While mobile use & touchscreens are not the primary target for Gnome 3/Gnome Shell (contrary to what some people have been continuously assuming for years ) the Gnome developers do track touch screen support issues so that Gnome Shell can be used on touchscreen devices in the future.
He claims to have used the tablet for several weeks, so even if he discovered Warehouse/OpenRepos when he received the tablet, I would say there would have been close to 0 apps for the tablet there (except for a few noarch Python apps that launch the QML files directly).
"Another option that has been in place for the Jolla phone for a while now has been OpenRepos. This is a user created and driven set of repositories that contain 3rd party applications for various platforms, including Sailfish. There are currently no applications ported to the tablet hardware on there, but once the tablet starts shipping, it won't be beyond the bounds of credibilty to expect some tablet versions to appear there. For the really adventurous, many of these applications are open source so users could, conceivably compile them on their tablets, themselves. All that said, it still doesn't fully/really address the current lack of native apps."
Any reviewer can have that paragraph free of charge and without attribution - plus I'll allow them to edit (including any typos) it to their needs.
Exactly this. The rest of the rhetoric as to what you can do with or without a computer is not material. It's the fact that it is an option with iOS and Android. No such option exists easily for Jolla for the uninformed... which make unfortunately up the majority.
Neither option exists.
There's no desktop sync option.Cabled MTP & PTP support is dire and that's just for media anyway. Sftp requires going in to dev mode and isn't consumer friendly.
If you want to take the service/cloud route then Jolla make it incredibly hard there too with difficult to use account setup, no third party support and no 1st party or 3rd party cloud services. Even if you've the ability to setup your own cloud service using ownCloud, there's no integration there either. Even Apple allows that.
I'm totally puzzled by Jolla. They can't afford to run massive cloud service ecosystems but make it very hard to integrate with existing 3rd party services.
What homework? Do you expect from him to read a book and finish the online course on how and where to find an applications? Or maybe to learn how to recompile existing apps for phone that available on github?
No. But he could plug Sailfish OS into a search engine and have 30 minutes looking round the current ecosystem. That's how long it would have taken.
Simple user just uses the tablet and what it provides. if you need to know how to find a suitable app it means there are only few apps and they are not exactly "click and install" apps =) Jolla targeted for common users and review for common users(fans and geeks do other kind of research before, don't they?).
Btw, I've tried yesterday running Qemu on the tablet, but I gave up when I saw the GTK3 requirement...
Basic qemu doesn't need gtk3 support. I use qemu on my desktop and don't have gtk3 installed. It was probably some management application that needs it.
I used to review mountain bikes and parts for a magazine on which I was also the owner/publisher. I've sub-edited many a review also. I've also made whopping mistakes in reviews and written quick filler reviews for products that weren't important, according to our preconceptions anyway.
IME, a product gets a badly written review often because the company sending the product has made the reviewer work too hard. If you're going to send a product in for review with no charger, no covering documentation extolling it's virtues or what makes your product special then you'll quite possibly get a poor review because the reviewer has other products to review that did make their life easy. They've got pages to fill and 3000 words to write by Friday.
Not all publications are like that of course but you don't need to make it hard. A review is possibly the best and cheapest way of advertising a product. It's amazing how differently the big companies with media experience approach journalists than those new to the game.
Another option that has been in place for the Jolla phone for a while now has been OpenRepos. This is a user created and driven set of repositories that contain 3rd party applications for various platforms, including Sailfish. There are currently no applications ported to the tablet hardware on there, but once the tablet starts shipping, it won't be beyond the bounds of credibilty to expect some tablet versions to appear there.
That's like telling to Android users that they can install things from other sources than Google Play. Sure they can, but
a) Why should they have to bother? And...
b) If Jolla wanted them to use OpenRepos, then they should tell them about it. As far as I know, OpenRepos are not supported by Jolla and should not be part of an official review in the same way that alternative Android sources should not be a part of a review of an Android device.
Originally Posted by
For the really adventurous, many of these applications are open source so users could, conceivably compile them on their tablets, themselves.
Now you are really straying into the land of fiction. Include that in a review and you have lost all but about 4 potential customers.
Originally Posted by
All that said, it still doesn't fully/really address the current lack of native apps.
Good. So you are not entirely detached from reality
No. But he could plug Sailfish OS into a search engine and have 30 minutes looking round the current ecosystem. That's how long it would have taken.
I tried that. OpenRepos did not come up anywhere in the first 4 or 5 pages. (Interestingly, what did come up were links to ports to Sony and OnePlus devices. I did not know that, TMO only discusses the Nexus port.)
I then tried a search for "Sailfish apps". Again, nothing about OpenRepos. There were two links somewhere on the second page of results mentioning "unofficial third party open source apps". One was a wishlist and the other a GitHub link. None of that really helpful. And that assuming the word "unofficial" did not scare you off and you actually bothered to look.
Originally Posted by
This isn't a simple user, it's a review.
Exactly. If a company supplying a product for a review cannot be bothered to provide the reviewer with a full set of details, including additional sources of apps, then the company gets what it deserves from that review.
Edit:
BTW, neither Jolla nor Sailfis OS Wikipedia articles mention OpenRepos either.
I'm totally puzzled by Jolla. They can't afford to run massive cloud service ecosystems but make it very hard to integrate with existing 3rd party services.
I'm puzzled, too. I don't want Jolla to build a so-called "cloud" service; the reason they don't have one of their own (which translates to: they cannot try to shove the damn thing down my throat) is a huge plus compared to Apple or Google. It's a part of the freedom I expect.
On the other hand, this freedom includes freedom of choice... And freedom of choice just requires an easy way to plug into all sorts of 3rd party services, no matter if its PIM services (calendar/contacts), chat services and social networks, image sharing services, file backup etc etc etc. ("easy" meaning easy for the developer: the OS should provide generic APIs and UI elements so that nobody needs to re-invent the wheel and everyone can share URLs from the browser or pictures from the gallery via their application.)
A review is possibly the best and cheapest way of advertising a product. It's amazing how differently the big companies with media experience approach journalists than those new to the game.
Bingo! It is just another example of how poor the Jolla's PR is. They actually believe their product is so fantastic it will sell itself.
) the Gnome developers do track touch screen support issues so that Gnome Shell can be used on touchscreen devices in the future.
