The four wheels spinning MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine.]
There has been a lot of discussion about MeeGo and its future, now reinforced with the launch of the Nokia N9 – a great product that seems to leave nobody indifferent. Here you have some thoughts cooked between #feb11 and tonight (even if Helsinki has little night to offer to mid-Summer visitors).
One problem in this discussion is that a lot of focus is being put in the word “MeeGo” when actually it’s a label that can mean different things to different audiences in different contexts. In fact though, the label doesn’t count as much as the actual software underneath and the projects involved in its development.
The Nokia N9 is powered by MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, the OS equipped with this UX that has impressed to many. Now, let’s have a look under the hood to see what parts of it really matter to the MeeGo project, the OSS community, the developers and users interested in the N9:
Linux Kernel
We are talking about the mainline Kernel. Needless to say this project will continue to live and evolve. Nokia may keep contributing to this project and using it for R&D and future products – nothing announced at this point beyond this reference of ‘MeeGo’ in relation to the ‘future disruptions’ strategy.
Qt
This is another rich label meaning the toolkit, API, SDK, a variety of technologies involved… The project is in good shape with a promising future based on Qt Quick, the innovations and open governance model being implemented for Qt5 as we speak. The Nokia N9 is a Qt champion product, there are 100 million Qt-enabled Symbian devices (a lot more are expected) and Nokia just announced that Qt will have a central role in its ‘next billion’ strategy. Beyond Nokia, Qt also continues its growth.
WebKit
Another key OSS project where Nokia is a veteran contributor. Plays a key role connected to the increasing relevance of HTML5 (yet another vague label) in the mobile industry. Both WebKit upstream and the team(s) working on it at Nokia have a bright and busy future.
swipe UX
It doesn’t even aim to become a label, but has captivated already the attention of many when seen in action in the Nokia N9. As a happy user and earliest tester I’m proud of what we have achieved. Stephen Elop has said that it will live forward and evolve in future Nokia products.
In my opinion that’s it. This is what really matters about MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan when it comes to discuss about future products, platforms and ecosystems. Note that these four pieces are very versatile and flexible, they can play with each other and they can also head towards other paths, offering many possibilities for future products.
The rest of technologies involved in MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan are also crucial in terms of functionality and success of a product, but they are more the sort of interchangeable glue, technology in motion that may change because of life cycles, hardware, providers, technology selections, etc. The projects and companies developing the myriad of pieces know this well and work hard & fast to either push new releases or jump wagon to whatever is the new future greatness.
Now, it turns that the rest is very important today for the MeeGo project when it comes to define what is a MeeGo compliant product. According to this definition, if you miss the rest then you don’t have a MeeGo product, unless you propose and obtain a trademark exception.
(((Another approach would be to simply define MeeGo = Kernel mainline + Qt + WebKit, syncing app developers around the OpenGL, Qt and Web APIs – but this is not the reality today)))
With all this background in mind, you can put a vague question in more precise terms:
– If the Nokia N9 is successful will you ship more high-end smartphones powered either by MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan or a fully compliant MeeGo?Since #feb11 Nokia has a clear software strategy where high-end smartphones are covered by the collaboration with Microsoft on Windows Phone, therefore the consequent answer is the one already given by Stephen Elop: No.
However, look back at the four essential pieces above and keep in mind that Nokia is investing in all of them. Even if working on them is really fun, you may guess that Nokia is not paying the teams for the fun of it. It is sensible to expect more to come in a form or another.
Considering that Linux Kernel and WebKit will continue evolving no matter what Nokia decides and assuming that the swipe UX will continue evolving in Nokia products, in reality the concern about “the future of MeeGo at Nokia” is tied to the future of Qt: Nokia’s investment and leadership, involvement of other parties in a wide community, usefulness addressing the mobile and cross-platform challenges, increase of the developer base, increase of the quantity and quality of Qt apps… There is a direct correlation between the success of the Qt project and the satisfaction of the future N9 users, even if most of them won’t know ever. 🙂
Qt was relevant before Nokia acquired Trolltech. Nowadays is more relevant than ever, and is evolving fast. It’s a great piece of open source technology that can compete side by side with the leading toolkits. I only expect a bright future for it, sitting between the Linux stack and WebKit, powered by its championing capacity to support multiple platforms and enable multiple UXs.
For all these reasons I’m really happy about the arrival of the Nokia N9 and its role in this interesting chess game. About the future, since I joined the mobile industry in 2007 only one true has prevailed: no matter what your prediction is, the reality in 12 months will be different and unexpected today. Enjoy!
Filed under: MeeGo | 50 Comments
Tags: Harmattan, kernel, Linux, MeeGo, N9, Nokia, Qt, WebKit
otoh
flors 
A lot of lines to read between there.. 😉
As a current owner & fan of the N900 & N8x0 Maemo devices I will certainly be purchasing the N9 asap, non UK import, or travel to country of release if required.
Question seems to be what device will follow it. I’m getting the increasing impression that there will be a decent follow-up, just maybe not from Nokia.
Either way, interesting times ahead. 🙂
I agree with danielsussex, but this is still an important post. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Quim.
I must admit, I have serious doubts about the level of involvement Nokia will have in Qt afterwards, especially with the statements from Elop that, irrespective of how well the N9 does, no more MeeGo phones will be made. If Microsoft had deigned to allow Qt to be ported to WP7 (which would seem to have been possible, since it ran on 6.5, and the public statements made about the deal would seem to claim that Nokia would’ve been within their terms to port Qt over) the story might be different, but with a small team within Nokia still working on Qt afterwards, without any products in the pipeline the contributions will *have* to be much smaller, no?
All that being said, I’m very much looking forward to the N9 entirely because of what you lay out here; the first three “wheels” are things that underpin most of the software I use every day, so from my perspective the N9 is the only logical next smartphone for me. I do wish the N950 was buyable, and it’s sad to think that after all these years and many Nokia phones this’ll be the last one I’ll ever buy, but one can’t have everything I suppose. A bitter irony that MeeGo was dumped for its lack of “ecosystem”, yet it’s the only phone OS out there that’s within the “ecosystem” of software I use!
Overall, kudos to everyone involved in Harmattan, both the current teams and the many folks who’ve left in the Feb11th fallout. It certainly looks like you all have done some excellent work!
IMHO, leaving Meego is just accept that Nokia is just another company in the mobile industry, not a leader. This especially sad when the Nokia N9 is the proof that can deliver a good product with its own identity and an innovative UX.
Anyway, I hope that Qt and webkit expertise in Nokia will be used in a way or another.
Phil, read again the Qt section in the post. The Qt team is busy with Qt5 already and they are actually not directly affected by the fate of the MeeGo team at Nokia or the N9 sales. The same Elop that is firmly saying that the N9 will have no direct successor is also saying that Qt is a key technology to reach the ‘next billion’ of Nokia mobile users.
I must get1, I dont care wt elop saying!, he just tryinh to kill meego 4 WP7
The reason people want to see more MeeGo devices from Nokia is that it’s all of the above together in a single device with commercial support.
Yes, I could go and get a Pre running Linux and WebKit (and even Qt, internally); but the hardware isn’t as compelling. OK, a future Nokia device might have the swipe UX, but I’m interested in the N9 because it’s the UX on top of the stack I want to develop for and support. Qt is fantastic, but if it’s on S40 as part of the next billion, that’s not the device I want to have which is an open, consumer-friendly Linux device in a stunning design with a compelling user interface.
Fortunately, the N9 is that, so it’ll keep me going for a couple of years; just as my N900 did before it 🙂
Is the answer still “no” if the question is less prescriptive:
“If the Nokia N9 is successful will you ship more smartphones powered either by a son-of-Harmattan or a fully compliant MeeGo?”
You seem to be basically saying that linux/qt has a future in nokia, do i read this right?
The reference to 1.2 was far too specific, we know that nokia isn’t going to release a family of Harmattan devices, which presupposes enough that some would release on the same platform version, so providing an answer to ‘that’ question isn’t terribly illuminating.
What I want to know is whether there will be further linux/qt devices if the N9 is successful?
Thanks for this blog maybe this may get some people to undestand more what’s going on inside Nokia and we get rid of some rumors 🙂
And btw. people even if Elop is saying there will be no future Meego phone it doesn’t mean it can be another Meego products in the future 😉
And another thing Elop is not Nokia’s “GOD” (hmm give me a better world) 😉 Strategys may change in the future.
Just my personal opinion, But I am far from an bussines expert 🙂
Now we all should start makes apps and send bugreports as most of us known there is already an betaSDK out too play with 😉
A chat I had with a friend yesterday (a former Nokia employee, who left the company some months ago) about issues his Meego colleagues were having (with implementing new features, some months ago), this and other blogs (compliance, api, friction with Intel, etc.), leads me to believe that Nokia is trying to put some distance between itself and Meego (in a technical sense and not in the sense of the CEO trying to sink that particular ship)
Perhaps the API / compatibility / compliance rules for Meego are not at the right level of the stack — making it very hard for Nokia to develop the features required for the N9. I’m guessing that overspecification of the API has introduced some inflexibility. I’m also guessing that it is something that will need to be fixed.
If this was the case it would explain some things.
On the other hand, I get the feeling that Mr. Elop just plain doesn’t like the idea behind Meego or the N9 — he is in some sense not comfortable with either the development process or working out what assets the company has by working on/with Free software (unlike the relationship with Microsoft, where he can comfortably put numbers on licensing, work out development cost, know who owns what, and calculate risks). The assets he has of course, are the development team, and the competitive advantage they give him.
This would explain the various people leaving the company, and perhaps the “SeaRay” leak two days after the N9 announcement…
Interesting, but sounds a bit scary to me.
Personally, i don’t feel terribly interested in the Qt-ness of Meego, what always interested me about it was the openness and the Linux-ness of the underlying OS.
What I love and will forever love about my N900 (and which I lovingly tick off my iPhone using friends with) is that if there is something it doesn’t do, well, I just write a python script that makes it do that. And I can do that ON the device. And just look where the community has taken the N900; it’s no longer even remotely the same device as when released, if you install all the community-coded bells and whistles.
Yes, I’m a nerd, geek, and certifiably insane (all labels I wear with pride) but that’s where I always saw the true potential of such a device. Sure, if the Qt framework allows me to code and extend with the same ease, that’s great, but I havn’t really seen that yet… maybe it’s enough for most of the cases, I don’t know yet, havn’t had the opportunity (lacking a device, *hint hint cough sneeze*) to dive into what the Qt framework actually does… but even if the Qt framework allows to most of the same things I tend to solve with a “python hack on my N900”, then that’s awesome….
Still…. I worry for a future where people won’t be able to make an equivalent of, for example, the overclocking power-kernel for the N900.
But lets see what the future brings.
Here’s one thing I’m certain off – I would *never* want to run anything named “Windows” on my phone 🙂
/Z
LOL, some edit/grammar #fail in my post, hope you get the ideas.
/Z
I share the exact same feeling as Andrew Flegg here.
I am not concerned about the single pieces of software. I do know they have a very long and interesting life ahead.
What I am concerned is the man that puts them all together to build a great piece of hardware and software like the N900 yesterday and the N9 today.
There will be nothing, as far as today is concerned, tomorrow.
And I do hate that. A lot.
Even if I like the WP7 UI, I do not love the underlying piece of software.
Quim, I follow you greatly on the various forums/blog, and respect you a lot. Frankly it is because of people like you and Stskeeps, I still trust Nokia as a corporation. Let me be honest in the following. I hope I make some influence.
=======
Honest:
1. Great respect to what the team did with the QT based UI. Always saw a universal QT based UI coming, ever since Nokia took over Trolltech. But more than being just QT, it is brilliant – simple and elegant.
2. Great respect to Nokia for being a pioneer in putting linux on a mobile device, and actually making it usable. Nokia has been a market leader at that. Inspite of having absolutely no support on the N900 from Nokia (not even a decent maps software update), I bought this device and adore it for one reason: Linux/ powerful OS on a phone.
3. Nokia had all the power. But real pity that it couldnt market/ bring these Maemo devices to mainstream.
========
Why are people pissed off
1. Emotion: They “believe” Nokia is a market leader in adopting new technologies (NFC, curved glass, maemo etc). They want Nokia to remain the market leader. They believe, with Nokia adopting WinP7, it just a generic OEM.
2. The future is now: Only an idiot would let future come to him. A market leader creates the tomorrow’s world today. Thats what S. Jobs did when he brought a touchscreen phone (Iphone), or Nokia did when they introduced multitasking 10+ years ago. Meego in N9 has full potential to be a full fledged futuristic OS TODAY. Elop has the future in his hands. Yet by claiming it to be a “future disruption”, he is proving an idiot. People hate this wasted potential.
3. Nokia diregards its community: In a open OS like Meego, it is not just Nokia’s dreams, but also the dreams and imaginations of thousands of developers. They envision a future, that they want to materialize. Ofcourse in a perfect environment, Nokia’s and the community’s visions converge to create a perfect system. But Nokia by wavering in its created vision, and disregarding the community is losing all the goodwill it created with Maemo. Trust me, it is tough to win this back.
Quim, I guess the thing we’re trying to figure out is how QT will help Nokia reach its next billion. If you’re looking at customers meaning mobile phone purchasers, then QT is limited to the low-end, with S40, since QT ports to WP7 have been ruled out. There’s some potential for growth on the S40 side, but I’d guess that some of the low-cost Chinese companies will eat your lunch there. And QT is a relatively heavy framework for even the relatively inexpensive chips going into S40s.
Since the Linux-powered line is dead, the only viable explanation for Nokia using QT to reach the next billion means that Nokia is looking to redefine customer to include anyone who uses QT (i.e.: almost every KDE user, and thus a substantial portion of the total Linux-using world).Okay, but we’re still going to mourn the loss of Maemo/Meego line.
thanks for encouraging and keeping our trust in nokia and this device…..
Quim: I do get that the Qt team will continue, I guess I was just expressing doubt that the overall level of contribution by Nokia will be anywhere near the same after Qt is no longer powering a current flagship. That being said, who am I to talk as some random internet voice? Obviously you have a better perspective on this in many ways, being in fact *inside* Nokia. So my concerns should probably be tempered a bit with that in mind.
And thinking about it, I guess I do see how Elop’s two positions could avoid being contradictory; for business reasons (which obviously folks like me disagree with, but that’s besides the point here) the decision not to follow up on the N9 with another product is firm, but strong sales and glowing reviews could nonetheless throw weight behind further siginificant R&D on Qt. So a high level of Nokia-contributed code would still be believable, I can see that.
Further, you’re right to point out the Qt5 move to open governance; while that’s a not directly related to my previously expressed doubts, it’s true that that’s a very important move, and certainly from the KDE side of things (which conerns me about equally) it’s very welcome. So for the long-term of Qt that may prove to be far more important than future Nokia Linux-based products (or the lack thereof).
I guess I just hope that the “next billion” strategy hits before the N9 itself gets too long in the tooth 😉 And I do hope that I’m not sounding too pessimistic here; my misgivings aren’t indicitive of my overall perspective here. It’s just that I, and I believe many others, find ourselves torn between the promise of Qt and Linux and the sordid tale that the business side of such has become.
Please would everyone sign here http://twitition.com/3c3ah ,, mayb it help to survive MeeGo
Yes I would like that everybody wins… sure…. Take youre side, be clear.
They are probably gonna fail both ways, because they cut funds to MeeGo which Elop deemed as a dead end road and rely on a feature phone OS, without perspectives. Developers know it will never have Symbian or Android complexity and features, and certainly not even half the lustre of iOS.
What really matters is that Nokia, moving from Symbian/MeeGo to WP7, is transitioning from a feature-rich, efficient, open enough OS, to a feature-poor, wasteful, closed one.
No amount of sweet talk will change that sad reality.
I totally agree w/ Allen.
I like the UI but I bought a N900 for its openness anf for being a “true” Linux phone. I like the Linux ecosystem, i use the Midnight Commander on my phone.
For me what was exciting about Meego was the crosspolination with Symbian-QT and desktop Linux. Witouth that I couldn´t care less if the user interface will be used in future phones or not.
Well….
What’s the point of investing in these four “essential pieces” for the long-haul, & in particular the mainline kernel.
If you reckon Nokia has “absolutely no intent” to release devices based on Maemo/Meego after the N9?
qgil:
“The Qt team is busy with Qt5 already and they are actually not directly affected by the fate of the MeeGo team at Nokia or the N9 sales.
…The same Elop that is firmly saying that the N9 will have no direct successor is also saying that Qt is a key technology to reach the ‘next billion’ of Nokia mobile users.”
So what, who cares if QT is vibrant & thrives if it’s not going to be on Nokia’s own OS LT?
Even if M$ allows them to use QT on WP (which is extremely unlikely), in that scenario Nokia’s still not delivering something that’s 100% it’s own (ala apple).
You seem to be suggesting it’s for the best that Nokia give up it’s own nextgen OS ambitions. As if they’re not capable of doing something that’s as compelling/powerful as WP in the longer-term.
@Jed
You are absolutely right of course, it is surprising how many people keep on harping about Qt when that’s not really the point:
http://www.mobileinfoplanet.com/2011/06/28/it-is-not-about-qt-its-the-os-stupid/
Jed, your logic in comment #25 goes exactly the other way around, and this is exactly what I’m trying to explain in this post: because Nokia is investing in these 4 wheels it is reasonable to expect new products using them. What hasn’t been announced is which wheels will go to which product, which kinds of products are we talking about, when will they be released… You are focusing on the combination MeeGo + Smartphone (that is another vague label btw) + short term, but there are more.
More importantly, I’m not in the business of arguing and convincing. I’m just trying to help putting this Nokia N9 in context and shedding some light of what kind of successors it might have. If you have other opinions that’s fine. Time will tell, as always. Thank you for your feedback!
> it-is-not-about-qt-its-the-os-stupid/
Call me stupid, then. No worries. Whoever has a clue about building Linux platforms and even mobile ecosystem nowadays know that Qt is the essential piece connecting a piece of hardware and a bunch of feature enablers with the final user experience that makes a customer buy a product, and also with the developers that will bring more features and brands to those customers.
Qt includes WebKit and is bringing Javascript support to the front (it can handle it pretty well already now). Qt is also the toolkit powering the swipe UX right now.And Qt works best on top of Linux right now. And Qt is what defines the developer offering, regardless of the name of the OS it is sitting on top.
I can’t really help if the paragraph above is too technical or boring for those living in the headlines of the war of ecosystems.
“because Nokia is investing in these 4 wheels it is reasonable to expect new products using them. What hasn’t been announced is which wheels will go to which product, which kinds of products are we talking about, when will they be released… You are focusing on the combination MeeGo + Smartphone”
Sorry but I don’t agree with the assertion that the lower levels don’t matter & that Nokia can let others worry about that for them.
I want Nokia to have it’s own compelling smartphone environment.
Not have to rely on an amalgam between a 3rd party, + it’s wonderful “wheels of technology”.
IMO Nokia’s LT goal “must be” a full-blown smartphone OS of their own making.
Alas it doesn’t look like that’s even remotely on the radar right now or ever 😦
No offence, but I strongly disagree.
This makes sense to all of you coders/programmers/developers/engineers and so forth. But it does not to the consumer. What you don’t get is “the person who walks in the store” and find an attractive phone and buys it. IT is as simple as that. It what sold the first iphone.
Now if the phone is attractive and sells now, why not release a couple? We can say it will move on to other products but if it sells, it needs a viable follow up. Not windows, not symbian, not S40. Meego Harmattan is here now. No need to wait another year for a ported Swipe UX to symbian/S40 right now. Do we wait for all the hype to die down and Nokia will release Swipe UX to S40/symbian belle/ WP7? That does not make sense in marketing. There was a lot of hype with Maemo5 and Nokia just let it die while releasing more S60v5s.
Same story all over again. Now if there is a SwipeUX/Qt based S40/Symbian/WP7 around the corner, (meaning before next year) then that’s a different story and it makes sense.
@qgil
See, you just did it again: you keep talking about Qt and how it (the UI) will sell phones.
Fine. No one is arguing against that. The point of my post is: do YOU want Qt on top of an iPhone 1, or some other crippled feature phone, i.e. would you be happy using that phone only because it has Qt? Or would you rather use an open Linux kernel/OS (i.e. MeeGo/Maemo) with any other, fully functional UI-toolkit on it?
It is a straightforward question and I would be genuinely interested in an equally straight and honest reply from you given your direct involvement with Maemo.
I have a technical background so I perfectly understand the purpose and benefits of Qt. But Qt’s “awesomeness” does not automatically mean that it does not matter (for you as a user) WHERE (on top of what OS) you apply Qt, does it?
Oh, and you are barking up the wrong tree if you think my post has anything to do with ‘ecosystems’!
http://www.mobileinfoplanet.com/2011/06/21/i-dont-want-no-friggin-ecoystem/
(And needless to say, I am not calling you or anyone ‘stupid’ – it’s just an expression!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_the_economy,_stupid )
OpenSource and the N9: What is actually OpenSource and what is not OpenSource in the N9? Is it true that the swipe UX is completely proprietary and not open source? This would mean that no one could port the swipe UX to another phone when Nokia stops selling the N9 in 2x months? The swipe UX would be simply lost for users, right?
That said and given that Elop confirmed that there will be no next Meego-device after the N9, would mean that there is no reason to buy it. That’s pretty sad. What would you suggest? Buying or not buying the N9?
I don’t see how those ‘wheels’ may be usefull to Nokia other than together. Of course each of them has great use outside of a Nokia mobile consumer device. But if the aim is to built such a mobile device using some of those component, it is natural to take the others to complement it. Then since you need to ‘add the glue’ to built a complete system, what is the most efficient way ? It seems to me MeeGo is a quite efficient factory to built such a system. After all it is the reason why MeeGo exists in the first place.
The alternative would to built a webOS-like proprietary system made of those open-source components. Seems like a step backward to me, but perhaps in the buisness people minds, it makes sense…
@Aldi
There’s no reason why Nokia can’t port to WP7, so long as M$ agrees to that.
If M$ doesn’t…
Then they should be saying “screw you we’ll continue developing our 4 pillars strongly” & testing it in concert with said “glue”. *
Whatever form the complete union ultimately takes, it’d have to be something that closely resembles maemo/meego now.
Unless they’re trying to build an entire OS from scratch, which seems crazy to me.
They should’ve started that loooong ago, if they’re headed in that direction.
*they should be saying screw you regardless IMO.
Another route is focussing entirely on their QT&Webkit UX/Apps.
And then trying to license it to other OS’s in the future… Not the way to go IMO.
@bzhbok
Mostly agreed, but I disagree with the last two sentences 🙂
Why not take advantage of an OSS project already geared to the same end.
There’s no other community like it that Nokia can leverage, they’d have to rely entirely on their own base (Maemo).
Which maybe is what they plan to do…. *shrugs*
Unless they’re traversing one of the other 2 routes I suggested in my last two posts.
@bzhbok
Mostly agreed, except I disagree with the last two sentences 🙂
Why not take advantage of an OSS project already geared to the same end (Meego)?
There’s no other community like it that Nokia can leverage, they’d have to rely entirely on their own base (Maemo)!
Which maybe is what they plan to do…. *shrugs*
Unless they’re traversing one of the other 2 routes I suggested in my last two posts.
At the end of the day even Elop must be answerable to shareholders, if we make the N9 a success by buying it then and making sure there is a huge demand for the phone and ensure we tell our friends and family, and make sure nobody buys a W7 phone. Then we the public will have spoken, i say down with Microsoft and long live Open Source.
I use the N900 and its more than a phone, its a way of communications and if the N9 is even 1% better it will be amazing.
I will be buying one no-matter where on this planet they are being sold.
From what I can make out, it sounds like Nokia will follow up the N9 with more Linux devices (not phones) containing these four wheels which may or may not be MeeGo based. If they choose not to continue with MeeGo, one would assume they would naturally choose to follow on from Harmattan with their own Linux based OS like a Maemo 7 or a new brand. Reasons not to continue with MeeGo could include conflict with Intel, lack of control over the OS or strict compliance rules.
Elop has previously spoken about a “uniquely Nokia” tablet that they were evaluting their software options for so this could be a Harmattan device or successor. With various tablets containing 3G support, the line that defines what constitues a phone device is blurring. Maybe I’m being too hopeful but I would’t rule out another Nokia Internet Tablet.
@wicket
Well that’s at least somewhere for a QT/Linux based home-grown OS to go…
Seeing that Elop’s so adamant on not allowing a Meego-like OS to share the top-end smartphone space w/WP7 😦
But it’s a “cop out” in the longer-term….
I truly hope they don’t plan to stay only in that device form-factor forever.
I personally think they’d have an even harder time competing in that form-factor space.
Their best chance is to “strike while the iron’s hot”, and really run hard with the N9 now.
But that’s never gunna happen…. 😦
@varun
I challenge you to find a single quote where Nokia says there will be no more qt fueled Linux based devices. Meego and Linux are not swappable labels, your RegEx is clearly broken.
Maybe Nokia has just learnt the danger of announcing new platforms/devices too far in advance of delivery.
@anyone
http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=3664
Elop himself has made pretty clear that the N9’s the last meego phone.
But he hasn’t ruled-out a Linux-based smartphone as far as I’m aware.
So perhaps a rebranding is a possibility LT?!?
If you remember the time before MeeGo – especially Maemo. Maemo6 Harmattan design was pretty much same as initial MeeGo design, main difference was/is their package manager. So I think you can call this Meego 1.2 Harmattan because it has basically all core components same with default Meego, but you could also call it Maemo6 since that is what it actually seems to be.
It is just a brand and using MeeGo brand is fine since it is compatible and they share “most” of the code base. In my opinion Nokia missed a year (and about a billion dollards – i think no one knows actual amount but the ones responsible of meego harmattan surely may guess that few years of no-limit-funding was in the end a bit bitter sweet) when merging Maemo with Meego and that may be in the end helpful for future Meego products, even if Nokia wouldnt be the one making them.
^
So many inaccuracies there I don’t know where to begin.
And TBH I CBF’d…