

A eulogy for Maemo and MeeGo - arespredator
http://soundandcomplete.com/2011/10/24/a-eulogy-for-maemomeego/

======
luke_s
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. "

~~~
technoslut
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.

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corford
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.

~~~
coob
Android is Linux based.

~~~
corford
As tincholio says, I added the word true on purpose. When you use a real linux
stack, things like this are possible:

<http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian>

[http://temporaryland.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/openoffice-
org...](http://temporaryland.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/openoffice-org-and-the-
gimp-on-the-n900/)

------
Geee
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.

~~~
holri
Meego is just a marketing Buzzword. The N9 OS ist not a true MeeGo device
anyway. Because MeeGo should be Moblin + Maemo. This Intel+Nokia adventure was
a disaster. But what the N9 actually is, is Maemo + Qt. And Maemo is a mobile
Debian. Nokia only said that they discontinue MeeGo. They did not say the
discontinue the technolgoy behind it. They still invest und contribute a lot
to Qt. And they say they are not porting it to Windows Phone.

I bet that we will see future Linux + Qt based phones from Nokia, with a
different name, but similar to the N9 OS.

~~~
runn1ng
Nokia spun off Qt as a separate project, "truly open source", and stopped
owning it directly. To me, it slightly looks like they want to stop investing
in Qt, too.

[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAwN...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAwNDA)
<http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2011/10/21/the-qt-project-is-live/>

~~~
holri
This does not look like a discontinued project:

<https://gitorious.org/~qtbynokia>

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sabret00the
MeeGo was a huge chance for everyone. However that which was featured on the
N9 wasn't so much the MeeGo experience as it was the Nokia experience. It's a
shame, a huge shame as I would like to see a free and open mobile operating
system stand up tall against the likes of Apple and the advertising company
that is Google.

------
snotrockets
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.)

~~~
tobiasu
How is X11 a horrible disaster?

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aidenn0
I think that MeeGo may have some advantages over android, but I don't see how
X is one of them. X is the single most broken piece of technology on any *nix
box today.

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mbq
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 )-:

~~~
runn1ng
How is iPhone a dumb smartphone? The fact that it's not open (in any mean)
doesn't mean it's dumb.

~~~
mbq
Does it have a shell? Can you write, compile and run a C app on it? Connect to
OpenVPN without breaking warranty? Open few app windows side by side? Run
another OS? I did all this on my windows mobile (very closed OS) devices,
maemo would also have no problem with that.

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juiceandjuice
Nice Maemorial.

(edit) Hacker News: Don't try any punny stuff

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brudgers
Adios, AmigaOS.

