A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#1

Post by arespredator » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 10:41 AM UTC

A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo
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Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#2

Post by luke_s » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 11:43 AM UTC

I managed to have a play with a friends N9 on the weekend. Frankly I wasn't expecting very much, but the N9 and MeeGo really impressed me. Everything responded quickly and easily to touch, the hardware was nice and the OS very slick. There were a number of innovative features I haven't seen in other smartphone OS's. For example, swiping from outside the screen is picked up by the OS to perform actions, such as task switching, while swipes the originate inside the screen are sent through to the running application. Thanks to this the N9 manages to get away with no OS level 'home' or 'back' buttons, either physical or on screen.

I came away from using the N9 feeling more than a little sad. As a consumer competition and innovation are good. As a programmer its great to see new ideas blooming and another platform that will further drive innovation.

We are all a little poorer for MeeGo being cancelled. For some reason the words of John Donne seem strangely appropriate: "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. "

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#3

Post by corford » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 12:19 PM UTC

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.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#4

Post by snotrockets » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 12:51 PM UTC

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.)

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#5

Post by tobiasu » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 12:56 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.)

How is X11 a horrible disaster?

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#6

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 12:58 PM UTC

tobiasu wrote: post #5

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.)

How is X11 a horrible disaster?

[deleted]

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#7

Post by mbq » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 12:58 PM UTC

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 )-:

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#8

Post by tobiasu » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:08 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #6

tobiasu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is X11 a horrible disaster?

[deleted]

Yes, I'm sure the ancient UNIX haters handbook is totally relevant to the shortcomings of X11 at the end of 2011.

Edit: deleted comment refered to this http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/x-windows/disast...

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#9

Post by technoslut » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:16 PM UTC

luke_s wrote: post #2

I managed to have a play with a friends N9 on the weekend. Frankly I wasn't expecting very much, but the N9 and MeeGo really impressed me. Everything responded quickly and easily to touch, the hardware was nice and the OS very slick. There were a number of innovative features I haven't seen in other smartphone OS's. For example, swiping from outside the screen is picked up by the OS to perform actions, such as task s…

I'm always astounded by these posts and reviews regarding MeeGo. Everything sounds like it was going well. I've never touched the OS but I'm well aware of the 'Burning Platform' memo by Elop, however, I do remember Elop saying it wouldn't be ready until 2014.

Whenever I see this OS and it reminds me of what was possible and could have been. I remain respectful of the innovations of Nokia but it saddens me to see them become a slave to another company, even if it does sport a quality OS.

Re: A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo

#10

Post by Geee » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 1:17 PM UTC

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 developers would pick up Qt when there's more official way to target it.