Could everybody interested in this topic make sure that the right ideas are listed and voted http://maemo.org/community/brainstor...ugh_emphasized

The topic deserves more brainstorm and defined proposals. It's actually a good time for Maemo to have a look at this and see what could be done.

My experience shows that it is not worth the effort.

Do you mind explaining a bit?

I initially tried offering my applications for free, asking for donations. A lot of people downloaded my apps (according to web server statistics), dozens of them wrote back saying how happy and satisfied they were. In about 2 years I got 2 donations for the total amount of about $50.

In other words, either implement a proper application store and let people make money, or do not bother.

For developers to be attractive, should be good revenue. Not cents or few dollars, because of the nature of software development: it is not easy, and if there are not good tools for integrated debugging, etc, and even with the tools it is not easy to create a professional application, a game... not talking here about a simple widget that has a RSS feed, that can be done with no programming.

What dev tools Maemo has, like IDE, nice and friendly IDE Integrated Dev Env....? For C++?

When will be Java supported?

Is any plan for MS Silverlight and C# coming to Maemo?

How good is the IDE for QT?

You can use any of Linux-based IDEs. I use Geany. Other people use Eclipse (which I hate because it is slow and unstable).

Ask Quim about it. Frankly, I neither know nor care: aside from small MIDP-based games, Java is pretty useless commercially.

As far as I know, Mono is operational on Maemo.

What is "IDE for QT"? And what all of your questions have to do with the topic of this thread?

I have similar experiences, some kind people will donate, but (compared to the installed userbase) it's really just that - a donation, a little greenback thank you, not something you can base your N900 acquisition on.

There doesn't necessarily need to be a store, however (that kills the Open Source segment a bit and brings DRM into play). The best I have come up with so far was a very-cheap donation/subscription service (or maybe even a slight Nokia subvention) which lands money in a big melting pot. Now, as we know extras is centralized and we have stats about it, the money from the pot can be split across the projects proportionally to their popularity in that month. That way, more serious projects get more money, there is actually an incentive to make polished end-user software. and they have to make no license or DRM compromise. Sure, given the GPL you could mirror and install from other places, but considering the extra effort I don't think it will be a significant drain if the cost to the end user is low enough.

Pasted this to brainstorm. Oh, and if this goes through I expect a medal, a N900 and a job at Nokia, not necessarily in that order

Hmm what I'd like to see is such a framework with pluggable things but I would like to see Nokia step up in here and add a pay with mobile option as well. So one could just get this as a purchase on their phone bill. I know atleast one of our cellcos provide something along those lines.


As for Java/Mono/C#/Silverlight I would ask if it's possible to REMOVE Flash from the device and still have it function. I don't want none of such on it. Anyway this is OT ranting now

I would really just keep it simple for now, by providing an easy way for the users to buy an application straight from the AppManager, by paying for it with credentials entered in the configuration (or on the first payment). Let us forget the DRM, the mobile payments, and other bells and whistles for now. They are not essential for the first stage. What is important is the first proof that Maemo can be a viable platform for commercial applications, even if there is only a bunch of them at the first stage.

And how are you going to prevent commercial and OSS developers not becoming mortal enemies in that scenario, ultimately resulting in one group abandoning the platform ?