[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Dream Scenario (Re: Maemo roadmap, SDK improvements...)

[From: Hanno Zulla]

Hi,

to me, the relationship between Maemo's FOSS parts and Maemo's closed
parts are like the relationship between Ubuntu and its closed source
driver packages (NVidia, WLAN firmware, etc.). I would be nicest if
Maemo was distributed similar to that.


Dave Neuer schrieb:
> What exactly are asking for here: an official tarball release of
> everything in one tree? Pointers to svn tags for each component?

My dream scenario would be something that would easily allow non-Nokia
developers to build a working firmware binary that is equivalent to the
current official release, using as much source as possible. To do this,
one would need:

- An official deb-src repository of all open source Maemo packages
  written by Nokia
  (which developers can modify, build and package in Scratchbox)

- Another official repository of all closed source Maemo binaries
  (which developers can add to their own Scratchbox environment)

- A tool to prelink the software and create a firmware from these
  packages

The workflow for a non-Nokia developer would be like this:

- (Modify and) build all open-source packages that the developer is
  interested in using apt-get build-dep / apt-build / some similar tool.

- Install the closed-source binary blob packages the developers wants
  using apt-get (for those .debs which have no foss replacements)

- create a custom firmware, flash it

- Bingo


That way, non-Nokia developers can easily tinker with the open source
parts of Maemo and learn about the system's API to write alternatives
for the closed source parts (e.g. to replace the opera-based browser
with a browser based on gtk+ webcore, while keeping all the other parts
of Maemo).

Also, it would allow us to create custom firmware. E.g. a firmware that
 contains my language only or adds languages that Nokia doesn't support,
e.g. Japanese. Or a firmware that does not contain the RSS and the Mail
application, but still can play MP3s.


I don't know how naive or impertinent this dream scenario is and I hope
that the folks at Nokia like it, as it's not meant as a rude request.

So far, Nokia has made a great effort to allow non-Nokia developers
write applications for Maemo. However, it is obvious that people are
interested in working on Maemo's core itself to add small features and
remove minor nits. (I am.)

The dream scenario outlined above would make this possible and it
appears to be doable and manageable without the need for NDAs, as binary
blobs remain binary blobs.

Regards,

Hanno