another Maemo lesson - limit your trust to corporations

Open development/Licensing change requests has now interesting header which brings more light and relate to previous post:

Please note that this process is effectively dead. Please see http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=784443 for details. Summary: Nokia doesn't have a Maemo distmaster anymore to process these requests, and does not plan to allocate further resources for Maemo to change this, rather than just trying to make the corresponding Meego components open.

by Josh

and further

Note: *Nothing* was ever opened via this process.

by Jebba

with written aside "a sequence that might help you understand more the current situation" by qgil .

and quote from document on why closed things stay closed (and as you see, never become open, even if someone trying to master "process to open").

Reasons for closed packages

Open source is the licensing model preferred by Nokia in the development of Maemo. There are some reasons to have exceptions, though.

• Brand: Nokia wants to keep a strong brand and identity avoiding any risks of dilution.
• Differentiation: Nokia wants to gain competitive advantage in certain areas by keeping the related software closed.
• Legacy: Nokia keeps some components minimally maintained - the work of opening them has an unclear outcome.
• IPR & licensing issues: Nokia avoids serious risks brought by patents, copyrights or complicated licensing situations.
• Security: Nokia avoids safety risks and liabilities that could be caused by freeing access to certain hardware components.
• Third party: Nokia does not own the code and therefore does not decide on the license.

corporations rarely or never give up on own or peer's interest.

2010 bottom line - Maemo left behind, Meego is another fruit

after year 2010 wrapped up, one thing calmed down in my mind - for me Maemo has been left behind. Maemo team had released Maemo 5 for N900 along with N900 sales had started. After it had started sales, big heap of still-to-apply patches had been passed to maintenance team and majority had been switched to Harmattan. I had followed both Maemo 5 and Harmattan for several weeks but then I had no choice but switch too into Harmattan-only mode. And then Maemo+Moblin fusion into Meego had been pronounced as PR event. Real Meego deliveries had started several weeks later.

Lessons learned:

• Maemo 5 had been released same way as previous releases, only now it took 9+ months for followup, and same story of leaving behind of
  
• Harmattan aka "first mobile Meego" is totally different beast and openness there is limited compared to Maemo 5
• Meego Moblin is certainly sell-off to Intel no matter how much PR / marketing people try to sell it positive. Since layman public doesn't care what's under hood, I decided to keep it impersonal - after all, kernel is same kernel, no matter what is packaging.
• Luckily I am deep in kernel and don't have to bother much about userland apart from providing them with reliable high-quality kernel APIs. But what I see about Qt and rest of things UI... Well, it is probably Ok with average Joe but I don't like C++ and derivatives (read - Qt too). I just leave it up to "them" - not my business.
  
• Nokia had put all eggs into Qt basket.
  
• Overall feeling is like in movie "Toys" - ex-military invaded previously fun-making toy factory.
  

Meego is different fruit and hence it makes me thinking what do I do about my future and how tight my relationship with all these things is. I still continue to work in core team for Harmattan and further items, with all due diligence like squirrel in a wheel, but... future now is open more than before.

I feel it more like "wheel of life" has made another turn and I must think about change, whatever it is - is it "still Nokia" or something else, I don't know yet. One week of winter vacation hasn't brought any much clear about change - no real window for something else yet, new and exciting. Patience drills stones like water...

Maemo / meego team at Nokia hiring developer again

colleague hires again - this time application developer with deadline 15 June 2010

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Are you the next star application developer of MeeGo?
Be hired by 15th of June. Check out the details and apply now!

Simple rules:
MeeGo Devices at Nokia is looking for a Linux expert that knows how to write C++ or in Qt tool kit. Python and HTML 5 a plus.
If you have contributed to an open source project or you have a project of you own:
a) post your project in the event wall and b) apply with your CV

What we are offering?
- The best team to work in MeeGo in the areas of Email, Calendar, Synchronization
- Working on hot/cool/fun/extraordinary/awesome projects and technologies
- A competitive offer and relocation services from anywhere in the Globe to Finland
- Partying from time 2 time but for sure lots of chocolate and good humor

Are you ready for the challenge?

Impress the hiring manager by putting a cool post on Facebook event wall (your project, ideas, blog etc.) and send your CV

Don’t forget 15th of June, by then you might have a job at MeeGo Devices at Nokia.

And here are all job opportunities at MeeGo Devices at Nokia.

PS: If you know someone that matches the criteria, please forward this invitation.

Moblin and maemo are merging!

I'm sure you've heard the news: Moblin and maemo are merging! http://meego.com/

via Ping.fm

Posted via web from silpol's posterous

N900 gone sales!

Yay we are shipping #N900 http://bit.ly/2XSI2F !!!

via Ping.fm

Posted via web from silpol's posterous

maemo jobs - new position again

our colleague Kristiina Saaristo has posted again new position - "Maemo Developer Advocate @ Nokia" As it stated there,

The Maemo marketing team, which has created quite a buzz in recent weeks, is looking for a Maemo Developer Advocate to assist in promoting the business opportunities for apps built on top of Maemo globally.

you can apply straight on Taleo

also some other positions advertised on Google Adsense once page or search contains word maemo ;)

Maemo jobs on offer!

Jobs on offer!
Originally uploaded by Loek van der Helm

we are (still) hiring at Maemo Nokia - Finland (Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu), USA (Mt. View) and India (Bangalore)

Maemo 5 UI showcases

Maemo 5 UI team has created their own channel on YouTube where they present/showcase their design and give hints how you can use it in your own projects

Following are their personal top 5 shortcuts to start with:

tap on the Avatar opens the related contact card e.g. to call a friend from an ongoing Conversation

Ctrl+ Enter to send an e-mail

double press the Power key to lock the device

long tap on the Dashboard icon moves you directly to the Desktop

start typing on the Desktop to search a contact

Yay, we launched it!

Fremantle aka Maemo 5 is public!!! http://maemo.nokia.com/ this was VERY long run :D

more Linux / Maemo job - open positions at Nokia

I had been posting about open job postions within Maemo few times by now - [1] [2] [3] . Now my colleagues in HR has decided to invite even MORE people -- several vacant positions open in USA, Finland and India please read at the bottom.

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The Linux-based Maemo platform is the software that powers mobile devices such as the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. To make the Maemo platform even more powerful, we at the Maemo SW entity in Devices R&D are now looking for people to take it to the next level as part of the applications and platform development teams.

Nokia is hiring skilled and motivated professionals to develop the Linux based Maemo platform.


www.nokia.com/imaginemaemo - this link is not valid anymore.

instead you have to go www.nokia.com/careers, click into Careers link/picture and then use keyword... yes, maemo

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Maemo community Fremantle support - September 2008

Maemo Community Fremantle Support September 2008

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: community open-source)

Nokia and Maemo: Next Iteration

Nokia and Maemo: Next Iteration

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mobile software)

more Nokia jobs within open source and Maemo

my colleague Quim Gil has noted that his team is looking for somebody, who is very good at serving developers, i.e. position of product manager of the Maemo development platform at Nokia

also, for those who want to look straight for Maemo software related jobs (i.e. you want to work with Maemo, Linux, Nokia tablets, etc) among all open positions at Nokia , there is special section at maemo.org site named "maemo jobs" - have a look and please don't miss that "next" at bottom, as there is more than one page at the moment ;)

howto: add USB webcam to the Nokia N810

amateurs don't stop in creative attempts - first picked-up at jkOnTheRun, where Kevin C. Tofel refers to original post USB OTG goes webcam where the guy plays creative with Creative webcam (pun intended).

DIY Tilt sensor for N810 Nokia tablet

Probably this is one of not-so-many motivators for me in doing my daily job - to see later how others pickup and continue development towards what is interesting to end user.

Author has special page where he explains all howto's - not for light-heart amateur.

back to PIM

so, what I want from PIM on Nokia tablet?

thumb-ability - usability tuned more for finger-on-screen operation

better integration with tablet internals, i.e. with contacts db

better integration with external (http but not limited to) web services

this list to be continued...

another side of open source coin

after conversation with my colleague on our internal-and-yet-not-clear-whether-it-will-ever-float-at-all project, i just had interesting thought - apart from all this saliva-dropping "Open source über alles" shouted slogans, there is one thing good of being not in corporation: you write app, they use it, but there is nobody to go after you, if it somehow goes around of law (quite often written for it's own lawyer's raison d'être).

Which in turns begs an answer for question(s)... I hear very often that people out there almost beg for PIM-and-alike small business tools for our Nokia tablet - yet, inside our team this topic... no, it is not a taboo but sort of getting many just looking on the walls as if you were not present and asking - no, no hidden agenda or alike, it is just consequence of doom business in PDA market, and nobody want his career go down. So, may be it makes sense to launch yet another open source project? No, PIM for Maemo may be a good tool set and good starting point but it is very far from Hildon design paradigms (e.g.think of thumbing up on this, especially with only one finger/thumb free for that) and frankly need some deeper re-design, not only ugly PDA-caused UI

another UI fix in Vagalume

Alberto Garcia (after consulting with fans bakes out yet another Vagalume, now version 0.5.1 and promises more UI fixes soon.

Winner looks better IM-not-so-HO


than previous one


Now, I guess, you have no wonder why I got stuck on that Smooth Jazz tag at last.fm, and I hope that after last.fm news that

Full-length tracks are now available in the US, UK, and Germany

we could hear them here in Finland

... can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website