linuxeventually | # 1 | 2009-09-10, 02:27 | Report

I'm sick of all the push to Maemo5. Bugs marked WON'T FIX. And encouragement to abandon the N8X0.

Yes - it's new, shiny and the future. The N900 and beyond.

What about people who own the existing devices?
Not everyone likes the N900. And those that get the N900, are they planning to put their old NITs on ebay? I think there is still life left in them.

I'm sure Nokia 770 owners know how I feel, when the N800 was released. New hardware, different capabilities, incompatible software. Frustrations.

They do have the hacker editions at least, though.

What I propose is two-fold.

1.) Diablo fully-patched kernel +.
Gather all the kernel patches (this has been done in past by either fanoush or qwerty12 or both but I haven't heard of any updates) as well as other major community advances - kernel modules and etc. I don't mean the usual packages found in Extras. I mean things like alternate networking, rotation and anything not considered "end user" approved.

The reason for this is well it's just easier to get "back up and running" after a flash, help new "power users" and gather up all the stuff because it's spread out along this forum, the wiki, the old wiki, personal websites and the IRC chat logs.

Package it all up. Kernel patches build it ready to flash (along with the diff source code) and packages (or whatever) for the rest of it and a meta/virtual package to make it all manageable.

2.) OS2009HE. For the N8X0s (and one for the 770).
No I don't mean Mer - first they are going in a direction that I am not fond of and secondly it's not a true Fremantle/Harmatten backport. It is its own thing, the Mer devs have made that clear. And OSS is all about giving people choices, so why not yet another project, right?

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No, I am not expecting one person to do all this. That would be ridiculous. What I am asking, is for people to start gathering crucial tidbits - source code, existing kernel patches, "feature requests" (loosely). All the interesting stuff that makes this community great.

Obviously the 2009HE project can't start until the N900 drops and Nokia uploads releases the flashable binaries. Along with the "finalized" SDK. But that doesn't mean we can't begin to gather up stuff.

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Personally I don't plan on "upgrading" until at least the RX-71/N900 successor. However, I don't plan on selling my N810. Even with a better device this thing has a million and one uses. I'll keep using it until it breaks (I hope not) and still see if I can't find a use for it after that. I am not aware of ["current"] truly comparable devices. And certainly none backed by a community as strong as this.

In conclusion, I would like to thank everyone on here that has helped make these tablets awesome. Thank you, thank you very much!

(and yes I write these rants with the explicit purpose of annoying the maemo.org board and team Nokia )

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Last edited by linuxeventually; 2009-09-10 at 02:41. Reason: awful grammar

klingon86 | # 2 | 2009-09-10, 02:35 | Report

This is something I strongly agree with. I too am personally frightened by the prospect of everyone abandoning n8x0 and diablo, especially considering why I can't get the n900 now ..

GeneralAntilles | # 3 | 2009-09-10, 02:47 | Report

Care to elaborate?

Yes, they've made that clear, but what do you think they've clarified that to be?

Because we have a finite number of resources to work with and long-term solutions like Mer are much better places to put effort than short-term backports and Hacker Editions.

By all means, if you want to see a backport happen, feel free to make it happen.

Texrat | # 4 | 2009-09-10, 02:59 | Report

I certainly admire your passion-- and if I actually knew something about linux I'd be glad to help... but I'll root for you.

buurmas | # 5 | 2009-09-10, 04:41 | Report

L.E., you know about this and this, right?

Stskeeps | # 6 | 2009-09-10, 05:57 | Report

Grab Mer's kernel package and rebuild it, that should do the trick. Kernel works just fine for Diablo (thanks to TomaszD, qwerty12 for all the hard work put into that kernel, as well as all the patch contributors)

lma | # 7 | 2009-09-10, 06:06 | Report

Well, speaking as an owner of both, the N800 was an improved 770 in every way that counts. The N900 is not a direct upgrade from the N810 - different device class, form factor, screen size, UI use cases, input methods etc.

But yeah, we're already talking about community updates for Diablo, see the links in buurmas' post.

Stskeeps | # 8 | 2009-09-10, 06:07 | Report

Just noticed this one .. Keep in mind the big showstopper and flaw in your idea is the fact 770 is ARMv5 (no VFP) and N8x0 is ARMv6+VFP and Fremantle/armel binaries are ARMv7 built.. This means you can't use Fremantle/armel binaries on these devices..

Also, what would happen to the 2009HE project when most people move on?

iskarion | # 9 | 2009-09-10, 06:20 | Report

I wouldn't worry that everybody suddenly abandons the N8x0.

Going from N8x0 to N900 is imo a completely different thing than going from N700 to N8x0.

Compared to it's predecessors the N900 is covering different usecases. While the N900 certainly brings some nice improvements, there are also some disadvantages, where Nokia had to make compromises due to the smaller form factor. Smaller screen, less hardware keys, probably reduced battery life...
And it's much more expensive than the previous internet tablets.

So I guess quite a few people will stick to their N8x0 ITs and wait at least for the next Maemo device after the N900. Especially the ones who don't really need a smartphone, but just want an internet tablet.

eiffel | # 10 | 2009-09-10, 10:56 | Report

There will probably be a deluge of cheap N800s and N810s being sold off soon, so there should remain plenty of interest in the platform for a while yet.