[maemo-community] N9 device seeding activity

[From: Tim Samoff]

Hi,

In playing Devil's Advocate, though...

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?

Will Nokia see a bunch of impassioned developers and change their
decisions about the future of Meego Harmattan?

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?

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

Br,
Tim

-- 
http://samoff.com



Quim Gil wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Let's say we could have a nice amount of N9s (*) for a maemo.org
> centered device seeding activity. I could get them as part of two lines
> of work where the maemo.org community might want to play a role:
> 
> - Encouraging developers bringing stable & interesting apps to the Nokia
> Store. There is a source of inspiration at
> http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Apps_Missing
> http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=83333
> 
> - Encouraging developers to port & develop apps to Qt 5, getting
> familiar and ready for the next big Qt iteration and providing feedback
> to the developers at http://qt-project.org &
> http://wiki.qt-project.org/Qt_5_on_Nokia_N9
> 
> 
> If needed, a few devices could be invested in side activities related to
> these tracks:
> 
> - Improvements in apps infra at maemo.org or the evolution of COBS /
> apps.formeego.org / etc.
> 
> - Improvements in Qt 5 support in the N9.
> 
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Ideally Nokia would provide to the community an amount of devices and
> the infrastructure to deliver them for free to the fortunate developers,
> using the http://developer.nokia.com infrastructure. The criteria and
> selection of recipients could be done by the community itself, and I
> could help wherever needed.
> 
> If you like the idea we can proceed. A good goal would be to have the
> recipients defined by the end of May, so we can have all the shipments
> during the first days of June. The closest we get to July the easier
> will be to get hit by Summer holidays delays.
> 
> (*) I can't 100% confirm a number today but let's say 100 N9s and
> (surprise surprise) the last batch of sealed N950s I know about (just a
> few units).
> 
> -- 
> Quim
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