Talk:Task:Open Source Proof Points
Actually doable?
Are there any examples where open Maemo components have helped drive the platform forward? The App Manager is open source, but who's going to get up to speed on hacking on it and submit patches upstream when:
- There's no patch policy.
- There's no clear direction (until the summit) as to what the future plans of the platform are, let alone this one small part of it.
Some people have done small hacks (disable the irritating Nokia-Legal-enforced "warning" when installing packages) and published them on ITT, but real open source contributions happen when it's collaboration. Code can be open sourced - and thrown over the wall - but without open development, the real successes are yet to be seen.
- There is a clear counter-argument. Without open source end-user application development there'd be no Firefox, there'd be no Evolution; so there'd be no Gecko, no Camel (and so no libtinymail). So, there'd be no microb and no modest. Nokia's "differentiation" argument is built-on the shoulders of giants. Open source UIs - in general - aren't great, with high profile exceptions. However, in the versions of Maemo to-date, I don't see the benefits of this differentation. All it does is prevent community solutions to "popular" problems (I won't mention 12/24 hour clock again; oops, too late ;-)). From what we've seen and heard of Fremantle, this differentiation could finally appear (as a user, I hope so). --Jaffa 21:11, 30 September 2008 (UTC)