Read the interview with nokia's manager for open source

http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2983710

Any comments??

I just wish I had the background to understand more of it... :/

It's not easy for us old DOS/Windows guys to crack the Linux world.

Then die off already.
Seriously, the way things are going if you're not comfortable at a Linux command line reconfiguring firewalls, web servers, etc. then move into management where you can't do much damage.

Boss: And this here is Mr. iball.
Bigger Boss: And what does he do?
Me: I run sh1t here.
Boss: He runs sh1t here.

And can someone copy-n-paste that entire interview over here? That website is pretty fscking painful/pathetic to look at.

...

Like no other options exist. As long as SQL Server remains a valuable db option, and vb.net a useful language, I still have a contribution to make.

I'd really love to learn more of the Linux word, but I have to put food on my family's table TODAY. Idealism is great. Realism rules though.

Ok, back on topic (as fun as it is to bash the MS world)...

I didn't get a chance to read the whole article, being at work and all, but here's my take. First of all, GTK+ is the graphical widget toolkit for GNOME, and it's also the backing for the Hildon UI. Maemo and Hildon began life as a subset of GNOME based on GTK+ 2.6. They have been (or are in the process of) migrating to GTK+ 2.10.

It was recently announced that some future version of GTK+ 3.x will include something called the "GNOME Mobile Platform", which (like Maemo and Hildon) is basically a subset of full-blown desktop GNOME, suitable for mobile platforms. The article talks about Carlos's thoughts about integrating this new platform into Nokia's internet tablets.

I'm not sure exactly the effects on Maemo that such a move would have. There are probably two choices: modify Maemo to be based on GNOME Mobile Platform instead of its own custom GTK+ 2.x subset; or move away from Maemo entirely, focusing on a new platform based on GNOME Mobile Platform. Neither would be coming soon, so it's safe to bet that such plans would be targeted for a future hardware revision (i.e. not the 770 or N800). Whether its compatible with the N800 is another question entirely...

The benefits of the GNOME Mobile Platform are discussed in the article, but I think the primary one is to remove the market fragmentation that Hildon unwittingly created. Nokia had hoped that Hildon would be adopted by other mobile platforms, in essence turning Hildon into the GNOME Mobile Platform, but that never happened - other Linux-based mobile platforms emerged with their own (hildon-like) extensions. By integrating mobility directly in GNOME, the mobile fragmentation stops, and as an added bonus, applications that are designed and targeted for the GNOME Mobile Platform will also seemlessly run in a standard GNOME environment (theoretically).

The other big talking point in the interview was Cairo. Cairo is a UI framework based on GTK+ that makes it easier to develop prettier UIs (think iPhone). Things like anti-aliasing are made very easy in Cairo. Of course, Cairo is more CPU-intensive, but it sounds like Carlos has been doing at least some testing on his mobile platforms that implies that it's feasible.

So, in summary, there is still great potential left for Nokia's internet tablet platforms. What that means for us existing users is still a question mark. But hey, that's par for the course since the N800 was released....

gnuite, a couple of minor points:

Hildon effectively (and may well be *actually*) is the GNOME Mobile Platform.

Hildon *is* being used in numerous other mobile devices: Intel's MID, Ubuntu Mobile etc.