Nokia has announced that it will not commercially support MeeGo. That means no warranty, no support.
So, if you are a dev and want to run MeeGo - don't worry there will always be hacks for you.
But if you are an end-user and want to use MeeGo on your phone, N900 will not ever be that phone.
What the devs have access to is obviously relevant on a personal level - nobody wants to buy an expensive phone and have it be obsolete in less than a year - but it is almost meaningless when talking about the consumer market. In the consumer market, as things are now, none of the things mentioned in the first post are relevant - MeeGo is not coming to N900.
Nokia has announced that it will not commercially support MeeGo. That means no warranty, no support.
So, if you are a dev and want to run MeeGo - don't worry there will always be hacks for you.
N900 hardware adaptation for MeeGo isn't a hack. What they're saying is they won't provide the package of MeeGo Core + N900 hardware adaptation + handset UX + Nokia apps/artwork/differentiation and commercially support this in all channels/etc. The first three are MeeGo project made and not a hack. MeeGo Core + Handset UX has to be the basis of future handset and N900 hardware adaptation has to be a stable and working reference implementation for ARM devices in MeeGo.
Last one is possible to provide through community (with a stamp saying 'not commercially supported') probably.
You are right, it's not a hack, it's a developer made release. Possibly one with excellent quality and a helpful community.
However, just to get this clear:
(sorry for weird quoting)
Will Nokia provide hardware warranty for N900 devices installed with MeeGo? Maybe?
It's the discussion about flashing another OS breaking warranty. Good question. What was the conclusion on that one anyway?
Will Nokia allow drivers to be redistributed freely in MeeGo images for N900? Maybe?
Maybe, but having access to a kickstart file to generate a image on your own and a repository with all the closed source binaries by providing a N900 IMEI, is decent too.
Will Nokia provide customer support for MeeGo on N900? No
No, that's what they said..
Can customers MeeGo on N900 without needing to enable R&D-mode? No
Yes. R&D mode was just because we didn't provide DSME for watchdog handling.
Will Nokia grant an end user license for the use of Nokia Apps/Artwork/Differentation on MeeGo on N900? Unlikely?
Unlikely, but in Mer we we able to replace artwork quite easily. Apps might be possible. End user license being along lines of 'not commercially support, we aren't liable if you blow up" .. maybe.
Will software bought from Nokia Ovi Store work with MeeGo on N900? No?
Don't know. There's no DRM on Ovi Store for N900 though.
Will customer support be provided for software bought from Nokia Ovi Store for MeeGo on N900? No
Maybe, but having access to a kickstart file to generate a image on your own and a repository with all the closed source binaries by providing a N900 IMEI, is decent too.
Yeah, if the tooling is good enough, it can be rather Plug & Play.
Don't know. There's no DRM on Ovi Store for N900 though.
For this to be relevant at all, either Nokia needs to start supporting MeeGo devices in Ovi Store (or rather, Nokia accepting MeeGo uploads and devs targeting MeeGo as well for their software), or the Maemo 5 binaries must work in MeeGo without recompilation. I think the latter isn't true, software must be recompiled - so the question is when the former happens, and that might take quite a while. Until then, no Ovi Store apps.
Is it fully compatible for the Nokia N900, because i'm scared to update my phone, because it may slow down the function and some application may disappear....:confused [/FONT][/COLOR]
This is good in a way. Perhaps some people will be happy with what the community offers, I don't know.
I've been a loyal Nokia user for nearly 20 years. But my experience with Nokia gets worse with every passing year. It started to go downhill with my E70. So slow Nokia should NEVER have shipped it. With my N95 it was better but 7 seconds to change a track on the music and 20 minutes for the delete action to return to the interface on a music track? Get real.
Now I have the interesting situation of the N900. I have an N95 which I use in the car. I have it connected to the stereo via the headset extension and a Bluetooth handsfree. It just works. I use extgps to use Autoroute on my Laptop and things are great.
So I get My N900. I can't use the headset extension cable even though it sees it because the controls won't work.and when I am connected to the stereo for music it routes the speakers to the Bluetooth when a call comes in.
It's like going back to basic for everything that my N95 does. It won't even use #110 key codes when I want to top up my Swedish payg sim, simply complains that it is an invalid option and I have to navigate the audio menu to top up (my swedish is crap).
I took the N900, against my better judgement, because Android did not have, at that time, offline gps mapping. I travel a lot internationally and need those maps offline, I'm not paying to download maps on a 2,000 mile journey on international roaming.
When I get the N900 I find I can't get offline maps because neither PC suite nor Ovi suite work properly/work with the phone. Then Google realise they're missing a trick and offer downloadable GPS maps.... Grrrrr.
In the end I have a handheld device which I can get a SSH shell on and do some interesting things with. The screen is too small for serious PC work and the phone is too useless to be any kind of use to me as a real phone. I already had a 5mp camera with my N95 and I gain very little. At least it is not an expensive mistake, Vodafone UK were basically giving them away (wonder why that was with the Nokia decision to dump them).
The phone is a evolutionary dead end which I will wind up using as a smart 32 gig music player (but not in the car), with some other OS on it.
I seriously appreciate that the community is trying to make something special of the N900 but, guys, this is neither the product nor the time to do so.
My next phone will be an Android from HTC. Nokia will have to go a very, very, very long way to bring themselves back into my estimation as a phone provider because they have produced 3 generations of phones which have the same faults as every other provider I've ever used (which is why I always bought Nokia); namely phones I don't like and are not easy to use!
It's like going back to basic for everything that my N95 does. It won't even use #110 key codes when I want to top up my Swedish payg sim, simply complains that it is an invalid option and I have to navigate the audio menu to top up (my swedish is crap).
iirc, this is now fixed with the latest update (and there was workarounds floating around this forum before that).
New MeeGo Handset release running in the N900. Rough stuff, but enough for warming up brave testers. Installation docs just as rough.
about 2 hours ago via web from Mountain View, CA (twitter)
