[maemo-community] A business case for Maemo

[From: Dave Neary]

Hi,

I have recently talked to some people who are interested in Mer and/or
Maemo as an alternative to Poky Linux as a "get started" platform for
ARM, but right now they don't know who to engage to get professional
support for it. I'm not suggesting people go gung-ho into it, but there
is a market for people who know embedded linux well, and who can cover
the gamut of things that people need from it - including adding hardware
support, integration in terms of a distribution, and development of
vertical applications.

Other possibilities exist - Maemo 4 and Maemo 5 are mostly free, and I
am sure that Nokia would be delighted to see Maemo 5 develop
independently as a Hildon + Clutter-based "GNOME MID edition", if there
were some developers willing to take over support & replace the
proprietary bits with either open bits or different proprietary bits
from other partners, and have (say) a Maemo based Archos or whatnot.

And there are opportunities for people who provide quality services on
free software stacks - be it through maintaining a library & doing
custom development, or developing & delivering high-quality training
material that people want to learn.

I came across this wiki page today when tidying some stuff up:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Companies_in_Maemo_development - there are others,
of course, but this list more or less didn't exist at all 5 years ago -
showing you that there are already collective opportunities out there,
and the Maemo community may well be the place to advertise your
Maemo-related services.

Cheers,
Dave.

Randall Arnold wrote:
> I started thinking about this before the Summit and it really gelled
> for me in Amsterdam, sharing excitement and energy with everyone
> there:
> 
> There are so many unemployed and underemployed people in this
> community, and so much potential with Maemo.  Maybe it's time at
> least some of us consider creating a global, virtual cooperative with
> common goals and find some way to make a living at what we enjoy.
> 
> While at Nokia I found myself driving to work every day (especially
> at the factory) thinking "I can't wait to get to work and get back on
> the project waiting for me there!".  As crazy as it sounds, I was
> constantly engaged while employed with them and despitre the
> occasional frustrations really, really loved working there.
> 
> My current job inspires no such excitement... but being around you
> guys and experiencing the thrill of discovery with the N900 made me
> realize THAT is where I want to be.
> 
> So... am I the only one thinking like this?  Is it "wrong" to want to
> wrap a career around Maemo device support?  And if it isn't, what
> value could a potential virtual team provide?
> 
> Just looking to brainstorm for now,
> 
> Randy
> 
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