I don't especially want a smartphone -- I want a modern UNIX-like system in my pocket.
I want both. In one device. Though, "phone" is the important part of the first one, not so much "smartphone". The smarts can come from the "unix-like" part.
It looks to me like Nokia decided, "well, tablets failed. What can we keep of value out of this experiment. Of course! The maemo community!" And this is exactly what Nokia has done, with the complicity of Reggie.
We ordinary tablet users have been sold down the river.
I can assure you this is a much, much smaller community than the one Palm mostly abandoned down the river*
And I'm pretty sure the Symbian one is still bigger.
So I don't see Nokia "reusing" Maemo just for community value. "Prospective value", now you may be talking
*Of course it seems they may be getting now "a bigger one" so it may have been a good move.
I don't really mind with future NITs being phones too if that...
- Does not mean instant $200+ pricetag increase
- Does not mean I have to use voodoo If I want to install Obscure-GNU-Application 2009.beta or Obscure-Linux-Distro 103.3 into it.
javispedro: "Voodoo" is part of the Linux experience. Even on the slickest Linux desktops, I find myself editing configuration files, typing long, obscure commands (as root) into the terminal, and hunting for answers on the forums...
javispedro: "Voodoo" is part of the Linux experience. Even on the slickest Linux desktops, I find myself editing configuration files, typing long, obscure commands (as root) into the terminal, and hunting for answers on the forums...
One of the things I loved about Maemo, and that I enjoy about Android ... I have never HAD to perform such incantations (though, certain things were easier on Maemo after I did one or two brief incantations ... related to root and sudo).
Maemo is almost, but not quite, as good at hiding Unix/Linux layer stuff from the user as OS X. And, IMO, that's high praise.
I think this is where a substantial minority of the complacency comes from -- people whose need is better approximated as "pocket Linux box" than "internet tablet", even though many of us would agree that the smartphone design involves bad usability compromises, it's still a world apart from any of those other smartphones, which simply can't do it. That and people who are waiting and seeing about the second (and further) device(s) -- I predict a massive resurgence of vitriol if the second device turns out to be a slick feature-phone!
I would argue that the problem is they didn't just make an internal USB or PCIe or any kind of interface for a card to put INSIDE the case so that you can use ANY carrier or future technology that comes along.. instead of hobbling you with this cellphone crap. :P
javispedro: "Voodoo" is part of the Linux experience. Even on the slickest Linux desktops, I find myself editing configuration files, typing long, obscure commands (as root) into the terminal, and hunting for answers on the forums...
That's the "fun" voodoo.
The "scary" voodoo is the one where your only hope is to wait for $RANDOM_GENIUS to understand the phone chipset and port/rewrite the kernel/a driver for the platform. A platform where the first non-vendor approved installed application appears on newspaper. Where asking the device manufacturer for drivers, source code or plain specifications is laughed at.
You can see examples of that voodoo in the iphone community, but most current smartphones are like that. The nit was a big step in the "right" direction, but I fear that adding a phone chipset to it might undo that bold step, because it will be yet another forever closed component or the device will become a much more prominent spotlight in Nokia's portfolio and as such, more closed. Time will tell.
Of course, I wouldn't expect that adding a phone woud make it harder to use for the average joe. It's just that it's hard to express myself, specially in a foreign language.
I tend to think Nokia or their parts vendors just 'don't get' Linux, unlike IBM and Red Hat, who've taken the Kernel well outside its comfort zone of the home PC and into server-land. Nokia KIND OF started to take it out of its comfort zone too, and into the pocket-sized land of ARM tablets, but lately I'm feeling rather jaded about that.
So.. I'm not sure that it's either of those in the headline. Maybe it's more like.. started well but now missing the opportunity to lead the way?
