[maemo-developers] Maemo 5 PR1.2 and Extras

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Wednesday 24 February 2010 15:42:16 Michael Cronenworth wrote:
> Graham Cobb wrote:
> > I can't say I like this.  My personal view is that there will be a lot of
> > people running earlier software for quite a long time.  How long do Nokia
> > believe it will be before 80% of new devices being sold in retail stores
> > have PR1.2 pre-installed?  Can we keep track of stats showing how many
> > people are accessing the old repository?
>
> How can you not like this? What is your reasoning? You brought this same
> response to the last Maemo update, and I still do not understand it.

I am sure we wil have to agree to differ but you asked my reasoning, so here 
it is...

I think that many users will never upgrade the OS, and of those who do, their 
upgrades will be spread over a period of many months.  As a hobbyist 
developer I release and support my software because I like to make it 
available to people.  I don't think the Maemo infrastructure should prevent 
me from supporting my users who choose not to upgrade, and nor should it 
prevent some new app I create from having access to those users.

Why do I think many people will not upgrade?  This device is a phone.  I never 
upgraded my last phone, I have never upgraded my work-provided Blackberry, I 
don't know a single person amongst my friends who has ever upgraded their 
phone OS, for any reason.  Many people will be very worried about upgrading 
the phone OS -- this is an expensive device: "if it ain't broke, don't fix 
it".  I don't have any data but my guess is that 50% of people who buy an 
N900 will never upgrade the OS on it.

We have some very limited data from the earlier Maemo devices.  Those were not 
phones -- they were much more like computers.  I think most people upgraded 
them but still some chose not to (even though the first version of the 770 
software had a serious data corruption bug).  I still support those users and 
I would like to be able to continue to support my N900 users who choose not 
to upgrade.

More seriously, I believe that there is still no Vodafone UK release of 
PR1.1.1 (is there of PR1.1 yet?).  The customised software releases are not 
released at the same time as the general release -- those users cannot 
upgrade until their operator chooses to release the new version (which may be 
never!).

> If a user has access to downloading apps, then they will be notified of
> the Maemo update. If they want a new app, they must update Maemo, but
> they can continue using their old apps as long as they want. Refusing to
> update because of a personal preference should be discounted. Security
> updates, new features, and significant bug fixes should trump any
> personal preference about updates to Maemo itself.

Sorry, no.  I choose not to discount personal preferences.

I'm not expecting you to agree but you asked why.  You are free to choose that 
you will not support users running on anything other than the latest OS.  
Just don't force the same decision on me.

Graham