Hi,

I don't usually have the habit of starting a new thread just to say thanks but I feel compeled to do so for this firmware release.

Maemo 5 got off on a rocky start with a shaky firmware and with the lack of proper communication surrounding the initial shipping delay and the first minor upgrade that just came out of nowhere with no explanation initially as to what it was all about. But it appears clear that Nokia have been listening and have taken onto themselves to improve their communication and processes.

Qgil's post this morning announcing the new firmware, detailing how and when it would be made available and linking to the change logs was an excellent initiative. It went a long way to prevent the usual mess and frustration surrounding Nokia firmware releases.

The detailled change log, including both a categorized list of fixes written in plain English and the full list of Bugzilla bugs that were addressed was fantastic too. I really hope we'll see more of that and that other companies in the mobile world will follow suit.

Releasing the firmware to everybody at the same time was great too. Coming from the Symbian world where I frequently had to wait for weeks and sometimes months to get the latest firmware (even on models coming straight from Nokia with no operator customization), it's a big relief to see that the Maemo team didn't choose to go down the same road.

The idea to include a not-yet-ready new feature as an easter egg to allow power-users to test it is really cool. Again, I hope we'll see more of this.

Of course, PR 1.1 isn't the holy grail that some people here seem to have been hoping for. And some seem to be having issues that should perhaps have been caught earlier on (personally, I haven't yet encountered any serious problem - or any problem at all in fact apart from the volume keys that don't work anymore when the phone is locked). Maemo is also still quite weak is several key areas (email or satellite navigation come to mind).

But I have to give credit to Nokia for showing that they're listening, for taking feedback on board and for making swift changes to improve things. I've worked in large corporations and know how hard it is to change the status-quo in these sort of organisations so I'm all the more impressed with the way things are evolving in the Maemo world.

I like the open approach taken by the Maemo team more and more. Really glad to see that you guys decided not to be a me-too or to build yet-another-iPhone-clone but instead decided to go down a radically different route - for the better eventually I hope.

So thanks again for the hard work and I hope we'll see even more good com here. I'll be keeping my N900 for the time being