I don't care how hard anyone tries, there's no attaining perfection.

We haven't chosen developers but community applications and features that would be cool to have in Extras for pure end users by sales start.

So the discussion is not whether Developer X should have got a device by now or not, but whether Application Y should have been helped by now. The developer associated is "just" a consequence of it.

We also gave priority of projects that have done some homework during the Fremantle pre-releases, as this shows an interest in Maemo 5 "before it was cool" and an estimate of the current availability of the lead developer to do more Fremantle work.

Looking forward to know what exactly would you have done better.

So the key is to make useful applications. Gotcha.

Makes perfect sense :-) Clearly improvement from previous device launches. It is great that this was possible. Personally I am surprised how big difference it already made. Plenty of cool and useful apps are ready now and the much needed buzz is there too which is great.

Makes perfect sense too. Both in general sense and
<personal part>
it also makes perfect sense in my case. I would wholeheartedly agree (when stripping the "before it was cool" part ;-) that the characterization above hits a nail and explains why I shouldn't have early NDA prototype. And I knowingly passed that chance and 'haven't done any homework' since I really think others could make better use of those early devices and I can wait for regular developer program. Bootmenu or custom kernels are really not cool enough and for ScummVM I don't need the device.

What changed this is the summit device surprise (so we now have plenty of users including newbies that can kill their device in creative ways and need reflash) and the issue with 256MB rootfs size and whole /opt-ification mess. I feel I could take part in both of those issues but without device I can only sit and enjoy the firework

Still of course It does not mean that I should get one, It just explains why I feel I am missing the device right now and 'looking forward to pandora' or waiting for developer program does not help much now But it is not a big deal really so let's move on
</personal part>

There is always something :-) In this case giving 300 devices to summit attenders made some serious imbalance. It was great idea, excellent realization, and made a big splash (and will make next summit much bigger ) but for some people going to summit is sadly not an option. To even up this imbalance the developer program should have been arranged sooner. As worst case it should have been announced on the summit but I don't see the reason why it couldn't be started even earlier to close the gap between summit attenders and other developers as much as possible. This is IMO exactly what could have been done better.

N900 device program for maemo.org developers and contributors


The devices loaned in the Maemo Summit were not a substitution of the device program, but an addition.

I think it was just a shock that this 300 devices to anyone who went to the summit before making these devices available to the developers was perhaps not well thought out.

And as I and Fanoush stated, WAY better than before. Just not optimal yet.

1) Get devices in developers hands (Priority #1)
2) once the developers have ported plenty, get the devices to an event like summit
3) release the device.

This would allow the hype to be all that much more when the bloggers get the device. It would ensure a smoother experience for less experienced users. Instead your best troubleshooters are sitting by helpless waiting for a device to show up at a carrier or a announcement of a device program.

Again better than in the past, just not perfect yet.

Disclaimer: This is not a critique or dissing of Nokia policies. It's a personal impression and personal take on the 'what would you have done differently'.

I had a bit of a catch 22 feeling with Fremantle development. As in, for your application (and, as a consequence, the developer ) to be 'famous' it had to work on an N8x0 in a demoable way so it could make it to extras and people in general. On the other hand, if your stuff really required Fremantle class hardware, it was not really demoable and thus the developer behind it did not have good chances of getting a device... Think about how Fremantle stars were selected - these were actually based on the work/popularity/feedback from N8x0 devices, so the results were a bit of a mixed bag.

As to what I would have done differently... I would have kept the Beagleboard port in much better shape. It *was* a commercially available, rough hardware equivalent, that didn't cost that much, so people could do their thing (and you could even hand out a few, it's cheaper and does not need an NDA). Didn't even Kate demo early Fremantle stuff on a Beagleboard ? I think abandoning that direction was a chance wasted for acquiring an early developer base.

That said, I'm more than happy committing some time to develop for the N900 *now* that I have something that does not include constant fighting with prerelease SDKs and guesswork how stuff would really look/feel like if there were no Xephyr/scratchbox/VMplayer overhead/influence

All teasing aside, I would like to have seen low-level kernel and 'platform developers' be a part of the proto program too.

I am also completely serious when I say I really wish fanoush and penguinbait could have been at the Summit; the event was, in my opinion, poorer without them.

Both of you are kind of "legendary hacker heroes" to me and, I'm sure a large portion of the 'old community' out there.

We sent about 25 developer units to community developers before the Summit. I asked the Council to propose names. I believe the sure bets were satisfied and the proof is the good state of extras-testing and above.

If those with loaned devices and now a developer discount return back the loaned device, then we will keep circulating them with developers in our waiting list.

The primary focus was and is to get software for N900 in Extras, of course. Platform hacks can wait. I believe the main platform hackers have got an email today or before, still before sales start.

Ask Juha Kallioinen about the details of the Beagle board. There were some serious problems dealing with the acceleration graphics. But the SDK was in good enough shape during several months, at least to get into the radar.

We are spending a lot of time trying to get the hardware in the right hands. The wave of mixed feedback today only confirms some ideas I have been maturing in the past weeks about how to handle things the next time. But now it's time to enjoy Maemo 5 and the N900.