Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

Sure, but I was under the impression that there's a lot to the N900's UI and default applications that we haven't seen yet. Due to that, I don't see a reason to start playing with the existing SDK:s now (I don't own an old Maemo device). I'm sure the Fremantle beta SDK would be extremely useful, but only if I wanted to develop a full application. Am I wrong about this?

Qgil said "Imagine all these users that will get a maemo 5 device for their first time". This will not only be true for the available packages, but for the default install as well. I think many developers would be extremely motivated to submit patches within a short window of opportunity were you to give them an official chance to have their code on the shipping device. Even if you end up having to reject all the patches, the publicity would probably be great ;)

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

I think it's safe to say that anyone who has apps in extras is aware of Maemo 5 by now.

Rather than having random users contacting the developers requesting Fremantle versions (which will get old really fast) it would be much better to have a coordinated approach.

How about we list our favourite packages and project contact details in this thread and in a couple of days someone (Nokia, council or debmaster perhaps) could go around contacting the authors?

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

We've been doing that for a while now on the bits that are available in the pre-alpha .. beta SDKs, come and join the fun :-)

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

Seconded (obviously this only applies to the open ones). This has already worked well for modest & hildon application manager, and osso-xterm is now starting to see some patches too.

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

I'm really really hoping that the Fremantle browser will be fast and full-featured enough to avoid needing dedicated "clients" for all of the web services and applications like the iPhone and other devices. I would much rather have the "real" Facebook page than a Facebook app. Facebook chat would be nice to integrate into the system along with all of the other chat protocols (it is so great the way everyone duplicates functionality, eh?), but it sounds like that's already being done...

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

There was a discussion a while back about all of this. I'll use the example of Maemo mapper which was brought up a page back or so. But, Nokia has basically been so discreet with what will be included in Maemo 5 and the RX-51/RX-71 that some developers have stated that they don't want to waste their time coding for an alternative to a pre-installed software that may be already more up to date. So, for instance...why would the developer of Maemo Mapper spend their time working on porting that application if there is already going to be a equal or possibly more featureful mapping software included that they could instead contribute to?

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

Bad example; Nokia is not going to do an app like full Maemo Mapper. If they do an online map viewer, it'll be probably hardcoded to a single map repository, and it'll have no track recording capabilities (so it'll suck for me and will probably be useless for the maemo mapper developers & main users).

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

I was more or less thinking of Wayfinder, only free... Either way, my point was that there was a thread a while back with people complaining of this problem. The main point here is that more people will probably jump on board once everything has been revealed and it may be hard to convince them to contribute until then.

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

Maybe neatojones example wasn't the best (I don't know, actually) but his basic idea sounds right to me. For example, we have a number of not-so-good personal information manager apps (calendars, contacts, notes, etc., integrated together or not); why would a developer put effort into porting one of these until he knows that Nokia is not providing a pre-installed PIM? (And, hopefully, Nokia is.)

Re: How can *you* help getting Maemo 5 in shape
 

A bit off-topic, but as far as I can tell in Maemo Mapper, it's "just" a matter of coding it towards liblocation-dev instead of libgpsmgr/bt-dev (back when I experimented with MM on Mer and the new hildon).