I probably should have mentioned what I was thinking when I started this thread, but I was more interested in what others thought. I was hoping some simple economic facts would cause people to ponder how this information might affect Nokia's short and medium term plans. So even though Nokia is moving forward in this MID environment, my concern is that current conditions could easily cause important resources to be pulled from here.
But, whatever, 'cause here's how I see the end game. We have impressive things happening in the FOSS arena. But when that's run its course, or while it's running its course, there's only one place left to go: Open Source Hardware. Sure, I could find a use for an Intel I7, but I can also find uses for many cheap, low-power, mid-to-low performance SOC's. A hardware-like Ubuntu isn't that difficult for me to imagine.
Back to reality. It seems a shame to me, but it looks like Nokia is going to go no further than being a "really smart phone" company. But why couldn't Nokia, just for starters, be an ARM-based netbook and/or small server-appliance company? Or at least some kind of a partner? The n800 in front of me says they could. Anyway, these are some of the things I was thinking about when I did the ol' cut-and-paste. Sorry for the unintentional flamebait.
But, whatever, 'cause here's how I see the end game. We have impressive things happening in the FOSS arena. But when that's run its course, or while it's running its course, there's only one place left to go: Open Source Hardware. Sure, I could find a use for an Intel I7, but I can also find uses for many cheap, low-power, mid-to-low performance SOC's. A hardware-like Ubuntu isn't that difficult for me to imagine.
Eventually, open-source hardware will be real. But not for quite a while; the reason open-source software works is really simple: the tools needed to convert a software design (source code) to software are themselves software, and thus can be provided as open-source.
Open-source hardware will have comparable success when we have self-replicating proto-fabs, which is still some years away. In the mean time, there will be somewhat open projects (there already are), and they will have some success. But I think the self-hosting hardware compiler is required to bring anything like the success of OSS.
I was hoping some simple economic facts would cause people to ponder how this information might affect Nokia's short and medium term plans.
In short: things are screwed up and we are all gonna die. Well, eventually, anyway.
On the other hand, Nokia has already said that they see Linux in their future high end smartphones. The only Linux they have right now is Maemo. So, even if it "dies" for a period of time (like S90), expect a comeback.
