How do the versions of the software work? Does it go by OS2006,7,8,9? Chinook, Diablo, Freemantle? I don't fully understand.

Secondly, once they release the freemantle, does that mean that all the software that worked for diablo will no longer work w/ freemantle? Can you use software that worked on chinook w/diablo?

I just bought one of these things so I guess I should have asked these VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS before I spent money.

(Fremantle.)

Have you read the Version History portion of the Maemo (operating system) page on Wikipedia?

(Fremantle.)

It's early yet, but from what I've read it appears many Diablo applications will need source code changes to work on Fremantle. However, it also appears that often the required changes are fairly minor.

In some most cases, yes. Command line applications generally just work. Graphical applications generally do not. Graphical applications too.

EDIT: The more I think on it, the more I believe my mind was blending the Chinook->Diablo transition with the older, uglier Bora->Chinook transition when I wrote the above. I think Chinook->Diablo broke far fewer applications than the above "generally do not" would indicate.

EDIT 2: The good Mr. Antilles confirms that I was thinking of Bora to Chinook, not Chinook to Diablo.

So why don't they allow the software to work on all versions? I can run programs that were meant for windows 98 on vista no problem. Why the difference?

I mean lets say someone produces a great program for a previous version of the OS and he's no longer part of the tablet community because of whatever reason. That great program is now dead until someone with programming experience decides they liked it too.

So it seems you have some options when a new version comes out. Either install the new ver. and gain some new features but lose some software or stay with your current version and wait until those users who can program applications do so.

Also, who is writing software for the tablets? Is it all 3rd party?

There's always a difficult balance between maintaining compatibility and fixing old bugs or adding features. Sometimes it's just not feasible to maintain compatibility indefinitely. That being said, most programs for Chinook that I've tried work fine in Diablo.

As for who writes software: Most of the software written by Nokia is already included on the tablet with a couple exceptions. A couple 3rd-party commercial software companies write software (boingo mobile, skype, gizmo, fring) but it is mostly individuals you have to thank for most of the software.

Two random thoughts: They're not really "consumers" if they're "producing" software, are they? Also, Maemo is the name of the software platform. Nokia is the company developing the Maemo platform for the most part.

-John

OH when i say maemo i mean the team working on the os that is maemo. So do they produce the apps with the os and then just quit producing apps and start working on the next os version each time? like HEY we created this wondeful os now F**K it lets make a new one!

i thought it's speculated that fremantle wouldn't even be officially supported by nokia to the n8*0, only the rx-51?

The API break was between Bora and Chinook, not Chinook and Diablo.

I would expect most of the software from http://maemo.org/downloads/OS2008/ to be available for Fremantle also.

Yeah, thank you. I just updated. I'd say it's terrible to feel my mind going, but I haven't really used it anyway, you know?

So will they stop supporting diablo when freemantle is out? All the bugs and what not will just stay unfixed? or will they continue to update it? And if they do stop supporting it, why not give the tablet community the opportunity to produce updates to the os? unofficially so they're not liable