Notices

What your remark does, is basically make people think twice about adopting open software. You see, I don't choose open source because it doesn't cost me money, and if open source implies -- as you state -- that I shut up and be quietly grateful for whatever I get, then I'd rather pay someone money to get what I want, whatever the state of the sources.

Y'know what I think would be nice? If MS used open doc standards and got rid of their proprietary formats. (There's been way too little open source preachiness lately, figured I'd stir some up, heh!)

As for Soduku, it was ported a long time ago. It was never added to the maemo app wiki and I found it by googling [".armel" "sodoku"]
I can't find it for the life of me now.

I did however take the liberty of gmailing it to myself. I'll attach it now.

[/Q[/Q

Quite apart from Abiword and Gnumeric (which are fairly mature applications), can anyone recommend a simple GUI based text editor?

is anything on the horizon?

I end up putting all my notes on the gpe to do list.

I understand what you mean Karel, and do not really disagree - but the flaw in your reasoning, as applied to the 770 specifically vs OSS in general, is that I don't feel you have any such choice ATM (ie spending money instead). So maybe frethop's approach is more effective after all :-)

I for one would be happy to pay a reasonable amount for a working word processor and spreadsheet for the 770. I echo the sentiment that the fact that there is a working application is much more important than the fact that it is free. Could I port it myself? Probably, if I took the time to learn. The point is that I don't currently have the time. So, if money is the issue, I am willing to contribute a reasonable amount. . .

I realize I'm not going to win the popularity vote in this thread, but I'm standing firm: most people seem to confuse opens source with public domain, and among "most people" I count the developers of open source projects as well.
Just take a look at properly managed open source projects like Ubuntu or Openoffice.org: they don't consider their users a mild nuisance, nor are they in the assumption that they're releasing their software as a gesture of goodwill to the community.

And excuse me, but telling someone that, if they can't contribute, they should shut up and be grateful, is just plainly despicable.

But you are correct in that the 770, like the Zaurus, is a special kind of open source target: it is therefore my opinion that, if the community doesn't grow, or if commercial developers don't chime in quickly, more and more users will come to the conclusion that "shutting up and being grateful" might be a good attitude for those who see the 770 as the geek's version of a game console, but not for those of us who envisioned it as a tool with which to get stuff done.

Here's another thing for the people at Nokia to contemplate: if you make a cheapish tablettoid and arrange for free software to be available for it, your prospective user base hasn't really invested much and therefore bailing out of your platform will not cost them much either. So my nagging here, although directed at developers, is actually more meant for the Nokia crowd.

That is true, but as you emphasise, those are managed projects, which also implies funded and supported by the big guns. We're not in the enthusiast crowd anymore. However, even those wouldn't bring you a maemo version of OpenOffice (if that made any sense) : you'd still need the personally motivated rogue hacker for that to happen...

I agree. My remark was more tongue-and-cheek than argumentative.

...and the two, in turn, are of two kinds again. The Zaurus is clearly an accidental OSS hacker target : Sharp designed it as a closed platform, tailored for the japanese domestic market. They never sold it abroad, or claimed it was good for anything else than its intended use (a glorified dictionary, basically). The fact that hackers jumped through hoops to lay their hands on one because it was the first Linux PDA, and a good one, is incidental, and its shortcomings in this regard perceived by said hackers cannot be blamed on Sharp. Mostly.

Nokia's attitude with the 770 is more ambiguous. They do market the thing globally (if discreetly), but as an online device that does well all that phones and PDAs do badly, but none of what they do well. Sort of.
Yet the choice of Linux, the openness of maemo, the progress made with ITOS2006 (whereas the Sharp OS has stagnated for years, which makes sense for an embedded device)... all that cannot be innocent of hope that third parties will broaden the possible uses way beyond that. But that hope stays stubbornly unsaid.

I think that is 100% true. But have you thought that your remark is true, first and foremost, of Nokia themselves ? This situation reeks of internal cacophony. On the one side, a visionary and creative team that invents something sexy, but totally outside the corporate core business and competencies (phones and Symbian OS come to mind :-). On the other side, entrenched corporate factions dragging their feet (like customer relationships and repair centers), with a marketing dept. that clearly doesn't understand any of it, and/or doesn't want to. In the middle, some intrigued top management that decides to give it a go, just for kicks : hey, if it's a runaway success there'll be time to pour resources in a new market segment ; if it flops, nothing much lost, it was just a skunkworks project anyway...
I am furiously reminded of the Renault Twingo scenario in the first case, and of the BMW C1 scooter in the other. I personally do hope there will be an Internet Tablet dynasty...