The money & name. It sure ain't about use users. If they had to go netbook OS joliecloud would have worked smother, faster & better.

maemo 5 is not complete it lacks native features like mms and built in support for the front camera and IR port

software to use such is still experimental and when there is a new OS that the N900 cant run we loose the developers to fill in the gaps

This naming thing is STILL causing confusion. I even fell into the trap today after thinking I had it straight. Surely Nokia and Intel and figure out a way to make this more clear...

What was your confusion, specifically?

My confusion has been resolved. I get the technical aspect vs branding aspect. I hope.

But I'm telling you, you're seeing the tip of a marketing iceberg, and MeeGo is the Titannic. Drama aside, Attila77's suggestion to add subbranding would probably go a long way toward minimizing the FUD that MeeGo will really instigate once it starts finding its way to TVs, automobiles and toasters. Granted this is not a Quim or Ari or even Nokia issue, it's a MeeGo one.

MeeGo really needs a message that we evangelists can present to the buying public in 3 sentences or less. MeeGo isn't what's gonna resonate with the masses; you know that. MeeGo + "UX value added" is what they'll expect.

(sorry for being obtuse... the MeeGo/Harmattan/Moblin2.2 situation is what's causing confusion as I can see)

I personally believe most of this confusion will vanish when we have beta/stable releases and launched devices to name.

Could you share the rationale ? Harmattan is still going to be Maemo under the hood, Moblin 2.2 is still good old Moblin under the hood, so the best we can talk about is actually how easy it will be to transfer applications, development, etc between 'mainline' MeeGos and these 'work-in-progress' MeeGos, but that does still not help differentiating them. For example, how do you explain the difference between the LG GW990 and the future Harmattan device to someone ? Both claim to be MeeGo phones (or mobile computers) but - they have separate architectures, separate UIs, separate (but similar) APIs, separate package management, separate appstores/repositories, separate upgrade paths... you get the idea - there's just too many loose ends with the current transitional devices to be able to get away with calling them all MeeGo, no matter how tempting that may be from a marketing perspective. You'll just end up diluting the MeeGo brand, as it won't matter if something is MeeGo or not, but rather which exact device you have, which does not bode well for the platform (by either the weak branding OR the fragmentation it foreshadows).

I don't think what Attila is saying can even be overstated.

Of course the risk of confusion, brand dillution and platform fragmentatio can't be overstated. I'm just saying that first things go first: architectures, APIs, platform compliance criteria and brand guidelines.

All this needs to be done by the MeeGo project, say before a beta release. Then device vendors will position their products in relation to MeeGo. Then devices will be in the shops, apps will be in stores, etc.

There is still a way for us at Nokia to get there. In the meantime we are calling MeeGo to MeeGo and Harmattan to Harmattan.

Perhaps this is where some of the confusion is coming from? Personally, I thought:

Maemo 5 = Fremantle
Maemo 6 = Harmattan

Then I thought you started a thread requesting a rename of one of the forums, which I can't find right now? Reading that thread and others has lead me to believe

Maemo 6 = Harmattan ~ MeeGo, the understanding being that Maemo 6, Harmattan, MeeGo were all semi-interchangeable, with MeeGo being the new brand that Maemo 6 / Harmattan would be released under?

Now, you seem (to me) to be implying that they are separate?

I thought the next Nokia device to be released, would state on the box/literature/marketing that it runs MeeGo, not Maemo? I think this is were the confusion (at least mine, right now) is coming from.

Sorry if this post is confusing