation, with nice words and smells of marketing from several blocks away. I've been through an university studying International Finance, then another doing Business Administration. I've seen quite a few marketing texts, and:

* Nothing beats the cold shower from marketing speak to reality. In real life, as soon as the high-level meeting is done, you go out there and people will be asking straight questions and only process straight answers. There is no feature cloud, it's "what does it do?". I would intertwine the marketing high-level approach with some down-to-earth points, maybe questions, remind people that in the end, results matter more than concepts. That things need a hard edge.

* If it's a read, may I suggest a more structured and continuous form. Right now I feel that if I swap some pages nobody will notice. This hints sterility. (I wish I could think of a way to make this sound more like constructive criticism). I'd go for a more linear progression, maybe see how several enhancements work together and build on that, connect one to another.

* If it's a spoken, interactive presentation, human touch would do far more to capture attention than a cold, wrapped-in-terms formulation.

I know it's a matter of style (both work) , but for example, my approach to feedback page (spoken presentation) would be something like this (imagine new lines are pauses):

I've been asking myself: how does feedback work?

The book says, you do provide the actions, and the other party provides the reactions.

The book is wrong.

Human communications is always bidirectional. Even when a person speaks and the other listens, there is information flowing, by gestures, by stance, by verbal communication. By actions.

Imagine, if you will, that next time someone drops by your house, you don't open. Ask them what they want through the door. See how that goes. Ask them what they think about the new roses in the garden. Do this several times, see if they come by any more.

You see, the best way to drive people away is to not show them you listen. We need to OPEN the door. Invite people in. Have them sit down, and tell us all about it.

These will be the people who will be coming back with an honest opinion next time.

We need feedback to be bidirectional, we need to let people know we listen.

We need an open, uniform, bidirectional, simple system that works.

<cue slide>

The Open Feedback Ecosystem

At the center, the user and his or her mobile device[..] (page 4)

While more theatrical, it has the advantage of grabbing attention. Make people think about what you said, add a question. Adjust speaking rate as you progress, slow down on parts you want them to dwell on, speed up when on a longer paragraph to keep them from wondering away.

Human minds need to compress info. And to do that, they need a central idea on each chapter (hence the slide title). This only works if you keep around the title. Multiple ideas on the same slide contribute to worse compression and, after a short while, loss of track.

Polished language hints intelligence. Highly polished language hints learned-by-heart, prepared to impress work. Alternate. Good job with the garden so far. Needs some spices.

I suggest compressing the pages to single features, and use the bullet points sub-sections of the same page.

For example, page 2, as an introduction, isn't really necessary, and you could use pages 2 and 3 to prepare the user for the 4th page, where the feedback system is explained. I'd merge 2 and 3, and try to engage the listener, make them think about my problem, before serving the well-thought-out solution they have no chance of drawing up in the 2 minutes it takes to read the intro.

Also, the diagram is a bit confusing to me. While it does suggest complexity, complexity is scary if unorganized. I'd go for more structure (look on Intel's site for inspiration, they explain a PC with 5 boxes).

"The idea is to bring the full strength of Internet services and APIs for feedback to handheld devices". To carry that forward, I'd go for a device that breaks through web, then goes to Feedback, another web then goes to online Media, another that goes to Office, and a forth that goes to gaming (since you have that up there), bringing the web interface as a node for the major directions. Change directions as needed. Maybe even a cycle that goes through donations > developers instead of separate directions, as donations are not an end through themselves.

This is probably way, way more than you wanted to know or even hear, but I started typing and it seemed a shame to abandon the post

Not bad of a start though.

Could you point out exactly which applications are not getting the bug reports they need to carry forward?

This far, I disagree. While true with the noise, it's relatively easily filtered by having each applications open a thread in Applications, with [Announce]. Some don't even have that, no forum, no place to test, discuss, etc.

Right now, I'm subscribed to home threads of about 17 applications, but only 4 have been active in the last 14 days. This doesn't sound like lack of feedback to me. A lot of these applications were developed by people who either can't maintain an app, or have written a proof-of-concept to get something to work and the just stopped.

Can't blame them. Still, IMO, not THE problem. If it were up to me (since we're on the Maemo missteps), all applications published, including devel, should have their own thread automatically created, and the submitter notified. The thread should be a discussion and a bug report until package gets promoted and gets its own bugs account.