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 souce.

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.

Note : Perhaps a "won't answer" (NDA/sensitive/business) and "can't answer" (time related) would still give the reader an idea of why his question has not been answered ?

Disclamer
Please do not, and I repeat, do not take any of those answers as definitive. This is a first draft. Thank you for yout comprehension. --mandor 02:08, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Ready to dive in?

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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 you promise the N900 will get MeeGo 1 ?
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

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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 developped at Nokia for Maemo 5 ?
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

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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

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Harmattant 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

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When will you release any news on Harmattant ?
... 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 Maemo6/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 Maemo6 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