On 04/19/2012 11:53 AM, ext Tim Samoff wrote:
Hi,
In playing Devil's Advocate, though...
Fair enough. :) Let's see.
What will this actually do for Maemo or Meego or Meego Harmattan or
Nokia...?
I think it's an amazing gesture that will most likely spawn a number of
community efforts (which is a good thing), but what's the ultimate point
of the offering?
The two points stated in my first email? More and better Qt 4 mobile
apps and a first wave of mobile developers trying to compile their apps
to Qt 5 and see what happens. More apps for current Qt 5 users and
better quality for the Qt 5 libraries.
Honestly, why is it bad to have ad-hoc action driven by a couple of
tangible short term goals, executed in a couple of months? Followed by a
review after the Summer to see what people actually did and how useful
the activity actually was.
Will Nokia see a bunch of impassioned developers and change their
decisions about the future of Meego Harmattan?
Do we need to turn every community activity in a tech blog post
discussion? :) A N9 device seeding program can focus on the N9 users
out there using the SDK and the store(s) for the N9.
If someone wants to play wider there are other Qt friendly platforms
around. If someone want to play further there is bleeding edge Qt 5.
If someone wants to simply argue or rant about then s/he is free not
joining the program and put the energies in some TMO threads, elsewhere
or nowhere.
The alternative is not doing this program - which I have exposed in my
first mail.
I understand the impetus to get people developing with Qt5, etc., but
will these devices actually do that? Or, will they just get people to
stick with the Meego Harmattan platform and not think of the future?
The little I have learned about software development is that it is one
of the best activities to think about the future. :)
Honestly, if you want to be fit for Qt 5 the best you can do is to be
fit for Qt 4 mobile (Qt Quick / Qt WebKit).
Qt5+ is, of course, the goal of something like this -- and it helps that
it's cross-platform -- but what are your device recipients actually
going to do with their devices? Will they really go whole hog into Qt
development?
I hope so. This is not a discount shop.
Remember, I'm playing Devil's Advocate here... Personally, I really like
the idea -- as ideas like this have always reinvigorated the community.
But, is it something that will benefit our community in the long-run?
We are getting philosophical here, but my take in long term strategy is
that a succession of short term successes should lead to a long term
success. There must be other ways but I'd rather have fun with this
approach. Anyway, this is an open community so probably the only real
strategic approach.
Here's what I would like to see come from something like this:
A certain (large) percentage of community developers become really good
Qt developers and stop harping on what Maemo/Meego is/was. If this
doesn't happen, then I think that the offering should be considered a
failure.
"Now you're talking!" - said the Qt Project guy.
We don't need more people putting effort into prolonging Maemo/Meego. We
need people who are willing to put time and effort into forging a future
for the community, be it linux mobile, or something else.
A future... and a present!
Yes, I've been ranting a lot lately -- apologies. It's been quite a
strange experience to see the Maemo community going through what it's
going through right now... Déjà vu. What I'd really like to see is a new
direction with new prospects and new community members.
Something like what Quim is suggesting could help. But, it could also
hinder.
PS: that was my dose of debating with devil's advocates - and only
because I owe a beer or two to Tim. There are many re-run rants that can
come in relation to this program but I'm not planning to engage in any
of those - unless it is a new argument worth addressing. That is why I
started asking whether you want this program or not. If you want it then
it's your program. Nokia will fund the devices and their distribution.
--
Quim
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