What can we realistically expect

Introduction
This wiki page was created following a lot of hot-topic questions being asked without answer which resulted in a general bad mood on Maemo.org Talk. It was suggested by Qgil in this post.

The purpose of this page is to compile known information and open questions into one and easy to read source.

Be realistic !
Questions that would break a NDA (non-disclosure agreement), business related questions, certain other sensitive questions and questions that have no answers at the moment can't and won't be answered.

Some example by Qgil :

N900 hardware, "Official support", upgrading kernel drivers, Ovi Maps, Flash, Nokia apps, industry certifications... most of this discussion is about commercial topics, even when they sit on top of open source code.

Emphasis added by editor

Source : Qgil

I discuss about open source software and developer offering. I might discuss about Nokia proprietary software if that is useful. I avoid as much as possible discussions about Nokia hardware and 3rd party commercial software, just because this is totally out of my scope. Harmattan/MeeGo officially supported in the N900, Ovi Maps with free navigation, etc are business topics to be discussed with business owners. People like Peter, Janne, Ari...

Source : Qgil

Reference
Quim Gil (qgil) : Job title - open source advocate @ Maemo Devices.

Ari Jaaski (jaaksi) : Job title - Vice President of Maemo Software @ Nokia.

Urho Konttori (konttori) : Job title - Project Manager @ Nokia.

Tomas Junnonen (tomasj) : Job title - Developer @ Nokia.

Disclamer
Please do not, and I repeat, do not take any of those answers as definitive. This is a first draft. Thank you for you comprehension. Ready to dive in?

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Will Nokia support the front-facing camera on the N900 ?
At this point of time, I don't have anything to share on an application making use of forward-facing camera. I wouldn't like to speculate on things we have not announced yet.

Source : Peter Schneider

Why should I start developing applications for the N900 ?
What I want to say is: even if you are interested in the N900 alone here and now, developers (specially commercial developers) are interested in volumes and future plans. The perspectives of MeeGo with it's API compatibility across MeeGo devices + Symbian devices is much more interesting than the focus on the N900 alone. Today there is still no MeeGo release, no MeeGo SDK and no reference hardware announced, but you can get the N900 with Qt 4.6 official around the corner and a decent development environment. With your apps developed targetting the N900 you can also start practising the Ovi Store game and etc.

Source : Qgil

The MeeGo prospects are already awaking more interest from software vendors and application developers. Many already came to the Nokia floor next to Mobile World Congress asking where to start. The answer is: go get an N900 and start developing on Qt with it. This is the best and fastest path to target forthcoming MeeGo handsets.

Source : Qgil

The MeeGo project has announced support for the N900. What does it really mean for my N900 ?
What that blog post talks about is MeeGo vanilla support announced by the MeeGo project. This is not Harmattan support with Harmattan apps by Nokia. It's Nokia and not the MeeGo project who has the word on Nokia deliveries.

Note : Define MeeGo vanilla.

Still, N900 users concerned about "the future of the N900" now know that their hardware is in the real track for future support. More answers to come as the Harmattan alpha release approaches.

Source : Qgil

MeeGo will come with a reference UX and reference OSS apps. If someone is expecting official Nokia apps then this is another story. The story of 'Harmattan running in the N900'. We have dicussed this. Nothing new on that front.

Note : Define UX and OSS

Source : Qgil

How many application running on MeeGo 1 will be able to run on Maemo 5 ?
And I repeat -- for what of the new software runs on N900 -- I simply do not know. Looking at the characteristics of our hardware and other plans, not all, I'm sure! But certainly many many apps will run.

Source : Ari Jaaski

Nokia only sell hardware why would they considering device backward compatibility.
This argument combined with the argument of the 'designed obsolescence' also pops up regularly.

It is true that 'Nokia sells hardware' but this is just part of the story. Nokia develops a consumer offering based on devices, software and services. Harware is very important in this strategy and so are the software platforms, the application developer ecosystem and the Ovi services. As opposed to a specific device, software and services can be continuous and evolutionary. They can support very well the very important job of customer retention.

If the owners of a Nokia XXX are happy with this offering, one day they will move to Nokia XXY, or perhaps Nokia YYY. They will recommend Nokia to their relatives and friends, etc.

If the owner of a Nokia XXX is unhappy because one or more of the pieces described above doesn't work, they will start their walk away to other competitors.

So you might get WONTFIXES and FIXED in [next release], and that [next release] might or might not be available for your next device. But don't think that Nokia doesn't care about bugs in current releases and about the satisfaction of the users getting those bugs.

Source : Qgil

Why can we get all the drivers for the N900 ?
Setting pure OSS expectations on Maemo/N900 ignoring the business aspects Nokia has to deal with (e.g. giving away interesting information to competitors) is probably not a good business.

Source : Qgil

Why can't Nokia promises the N900 will get MeeGo ?
Intel and Nokia are still discussing the last details about the MeeGo architecture. In technical terms this means that still today nobody knows what exactly the MeeGo OS will consist of. Imagine a month ago, two months ago, three...

... (You have to consider) the jump from Maemo 5 to Harmattan/MeeGo, which represents a deep change in the OS plus a total rewrite of the applications.

Still, the chance is there. The sooner you demand an answer the easiest is to get a conservative silence. The closer we get to Harmattan / MeeGo stable releases the easiest is to give accurate technical and business answers.

Source : Qgil

==== The N900 has a OMAP3 and it has been said that the next device will be using the same. What technical reasons are there that would make the availability of MeeGo 1 on N900 an unreasonable expectation? ====

Nobody is saying the expectation is unreasonable. Only the timing could be more reasonable.

For instance, "pretty much the same hardware" is a guess before the hardware details of a new device are announced. Yes, it will be based on OMAP3 but there are more elements in the hardware equation.

Source : Qgil

How is Nokia marketing the N900 ? Is it a phone ?
It is sold as a mobile computer with the Internet in its heart, and it was introduced as 'step 4 of 5' for tech leaders / lovers. If you want a mature Nokia mobile phone with extensive Java support and full SIM features then there are plenty of choices based on Series40 and Symbian. I think Nokia has been clear on that since http://maemo.nokia.com was launched this Summer.

Source : Qgil

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Can Nokia really works on two different OS (Maemo 5 and MeeGo) at the same time ?
Maemo 5 has a whole separate team focused right now on bringing you lots of goodies in the already announced upcoming PR1.2 release for Maemo 5. Nokia is a pretty big company and Maemo's not so small either anymore, we're capable of multitasking and just throwing more people at one task doesn't necessarily make it go any faster (as those who have developed software surely can testify to)

Source : tomasj

Anything new coming to Ovi Store for Maemo 5 ?
Updates coming here, too ....

Source : Ari Jaaski

Why is Ovi Suite still not working with Maemo 5 ?
Improving all the time. N900 is still young, and as a new platform not everything works. Symbian has been around for years, so it is further in many areas.

Source : Ari Jaaski

From mobiletablets.blogspot.com :

Nokia N900 supports a range of Ovi services including Ovi Store, Contacts on Ovi, Ovi Share, Nokia Messaging, and Ovi Maps. Comes with Music and other services that require platform-wide support of DRM will be supported in our MeeGo-based devices which we intend to provide with Microsoft PlayReady-based DRM technology. Naturally, we'll be working to increase support for all Ovi services as we go forward with MeeGo.

Source : Peter Schneider

Can we expect Java support in Maemo 5 ?
Not officially supported in Maemo 5. If someone brings it fine, but not us. We have been always consistent on this.

Source : Qgil

Can we expect hardware accelerated flash 10 in Maemo 5 ?
We can't happily add to our roadmaps technologies owned by others. In a normal world the first one announcing support plans of Adobe Flash in ARM platforms would be Adobe.

Source : Qgil

Why free Ovi Maps for Symbian has been annouced and there is still nothing for Maemo 5 ?
In developer terms, Symbian had already navigation implemented and removing the payment step was simple. Maemo didn't have navigation implemented so no matter what new policies come, the implementation must be developed first.

Source : Qgil

Is there still applications being developed at Nokia for Maemo 5 ?
YouTube video of a new game. (See source)

Source : Nokia Conversation

We haven't been very forthcoming about the content being created for the next releases of Maemo 5. I can assure you, there is a lot of great content being developed, and you should be able to get your hands on it soonish.

Source : Konttori

The Fremantle team, lead by people like konttori, keeps working on new updates. Fixing, polishing and bringing new features to Maemo 5.

Of course we put a lot of attention on Harmattan/MeeGo/Step 5 since this is what we need to do in order to be and stay in the premier league.

Looking at http://www.octofish.net/bugjar/ we can see that 29 application/platform bugs were resolved as FIXED. It was 30 the week before.

A report of how many Maemo 5 bugs have been resolved as FIXED would be a useful fact, including of course the target release (Fremantle or Harmattan). More flesh for the wiki page?

Source : Qgil

We just launched N900. It is a brand new device. More updates and new software coming all the time. Even more now because of MeeGo, I strongly believe.

Honestly, I'm a bit puzzled why this MeeGo announcement was interpreted so that we would be abandoning N900. Who said so? What is it in the MeeGo that makes you think so? -- I'm trying to do my best to explain why the opposite is true.

Source : Ari Jaaski

Is there a roadmap for Maemo 5
Roadmap page is a great idea in my opinion, the only issue being in it the dates, which we don't want to commit to. But I'm sure a roadmap can be built without such. I'll take the action of following that up.

Source : Konttori

There are official plans and there are tentative plans. They haven't been communicated, but they exist.

Source : Qgil

Maemo 5 is still new. Why was MeeGo announced so quickly after Maemo 5 release ?
Welcome to open source and open development. Actually the Maemo team and now MeeGo are just putting some toes of one foot in the open pool, so get used to this. Public roadmaps will tell you about features you currently don't have in your device, there will be always something apparently cooler making you think if you are buying your product in the right time.

Harmattan with Qt officially supported were announced in June 2008. Harmattan based on Qt and the cross-platform strategy with Symbian were announced in July 2009. In the Maemo Summit (still before sales start) we gave more details about Harmattan, Qt, the changes and the transition path. This forum, Planet Maemo and the tech media have been reporting about this horizon of changes that was coming.

MeeGo is a culmination of that, but in terms of technical changes affecting N900 users or Maemo 5 application developers it doesn't bring much that wasn't already in the pipeline (Qt and Web Runtime API, with its consequences).

But really, all this is good news. Like any structural change it gives some short term noise, insecurity and hassle but I'm sure it will pay off. Maemo 5 is great and the Fremantle team keeps working in updates. But if Maemo 5 and its linear evolution would be the only plan of Nokia, then I believe that N900 would have reasons to worry about the future.

By the way, the basics of the Fremantle game (except Telephony) were mostly announced in the Maemo Summit 2008 and the first release (totally targeted to hardcore developers) went out in December 2008 (with the announcement of lack of support for OMAP2 devices = N810 and N800). That also created a hassle in the community, but if we wouldn't have made those steps at that time then you wouldn't have got the Maemo 5 you are enjoying. There was plenty of signal-no-noise feedback got during the Fremantle unstable phase that helped improving the stable releases you are using. We are taking the same open approach with Harmattan and even deeper (thanks to http://maemo.gitorious.org and MeeGo). Don't feel part of a problem because already now you are part of a solution.

Source : Qgil

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Questions & Answers about Meego
Please refer to the MeeGo faq for more information.

Who is responsible for MeeGo ?
The MeeGo project is the responsible of the MeeGo releases and hardware *they* support for *their* releases. The current supporters of MeeGo are Intel, Nokia and the Linux Foundation.

Source : Qgil

Get this thing straight: this is http://meego.com - a free software project hosted by the Linux Foundation. Yes, Nokia has a big involvement there. No, it is not a Nokia project.

Source : Qgil

What devices will be supported by MeeGo ?
The current supporters of MeeGo are Intel, Nokia and the Linux Foundation. The (Linux Fondation) has no own hardware so has nothing to support. Intel has chipsets and development boards (there is no Netbook from Intel, they are from vendors using Intel chipsets) and Nokia has devices (no ARM development board from Nokia). Hence the logical conclusion of announcing support for Atom boards and the N900 at this point. This will change if other vendors appear offering official support for the hardware they are responsible of.

Source : Qgil

What steps is Nokia taking for open source drivers on MeeGo ?
Basically, Nokia puts considerable effort pushing hardware vendors in that direction. Open source drivers play well with the Nokia chipset strategy and with Linux development. But of course these companies need to make business, so asking them to open their IPR without suggesting any alternative is not the best approach.

Note : Define IPR

MeeGo, with Intel as initial founder (a company with good track offering open drivers), is one of the biggest and most concrete public actions Nokia could push in that direction.

Source : Qgil

Closed hardware driver are problematic only when the owners don't provide updated versions for new releases. The MeeGo project is working hard to have those drivers owners on board.

Source : Qgil

Is the UX Componant of MeeGo device-specific
No matter how many UX changes vendors do, they need to provide the official MeeGo API if they want to call their product a MeeGo device.

Note : Define UX and API

Source : Qgil

How many application written for Maemo 5 will be able to run in MeeGo 1 ?
... (T)he MeeGo API is based on Qt (and Web Runtime), so Qt apps for Maemo 5 will work there with little effort. The rest depends on how fast MeeGo devices and Harmattan show up in the market.

Source : Qgil

Will my favorite Maemo 5 GTK+ application run on MeeGo 1 ?
Up to the GTK+ and Hildon maintainers in the first place. They are the first ones to decide whether it's worth the effort of aligning the GTK+ approaches of Moblin and Maemo, get the Hildon libraries running on top, try or try not to work on adapted bindings to give to GTK+/Hildon apps a MeeGo native look&feel...

GTK+ and Clutter are maintained as official platform libraries in MeeGo but the API is not supported officially. This means that the APIs are there to be used but the project doesn't make any promise on maintenance, completeness, quality, API management across releases... This doesn't mean much if there is a good community maintenance. For example, Python has been never officially supported, and I bet the average user of a Python apps in Extras is not aware about the support status and probably not even aware whether the app is based on Python or not. That could be the case for GTK+/Hildon apps in MeeGo, but is really not up to the MeeGo project.

fwiw the Maemo team is in talks with the GNOME Foundation to bring more GTK+/Hildon apps to Maemo 5 and to help on the kick-off of the 'GTK+ community support'. We started the talks in the context of Harmattan and we are just continuing in the context of MeeGo. We hope to get something concrete to explain soon.

Source : Qgil

A network provider in my country has announced support for MeeGo. Is it a good thing ?
Expect to see more announcements like this, some from partners you like, some of partners you dislike. Any new announcement adds more developers and users to MeeGo so, really, you should be happy about each one of them.

Source : Qgil

Network provider adapts OS to their needs. Should I be worried that my network provider cripple MeeGo ?
So it looks like (network provider) will take MeeGo vanilla and will adapt it to their needs. Great! This is what MeeGo is meant for, btw. If this means that they will put developers to tweak their own UX variant and create their own (Qt / Web Runtime based?) apps, great! All this will bring useful feedback about the UX layers and the API, for sure. Whatever else they do to adapt MeeGo will be also useful feedback for the platform development.

Then I guess MeeGo apps will be installable on these MeeGo based (network provider) devices? How can this be bad news for the developers and the users of those apps in other devices?

If you don't like what (network provider) does with MeeGo then don't get a MeeGo device from (network provider). I really don't understand the point of whining.

Editor note : the discussion was about Orange

Source : Qgil

Would it be possible for a MeeGo partner to have too much influence on the platform ?
"Too much influence over the platform", what would this mean in practice? Please figure this out before worrying, otherwise you don't really know what you are worrying about. Bringing plenty of bugfixes in the form of patches? Contributing new features? Proposing better alternatives for software components that they would maintain?

Source : Qgil

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I am confused. What is Harmattan and what is MeeGo ? What is the difference between both ?  Do they share common features ?
So what’s with (Harmattan)? (Harmattan) will be MeeGo compatible.....consider (Harmattan) already a MeeGo instance.

Source : Ari Jaaski

Harmattan is the name of the software program that comes after Fremantle / Maemo 5. In the Maemo Summit we already announced it as "Maemo 6" in order to bring a clear signal about the major update, change of toolkit, etc.

Now MeeGo comes to the picture. "Maemo 6" will not be used by Nokia as a brand since all the marketing effort around the software platform will be around MeeGo.

To be clear: this is not about "ditching" or "abandoning" any platform. The Harmattan program keeps working with the same plans than last week, no matter the name of the product they will deliver. Maemo 6 and Moblin 2.x merge and have a successor called MeeGo. Current Maemo people will look at it and will say "looks like his mother!". Current Moblin people will look at it and will say "looks like his father!" (or choose your preferred gender) Of course you will see changes compared to Maemo 5, but these changes were coming anyway with Maemo 6.

What does this mean exactly for Harmattan/MeeGo? It means different things for different people:

- For end users nothing really changes, apart from a name most of them were not aware of anyway.

- For application developers not much changes. Harmattan's developer offering is based on Qt 4.6 + Qt Creator, Web Runtime + Aptana. Same for MeeGo and by the way same for Symbian. Harmattan might have extended APIs unique to Nokia devices (e.g. Ovi APIs), but we'll see and this is part of the MeeGo flexibility anyway. Wait for the SDKs to be released and then we can discuss in more detail. There will be also the APIs available for those willing to use them, provided directly by other open source components in the platform (e.g. GStreamer). Developers will be of course free to use them, at the expense of loosing compatibility with Symbian, and with MeeGo... depends on the component and to be seen as soon as there is a detailed MeeGo architecture public. Then there will be the obvious difference in packaging (deb still for Harmattan, rpm for MeeGo) but this won't be the big issue and anyway compatibility with Symbian implies specific packaging as well.

- For those caring about the platform in depth, Harmattan =! MeeGo. If we would make Harmattan identical to MeeGo then we would need to postpone dates and, really not for a good reason. Not a reason for application developers (the API is there anyway) and not a good reason for end users, who could not care less about packaging and some obscure middleware components. This is the only reason making Ari Jaaksi refer to Harmattan as a "MeeGo instance" instead of just "MeeGo product".

This is why we are dropping the "Maemo 6" brand while keeping all the Harmattan development full speed and in the same direction that it was.

Source : Qgil

Harmattan and MeeGo come with a whole Qt based application and UI framework and a Qt style API. Maemo 5 is a different story, with a GTK+ based applications and UI framework and GNOME style API.

This is what makes Harmattan quite close to MeeGo in platform terms, while Maemo 5 is really something different. That said you can reach very similar APIs with Maemo 5, and you can also add more libraries to Maemo 5 in order to fine tune the compatibility. You can also do so with Symbian, yet you don't have problems seeing that it's pointless to call Symbian MeeGo.

We can discuss this in more details once we have a MeeGo and a Harmattan list of components to compare.

PS: about the packaging... we are talking here about API compatibility.

Source : Qgil

1. There is Nokia Maemo 5 / Fremantle now. The next release would have been Nokia Maemo 6 / Harmattan. Now, it is called Meego / Harmattan instead, but it's still the same Harmattan that it was going to be. This would be way clearer if they didn't rebrand it as MeeGo yet, but they wanted to get the marketing behind that brand already. You can think of Harmattan as half MeeGo. The next release after Harmattan will be Nokia's first full MeeGo.

2. You need to understand the layers, which together form an operating system. It may be difficult if you come from Windows/OS X world because they both only have one user interface. UI and applications, however are only the top of the OS pyramid. Underneath them there are a lot of stuff that actually make it all tick. That's what Meego is about, providing a common base for user interfaces and applications to be built on. When you think of Meego in general, think of everything you as an end user don't see.

3. What you actually see, the UI, applications, services etc. can and will vary depending on who made the Meego device. LG's UI may look totally different from Nokia UI. You'll only see Ovi applications and services on Nokia devices. These manufacturer specific applications on top of Meego won't necessarily be open source either. But the base on which they are built on is the same.

Source (NON OFFICIAL) : jas

(Harmattan) will be compatible with MeeGo.. but it is not MeeGo.

(Harmattan) will still use Deb.. MeeGo uses RPM.

Source (NON OFFICIAL) : fatalsaint

Harmattan is still using deb, will it mean it is less compatible with other MeeGo instances ?
I bet the MeeGo build infrastructure (OBS) will minimize the rpm/deb hassle for developers. I expect the average user not to even bother about this.

Source : Qgil

When will you release any news on Harmattan ?
... I said in the oldest 'Harmattan in the N900' thread that there were new things in the pipeline and that before a Harmattan alpha release (promised for 1Q2010, working on it) it was really premature to discuss or announce anything.

Harmattan/MeeGo are in pre-alpha state, we haven't even put together an early SDK for the most adventurous developers, we haven't given any hardware details about the next device...

Source : Qgil

I cannot tell you when do we ship the next device. I cannot tell you how much it costs. I cannot tell the exact features because we are still working on them. I cannot tell you what is the delta between Maemo5 and (Harmattan)/MeeGo 1.0 because it is not fully clear yet. And we tell you about the new products when we are ready to tell. Business decisions. I cannot tell you how much of the (Harmattan) characteristics will run on old devices when the new devices finally ship. But go and follow Harmattan plans at Maemo.org. See also the new UI framework forming up.

Source : Ari Jaaski

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What will happen to Maemo.org now that MeeGo has been announced ?
From our point of view MeeGo is the new maemo and therefore meego.com will be at some point the new home of this community. We are working on it (your participation is welcome at the meego-community mailing list).

(By the way, meego.org was taken and insanely expensive. If someone buys it for the MeeGo project we will use it immediately.)

Said that, the destiny of maemo.org depends on the Maemo community (yes, you). In the meantime we keep funding the hosting and nobody is thinking of unpluggin servers or taking radical measures to stop anything here.

Source : Qgil

What will happen to the council ?
About the council, ask the current candidates. Nokia has nothing to say about this. The community created the council and the community is the one deciding what to do now and in the MeeGo context. fwiw we supported Jaffa's idea of an elected body representing 'the community' towards Nokia and somehow we think the core concept might make sense at MeeGo as well. Said that, the MeeGo project is fundamentally different since it is aimed to be an open project participated by individuals and organizations. The purpose of a Council for MeeGo needs to re-evaluated.

Source : Qgil

What will happen to those who work on the Maemo infrastructure and code base - there already exists a MeeGo code base and infrastructure ?
We keep funding the maemo.org pro development team, reviewing contracts every 6 months as we have been doing since we started 'liberating' these *master roles. Note that the maemo.org development team decide their priorities and tasks through a public process, so it is also up to them process to decide where to invest their time. Now they are finding their counterparts in the Moblin project and the Linux Foundation, and we all will need to find the place for all of us (Nokians included e.g. Tero and myself). Giving roles implies giving admin rights on tools and servers, all this is based on trust and this takes a bit of time, as sysadmins know.

Source : Qgil

What will happen to Maemo Summit ?
From mobiletablets.blogspot.com

The direct face-to-face time with the community remains an important part of reaching out to the community. I'm rather confident that we will have at least one get-together this year for the community. It's going to be a MeeGo community get-together and everybody is invited.

Source : Peter Schneider

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Questions & Answers about the next Harmattan/MeeGo device from Nokia
We never ever speculate about devices before they are launched.

Source : Qgil

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