8 ms·

The Dreams of the MeeGo Diaspora

67 points by bergie 14y ago

jeffehobbs 14y ago
MeeGo failed when they ran out of silly names to rebrand it with ;). I kid -- I had one of those early N800s, it was nifty stuff. It would be great to see a true open source mobile OS.
- CountHackulus 14y ago
  A friend had an N810, inspired me to buy an N900. Still can't find a phone that matches all its features. There's something to be said for using a 3270 terminal emulator over VPN on my phone.
mikecane 14y ago
OMG. That piece is an example of how hacker reality vs end-user reality diverges beyond belief. The N770 was a worthless piece of crap, period. All of the Nokia Internet Tablets flopped. There was nothing in any of them that was imaginative, cutting, edge, cool, or must-have. They were a flaccid repackaging of everything that already existed in terms of UI -- but with less functionality, less ease of use (hello, Dependencies!), and less reason to exist as a product. That HE found them to be compelling devices makes me fear for the future of MeeGo now.
- bergie 14y ago
  You seem to think mass-market consumerism is the only kind of success. I assume you view Arduino and the Rasperry Pi also as utter failures? The Internet Tablets were not intended to that market (N9 was the first real mass-market device, the step 5 of 5), but instead were well-loved by the hacker niche.
  - mikecane 14y ago
    >>>The Internet Tablets were not intended to that market Then why were they on sale to the general public in stores? They were intended as mass-market devices. And they failed on that score. I'm hoping MeeGo will not be similarly botched. I liked what I saw -- from an Internet distance -- of MeeGo on the N9. I wish Nokia had gone with that instead of Windows.
    - bergie 14y ago
      From back in 2009: Nokia currently views the N900 and Maemo as "bridge" products mainly targeting developers and enthusiasts, but aims to develop Maemo into a mass market platform to compete with the iPhone OS, Android, and Windows Mobile, competitors that Symbian has been losing market share to. http://www.pocketables.com/2009/11/nokia-nseries-will-likely-switch-from-symbian-to-maemo-by-2012.html http://www.pocketables.com/2009/11/nokia-nseries-will-likely... But agreed, N9 was really an amazing device. You can see that the focus and polish needed for mass market was there.
      - mikecane 14y ago
        >>>Nokia currently views the N900 Notice that starts with the N900, not the 770. They had to spin after the failure.
        tmzt 14y ago
        Not exactly, the N900 was the first with a cell radio (except N810 wimax which short lived) so it was a 'bridge' between cell phones and the tablets. Jolla could well outlive Nokia now, with the right manfuacturing partner. (HTC is getting dumped the same as they were with Microsoft, would love to see them embrace this with their QWERTY designs)
        mikecane 14y ago
        I wish Jolla luck. It'd be something if they could pull it all off.
    - slurgfest 14y ago
      Why should you wish that Nokia had gone with that instead of Windows, if you think that Maemo was a horrible failure?
      - mikecane 14y ago
        Harmattan is a very nice UI with some innovative features. But if underneath it, loading software will require chasing down "dependencies," then maybe the beauty is only skin deep.
- orbitingpluto 14y ago
  Hacker reality? It's 2007 and you have a multitasking Linux device with: 1)64GB of storage 2)800x480 pixels in a screen almost the size of an iPhone 3)WiFi with great performance 4)Skype wherever you are 5)BT pairing with dumbphones with unlimited data plans 6)RDP/VNC connections over SSH 7)Python at your fingertips 8)Control over your device 9)Multi-boot It's 2012 and that still doesn't sound that bad. Maybe that's why I still grab that out of my bag instead of the latest Android gadget sitting beside it when I need to do something quickly.
  - tmzt 14y ago
    Yeah, it's odd that Apple didn't adopt WVGA in the first iPhone. Knowing of the Nokia devices made me do a double take when I heard 320x480, I thought it was a mistake and they really meant 800x480.
    - wmf 14y ago
      But it made retina cheaper later on.
      - geon 14y ago
        800x480 on a small screen like that would be "retina".
  - smashing 14y ago
    There is a difference between something being a technical achievement and a product.
    - orbitingpluto 14y ago
      You're correct. It's called advertising. An example is a friend who oohed and awed over the Samsung Galaxy Note due to its size, who previously had slammed the Nokia tablets for being too big and bulky.
      - 14y ago
sampo 14y ago
The main point of the article is something else, but this is a pretty thoughtful sentence: "In a world where everything must go through the rules and regulations of an app store without any oversight we, the developers, will suddenly be in the same abused stage as artists are with their labels."
- thedeuce 14y ago
  Yea I feel really bad for the rapper that came from nothing and now shits on a 3 million dollar toilet. Labels really oppressed that guy!
- pvidler 14y ago
  Except that the main app stores are fairly transparent about how much of the money you get and they generally let developers set their own prices.
  - bergie 14y ago
    Sure, but they also mean that now there is a middleman that mandates what you can or cannot do
    - pvidler 14y ago
      Yeah, one that brings huge numbers of potential customers to your door, processes credit card transactions for you and may give you some free publicity (featured spots, etc.).
      - bergie 14y ago
        agreed on those, and it should be noted that record labels do provide similar services to their artists. My post was more about how there is no way around these middlemen. So if you're doing the app equivalent of pop music (twitter apps, casual games), you're probably fine. But try to do something more ambitious, and they'll crush you (well, close the only channel to the customers, at least)
mcmire 14y ago
I really really hope that Jolla takes off. It sounds like for a far too brief while, Maemo was the hacker's dream OS, which is pretty dang cool. It also sounds like the Nokia N9 was the first phone in which the beauty and usability of the device matched its hacker friendliness. That's all I'm waiting on. The thing I don't want to see in mobile is what happened to Linux, where yeah it's great that we have this open OS, but the experience itself is scattershot, questionable, or very very poor. If Jolla can do this -- and since some of the main people that worked on N9 are players here, they might have a shot -- then that's when I'll be paying close attention.
- tmzt 14y ago
  Is Jolla the Ubuntu of mobile linux?

67 points by bergie 14y ago

MeeGo failed when they ran out of silly names to rebrand it with ;). I kid -- I had one of those early N800s, it was nifty stuff. It would be great to see a true open source mobile OS.

CountHackulus 14y ago
A friend had an N810, inspired me to buy an N900. Still can't find a phone that matches all its features. There's something to be said for using a 3270 terminal emulator over VPN on my phone.

mikecane 14y ago

OMG. That piece is an example of how hacker reality vs end-user reality diverges beyond belief. The N770 was a worthless piece of crap, period. All of the Nokia Internet Tablets flopped. There was nothing in any of them that was imaginative, cutting, edge, cool, or must-have. They were a flaccid repackaging of everything that already existed in terms of UI -- but with less functionality, less ease of use (hello, Dependencies!), and less reason to exist as a product. That HE found them to be compelling devices makes me fear for the future of MeeGo now.

bergie 14y ago
You seem to think mass-market consumerism is the only kind of success. I assume you view Arduino and the Rasperry Pi also as utter failures? The Internet Tablets were not intended to that market (N9 was the first real mass-market device, the step 5 of 5), but instead were well-loved by the hacker niche.
- mikecane 14y ago
  >>>The Internet Tablets were not intended to that market Then why were they on sale to the general public in stores? They were intended as mass-market devices. And they failed on that score. I'm hoping MeeGo will not be similarly botched. I liked what I saw -- from an Internet distance -- of MeeGo on the N9. I wish Nokia had gone with that instead of Windows.
  - bergie 14y ago
    From back in 2009: Nokia currently views the N900 and Maemo as "bridge" products mainly targeting developers and enthusiasts, but aims to develop Maemo into a mass market platform to compete with the iPhone OS, Android, and Windows Mobile, competitors that Symbian has been losing market share to. http://www.pocketables.com/2009/11/nokia-nseries-will-likely-switch-from-symbian-to-maemo-by-2012.html http://www.pocketables.com/2009/11/nokia-nseries-will-likely... But agreed, N9 was really an amazing device. You can see that the focus and polish needed for mass market was there.
    - mikecane 14y ago
      >>>Nokia currently views the N900 Notice that starts with the N900, not the 770. They had to spin after the failure.
      - tmzt 14y ago
        Not exactly, the N900 was the first with a cell radio (except N810 wimax which short lived) so it was a 'bridge' between cell phones and the tablets. Jolla could well outlive Nokia now, with the right manfuacturing partner. (HTC is getting dumped the same as they were with Microsoft, would love to see them embrace this with their QWERTY designs)
        mikecane 14y ago
        I wish Jolla luck. It'd be something if they could pull it all off.
  - slurgfest 14y ago
    Why should you wish that Nokia had gone with that instead of Windows, if you think that Maemo was a horrible failure?
    - mikecane 14y ago
      Harmattan is a very nice UI with some innovative features. But if underneath it, loading software will require chasing down "dependencies," then maybe the beauty is only skin deep.
orbitingpluto 14y ago
Hacker reality? It's 2007 and you have a multitasking Linux device with: 1)64GB of storage 2)800x480 pixels in a screen almost the size of an iPhone 3)WiFi with great performance 4)Skype wherever you are 5)BT pairing with dumbphones with unlimited data plans 6)RDP/VNC connections over SSH 7)Python at your fingertips 8)Control over your device 9)Multi-boot It's 2012 and that still doesn't sound that bad. Maybe that's why I still grab that out of my bag instead of the latest Android gadget sitting beside it when I need to do something quickly.
- tmzt 14y ago
  Yeah, it's odd that Apple didn't adopt WVGA in the first iPhone. Knowing of the Nokia devices made me do a double take when I heard 320x480, I thought it was a mistake and they really meant 800x480.
  - wmf 14y ago
    But it made retina cheaper later on.
    - geon 14y ago
      800x480 on a small screen like that would be "retina".
- smashing 14y ago
  There is a difference between something being a technical achievement and a product.
  - orbitingpluto 14y ago
    You're correct. It's called advertising. An example is a friend who oohed and awed over the Samsung Galaxy Note due to its size, who previously had slammed the Nokia tablets for being too big and bulky.
    - 14y ago

sampo 14y ago

The main point of the article is something else, but this is a pretty thoughtful sentence: "In a world where everything must go through the rules and regulations of an app store without any oversight we, the developers, will suddenly be in the same abused stage as artists are with their labels."

thedeuce 14y ago
Yea I feel really bad for the rapper that came from nothing and now shits on a 3 million dollar toilet. Labels really oppressed that guy!
pvidler 14y ago
Except that the main app stores are fairly transparent about how much of the money you get and they generally let developers set their own prices.
- bergie 14y ago
  Sure, but they also mean that now there is a middleman that mandates what you can or cannot do
  - pvidler 14y ago
    Yeah, one that brings huge numbers of potential customers to your door, processes credit card transactions for you and may give you some free publicity (featured spots, etc.).
    - bergie 14y ago
      agreed on those, and it should be noted that record labels do provide similar services to their artists. My post was more about how there is no way around these middlemen. So if you're doing the app equivalent of pop music (twitter apps, casual games), you're probably fine. But try to do something more ambitious, and they'll crush you (well, close the only channel to the customers, at least)

mcmire 14y ago

I really really hope that Jolla takes off. It sounds like for a far too brief while, Maemo was the hacker's dream OS, which is pretty dang cool. It also sounds like the Nokia N9 was the first phone in which the beauty and usability of the device matched its hacker friendliness. That's all I'm waiting on. The thing I don't want to see in mobile is what happened to Linux, where yeah it's great that we have this open OS, but the experience itself is scattershot, questionable, or very very poor. If Jolla can do this -- and since some of the main people that worked on N9 are players here, they might have a shot -- then that's when I'll be paying close attention.

tmzt 14y ago
Is Jolla the Ubuntu of mobile linux?