maemo.org - Talk - N900: The First Impressions Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by olighak (Post 386366)

Absolutely! Free Open Source Software doesn´t cut it when joining the big boys club.

The difference is between having a guy, no matter how good of a programmer he is, doodling with this as his 3rd, 4th or 5th priority after his family, work, golfing, football, or having someone rely on this to pay his mortgage and food for his family.

I mean really. I love old cars, but how much time do I have left to play with my old car´s after doing my daily work for 9 hours, spending time with my wife and son and using my evenings studying. Not too many hours every week! Same goes for the amateur programmer.

It is a nice lofty goal to have knowledgeable amateur programmers which are willing to put their efforts into apps that don´t appear on the market, don´t have commercial value, or seek advice from when something goes wrong.

But if Nokia is going to make Maemo the cream of the crop, the amateur programmer just doesn´t cut it. And I am not using the word amateur in the meaning novice, but in the meaning someone who does it as a hobby in his spare time.

Regardless of whether it is a free application or paid for people still need to report bugs and suggest features to get their pet peeves added to applications. There is no difference between FOSS and commercial in that sense. But when something fails I´d rather go to someone who´s livelyhood depends on the application, rather than the friendly guy Jim who has to take care of his dayjob and family before he can look at the app.

Then when it comes to people that somewhat rely on the device and applications to work over 99% of the time, poor old Jim just doesn´t stand a chance and is completely unacceptable.

This is probably why the linux distro's are sidelined into a small corner of the pc market. The insistence on open source, and free, keeps the real world economics and usability out of Linux. It just can´t make it in the mainstream without having added balance between free and commercial.

It sounds like you are living in the past. Linux and open source dominate on the world's most powerful supercomputers running the most important and mission critical applications anywhere. Linux and open source also have a huge share among critical Internet servers. Companies like Google run their entire businesses on open source. So your assumptions are clearly not up to date.

Reality is that open source is the best software model for the future. However, it is not presently the dominant model in the consumer space. That can change thanks to events we are witnessing now. Nokia's support of Maemo is one such event.

We, as consumers, need to educate ourselves about the impact of our purchasing decisions. It is no different from thinking about human rights, the environment, fair trade, sustainability and other important issues when purchasing clothing, food, cars or any other products.

At times, such as when buying one of the first hybrid vehicles, people do choose to buy smart even if it means there are compromises. There are always compromises. But sometimes it makes sense to look ahead and see what choices are best for the future.

Clearly, supporting open source on phones, handhelds and the desktop is best for the future. If open source doesn't win, we lose.

I would like to respectfully ask everyone who is bashing Nokia to educate themselves about the remarkable work Nokia is doing to support open source -- e.g., our rights, our freedoms, our empowerment.

Yes, the N900 is not perfect. It may not be the device for everyone. Nokia told us that before the N900 was launched!

If you are having problems with your N900, go to https://bugs.maemo.org and register (yes, again!) and vote for any bugs that you feel are important.

Maemo is about the future. Please keep that in mind. If you invest all your energy in tearing down Maemo and the N900, you are building a future for yourself where you will have much less freedom of choice about what you can do with the devices you purchase.

Again, the N900 might not be for everyone right now, but what open source represents certainly is better for any individual's future. (I recognize that some commercial software companies may go the way of the dinosaur, but others will rise up to replace them. Those that rise up will be built on the foundations of personal freedom.)

I am running Linux on all my own computers. I'm typing this on openSUSE 11.2 on my Thinkpad T61p. This is 100% equal to any commercial software in the world today. In fact, it is far, far better. I have zero compromises. Linux meets or exceeds every one of my needs better than any other product, including the most expensive closed source products on the market.

It was not always the case the Linux on the desktop was such a superior experience. In fact, version 11.2 of openSUSE is really the first time I can make this statement. But open source has a strong tailwind (strong momentum) behind it and things are improving rapidly. Maemo is a great example of this momentum. And it could be that with Maemo 6, I will be able to say the same thing I am saying about openSUSE 11.2 -- no closed source product can beat it. (Actually, that is very close to being true for Maemo 5/N900 now, and with a few updates coming it may be the reality before we know it.)

As I said, the best, most important, most profitable business, most critical enterprises, most advanced science projects run open source software. It is not inferior in any way. Proprietary, closed source software is the one that suffers from inherent limitations (because its source is closed). So the potential is there.

But we all know that Linux and open source projects are not yet dominating the consumer marketspace. That means there will be inconveniences at times compared to going with the more common route. Again, it is not unlike making the hard choices to support any other emerging technology that represents a better way forward. Many people will be tempted to take the easy way, to just do what is most convenient for this moment. Yet, for those of us who are aware of the bigger picture, we recognize that we can shape the future by our choices right now. And we are willing to accept some compromises now in order to empower this vision for a better world.

Fortunately, the compromises we now have to make in order to support open source on a phone/pocket computer are very, very minor. (And I'm not suggesting that anyone put up with critical bugs not being quickly fixed!) I am suggesting that instead of putting so much energy into looking for every minor thing wrong with a groundbreaking product like the N900, we put that energy into making sure the vision for freedom on our smart phones thrives -- for our own benefit.

With a little patience and community involvement the N900 can be the very best product in its class. It is so close. And no other product offers the community so much ability to make this true, to shape the reality of the product we use.