A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo • Hacker News Board

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#11

Post by mbq » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:18 PM UTC

snotrockets wrote: post #4

If there is anything Maemo was to be shot for, is that it continued to support the horrible disaster which is the X Windows System. That horrible, horrible excuse for a graphic system should be taken out and shot, the sooner the better (and no, I'm not bitter. Just a little bit tangy, perhaps.)

Yup, it is horrible and has some serious design flaws. But it can deal with low-level graphics, an in general hopeless and horrible activity based on numerous quirks and hacks -- and this makes a value overcoming most of its problems. Not to mention that there is a wide X ecosystem of libs, apps and know-how that is effectively smoothing its shortcomings.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#12

Post by john61 » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:30 PM UTC

Geee wrote: post #10

I just got my N9 yesterday. It's kind of amazing how natural it is to use. While MeeGo is 'dead', Qt will stay alive and grow. Good thing is that MeeGo apps are really hardware-agnostic because they don't need any physical buttons which makes porting to different devices pretty straightforward. If the Qt ecosystem will live, it leaves door open for every kind of Linux smartphones in the future. Hopefully more Android…

Meego is just a marketing Buzzword. The N9 OS ist not a true MeeGo device anyway. Because MeeGo should be Moblin + Maemo. This Intel+Nokia adventure was a disaster. But what the N9 actually is, is Maemo + Qt. And Maemo is a mobile Debian. Nokia only said that they discontinue MeeGo. They did not say the discontinue the technolgoy behind it. They still invest und contribute a lot to Qt. And they say they are not porting it to Windows Phone.

I bet that we will see future Linux + Qt based phones from Nokia, with a different name, but similar to the N9 OS.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#13

Post by coob » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:39 PM UTC

corford wrote: post #3

It's not often that I get worked up over failed platforms but Nokia's botching of Maemo really makes me angry. The N9 shows they had a viable, potentially world beating platform. Not only have they thrown it under a bus but, with its passing, so goes any hope of a true linux based smartphone (and accompanying ecosystem) ever achieving mass market exposure. It's tragic.

Android is Linux based.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#14

Post by Geee » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:42 PM UTC

john61 wrote: post #12

Geee wrote: post #10

I just got my N9 yesterday. It's kind of amazing how natural it is to use. While MeeGo is 'dead', Qt will stay alive and grow. Good thing is that MeeGo apps are really hardware-agnostic because they don't need any physical buttons which makes porting to different devices pretty straightforward. If the Qt ecosystem will live, it leaves door open for every kind of Linux smartphones in the future. Hopefully more Android…

Meego is just a marketing Buzzword. The N9 OS ist not a true MeeGo device anyway. Because MeeGo should be Moblin + Maemo. This Intel+Nokia adventure was a disaster. But what the N9 actually is, is Maemo + Qt. And Maemo is a mobile Debian. Nokia only said that they discontinue MeeGo. They did not say the discontinue the technolgoy behind it. They still invest und contribute a lot to Qt. And they say they are not porti…

I hope so. And they have been stating it many times, but it's hard to imagine what they actually mean by it when all bets are on Windows phone. N9 OS seems to have all the attention of Nokia's head designers. Engadget just got interview with Peter Skillman on this subject http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/the-engadget-interview-pe...

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#15

Post by runn1ng » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:54 PM UTC

john61 wrote: post #12

Geee wrote: post #10

I just got my N9 yesterday. It's kind of amazing how natural it is to use. While MeeGo is 'dead', Qt will stay alive and grow. Good thing is that MeeGo apps are really hardware-agnostic because they don't need any physical buttons which makes porting to different devices pretty straightforward. If the Qt ecosystem will live, it leaves door open for every kind of Linux smartphones in the future. Hopefully more Android…

Meego is just a marketing Buzzword. The N9 OS ist not a true MeeGo device anyway. Because MeeGo should be Moblin + Maemo. This Intel+Nokia adventure was a disaster. But what the N9 actually is, is Maemo + Qt. And Maemo is a mobile Debian. Nokia only said that they discontinue MeeGo. They did not say the discontinue the technolgoy behind it. They still invest und contribute a lot to Qt. And they say they are not porti…

Nokia spun off Qt as a separate project, "truly open source", and stopped owning it directly. To me, it slightly looks like they want to stop investing in Qt, too.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAwN... http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2011/10/21/the-qt-project-is-live/

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#16

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:54 PM UTC

john61 wrote: post #12

Geee wrote: post #10

I just got my N9 yesterday. It's kind of amazing how natural it is to use. While MeeGo is 'dead', Qt will stay alive and grow. Good thing is that MeeGo apps are really hardware-agnostic because they don't need any physical buttons which makes porting to different devices pretty straightforward. If the Qt ecosystem will live, it leaves door open for every kind of Linux smartphones in the future. Hopefully more Android…

Meego is just a marketing Buzzword. The N9 OS ist not a true MeeGo device anyway. Because MeeGo should be Moblin + Maemo. This Intel+Nokia adventure was a disaster. But what the N9 actually is, is Maemo + Qt. And Maemo is a mobile Debian. Nokia only said that they discontinue MeeGo. They did not say the discontinue the technolgoy behind it. They still invest und contribute a lot to Qt. And they say they are not porti…

[deleted]

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#17

Post by runn1ng » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:57 PM UTC

mbq wrote: post #7

This sadly also applies to Windows; Win Mobile was just Windows-on-the-phone, Win Phone is a crazy Silverlight slideshow. Thank you, Apple, for showing the market that dumb smartphones sell better than the real ones )-:

How is iPhone a dumb smartphone? The fact that it's not open (in any mean) doesn't mean it's dumb.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#18

Post by sabret00the » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:04 PM UTC

MeeGo was a huge chance for everyone. However that which was featured on the N9 wasn't so much the MeeGo experience as it was the Nokia experience. It's a shame, a huge shame as I would like to see a free and open mobile operating system stand up tall against the likes of Apple and the advertising company that is Google.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#19

Post by brudgers » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:12 PM UTC

Adios, AmigaOS.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#20

Post by tincholio » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

coob wrote: post #13

corford wrote: post #3

It's not often that I get worked up over failed platforms but Nokia's botching of Maemo really makes me angry. The N9 shows they had a viable, potentially world beating platform. Not only have they thrown it under a bus but, with its passing, so goes any hope of a true linux based smartphone (and accompanying ecosystem) ever achieving mass market exposure. It's tragic.

Android is Linux based.

Note the parent said 'true linux based', probably referring to Maemo running a full Linux stack, instead of a non-standard kernel and a non-X, JVM-based environment.