Rainer Dorsch wrote: > Marius, > > I second all you write, except that I can imagine that getting open source > approval for a component might be more effort than you first expect. > > I hope that Nokia is doing the last step to get fully open source. Being able > to build my own image as I can do for my nslu2 from linksys would make me > confident that I can use the N770 for a long time. This does not mean that I > would have no need a new tablet, in contrary, I would be confident that the > new device is useable for a long time as well. > > The nslu2 had for a long time issues with a binary ethernet driver, but this > is now finally resolved and the nslu2 is now fully supported by Debian 4.0. > Not sure if it is feasible at all to get to such a setup for the N770/N800 > and > which are the critical parts which Nokia needs to provide and what could be a > first step...Opera and flashplayer are the first things I could live without. > This could even push minimo. > Thanks, > Rainer > >
I agree with Rainer on several fronts. For me the interest is not so much in hanging on to my 770 but more in the sustainability of a Maemo as a collection of open source projects. For example, being able to run a Maemo-like environment on a tablet PC would open doors to many other projects. There are many ways in which companies use free and open source software. However, using versus providing are two very different issues. Managing IP issues, commit rights to CVS from the outside, etc. are lot more complicated to deal with when such projects begin behind closed doors. In fact, I have a student who is writing her Masters thesis on the aspects of open sourcing a closed project in a corporate environment! In the long run, sustainability will depend on continued interest, portability across different hardware and (like Rainer said) moving towards better and independent choice in browsers, etc. At the risk of losing some control, Nokia might perhaps gain a lot more by way of feedback and development. I am encouraged by e-mails on this thread that "wheels are turning" at Nokia. I hope they can let others know about it as much as possible so that perhaps outsiders can assist in this wheel-turning business. cheers, Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Information Systems San Francisco State University San Francisco CA 94132 USA http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ _______________________________________________ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers@maemo.org https://maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
