Maddler's Rants 'n' Raves

I think N800 release just raised a big question: "what happens when commercial products' end-user meet Open Source?". Yes, the question is not new, and maybe it was asked already when 770 first shown.
But, how and why things changed? The aproach used by Nokia in Internet Tablets development is both something showing how far GPL and LGPL can go, as well as raising some well known "issues" of Open Source projects.

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I can remind of many commercial products using (and some abusing) GPL and Linux systems: Sharp Zaurus, Motorola E680, Linksys WRT54GL, among the others, and Nokia 770/N800. Ok, just for one second, try to find what they all share and what they don't. My answer is: Nokia has a different "attitude" (no, I'm in no way endorsed/sponsored/paid by Nokia). None of the others gave access to the system at such a low level. The whole project looks different.

I mean, you simply buy a Linux powered {handheld|phone|access point} device, but you won't find any information on how to hack them on producing companies web sites. Nokia on the other hand launched maemo.org, made it public, and released under GPL. You can get easily (enough) access to the system and tweak/hack/improve it, better you are invited to do so. Isn't it great?

Most likely, if you answered "yes" you are a Linux geek/addicted/power user, just like I am.
But, hey! Guess what? There are some (I hope many) normal end-users out there! And this is the issue! Not the users themselves, of course. The issue is raised by the meeting of two so different worlds: commercial and Open Source.

Let me explain. When you buy something you expect it to work, you simply want to use it, get what you paid for. Right?
On the other hand, whe you start using an Open Source project you are, most likely, aware that you may face some problems, and that you can't really complain about them (yes, you can ask for help, and offer help to other users) in the same way you would complain about $COMMERCIAL_PRODUCT you just bought before.

See? Two completely different aproaches. Now, what's gonna happen when they have to live together? In the same product?

Sounds like you are going to have two user classes:

• Happy power users
• Unhappy end-users

This is what, from my point of view, could happen to Internet Tablets' users.
End-users just want they device to work, no excuses, no reasons. Period. "I paid for it, I want it to work!"
And you can't blame them for that.

So, who's supposed to solve this issue? I think the first candidate is Nokia itself. If they won't fix that, Internet Tablets won't exit their embryonic phase and won't become a widely used device. So, looks like they will have to find a good way to bring commecial and Open Source souls in harmony. They really need to do that.

This should be the end of this post, and would have been if I wasn't an entusiastic user and owner of 770 and (thanks to the developer project) N800! So, you could simply stop reading.

You didn't? Ok, this is my very own point of view and, as such, may be wrong so don't blame me for this:

I think that Nokia is moving in the right direction (a gread device, Open Source, etc).
Yes, still a lot of things to do and many more to be fixed. I also strongly believe that we, the power-users, can do a lot to "help" (this is not the right term, but can't find anything better) Maemo people in their path to improvement, just like I'd do on any other Open Source project (even if I'd be happier if *everything* was released under the GPL license :-D). I want to get more and more from these devices, and I want other users to be able to get more as well. I want to share my findings and to make others to be able to make their own findings (this is one of the reasons for MaemoPeople blogs being here). I also have to admint that I would be somehow curious of seeing other non-Nokia devices using Maemo.

Ok, that's all! For real this time, and sorry for being so verbose.

Comments are welcome! ;)

Maddler • Maemo, Nokia 770, Nokia N800 Leave a comment