Importance Of The Maemo Community Randall Arnold

with input from Ed Page and Daphne Won

The goal of this presentation is to explain the benefits of the Maemocommunity and development experience for interested mobile developers

Maemo came to public attention in 2005 with the release of the 770 Internet Tablet. The developer community that soon arose was naturally small and full of leading-edge types who seemed more interested in “hacking” than in formal development processes. Which was okay at the time, because there was little support for such processes. Hacking also pushed the boundaries of the devices and even generated surprise within Nokia at what could be accomplished.

As the community grew and the platform gained greater attention (helped by the N800’s perceived polish), developers began to demand more transparency and support from Nokia. This was slow in coming at first as Nokia was treading new and potentially risky territory by bridging commercial interests and open source.

The transition from community-led 770 to N800 and N810 application development was rough and involved passionate discussion in the growing community. Many felt Nokia was not moving fast enough to further open the operating system. Some believed Nokia was not even listening. A compatibility break between the platforms caused even more discomfort.

Nokia’s decision to support “hacker editions” of OS2007 and OS2008 went a long way toward alleviating much of that heartburn. OS2007HE and OS2008HE demonstrated that previous hardware generations need not be completely abandoned. This advent significantly improved community and developer buy-in, and paved the way for the advent of Mer (more on that later).

appsapps

Input &Feedback

Input &Feedback

Progress!The current

dynamics between Nokia

corporate interests, the

Maemodeveloper

community and individuals:

some different desires, but

increasing movement

toward common goals

Progress!The current

dynamics between Nokia

corporate interests, the

Maemodeveloper

community and individuals:

some different desires, but

increasing movement

toward common goals

2009 saw a significant amount of positive change for Maemo. The MaemoDevices group was formed, pulling together formerly separate parts of the organization. The community demand for an increased openness in the OS bore fruit, as fact-based and well-reasoned requests were fulfilled. The Mer project, a community-led OS replacement, gained Nokia support. More to come!

The introduction of the N900 with its full cell phone capability opened up new avenues for the maemo.org developer community. Handing out 300 devices to Amsterdam Summit 2009 attendees demonstrated Nokia’s commitment to the platform and its hardcore supporters. This drives a new, expanded view of the Nokia-community relationship…

UserMetrics

UserMetrics

SoftwarePatches

SoftwarePatches

ProductIdeas

ProductIdeas

Serviceissues

Serviceissues

TestingTesting

ProductIdeas

ProductIdeas

RevenueIdeas

RevenueIdeas

CustomOS

CustomOS

GeneralRoadmap

GeneralRoadmap

Perfect!The ideal dynamics

between Nokia corporate

interests, the Maemo

developer community and

individuals: leadership,

feedback and brainstorming

From Maemo Summit 2009:

• Nokia sponsors numerous attendees to the event

• Keynote presentation includes much-requested general roadmap

(victory for developers!)

• Some community members receive N900 devices for wide-open

testing with few restrictions – unprecedented!

• Maemo 6 concepts presented already!

• Mer replacement OS highly represented and popular

• Sessions were packed!

• Ad hoc discussions quickly led to application features

Some “soft” but useful data

Development is not limited to a single platform. There are programmers working

straight out of Ubuntu, Microsoft Windows and even right on Maemo devices!

C++ and Python are the most popular languages but others are supported as

well. The goal of platform-agnostic Qt is to broaden this as much as possible.

The community has helped by contributing to tools like the Qt 4.5 libraries.

Maemo offers two distinct but related paths to software publication. The

emphasis has naturally been on free and open source development but

commercial applications are expected to grow in number. The former find their

home at maemo.org, the latter at Forum Nokia.

Development Nirvana

This is the open source road, the domain of free- and donation-ware. Note that Qt licensing is free for this sort of development.

Applications begin in the Extras devel environment, move to Extras testing for bug shake-out, and after achieving sufficient community approval, polished apps migrate to Maemo Extras for general public consumption.

Newcomers and casual users are cautioned to avoid Extras devel unless they accept the explained risks. Extras testing is not as risky but it is recommended users gain some experience with their devices before plunging into testing. However, testers are most certainly welcome!

maemo.org

Forum Nokia is geared more toward commercial development and support of the

growing Ovi Store. Developers are expected to be set up as a commercial entity

and possess coverage for liability. Qt licensing is not free for applications with

consumer cost. More details available at Forum Nokia; see slide near the end of

this presentation for links.

Forum Nokia

“…some [FOSS developers] might bring up fear of competition

with the community since it is so strong. I think a strong

community can improve the commercial. It discourages a

bazillion one of cheap apps that the iPhone app store gets

spammed with.”

-Ed Page (epage), Dialcentral developer

The following applications cover a broad array of uses and interests, and are presented in no particular order. Some are the result of individual coders while others involve large and diverse teams of developers, testers, researchers and managers. By this point Maemo is mature enough to present some truly commercial-grade apps, and we expect that wide adoption of Qt as a development platform will increase that exponentially.

All of the apps shown are free of charge and available from the Maemo Extras repository. In additions to applications, a community-created replacement operating system called Mer is also presented. Code from these projects is typically made available to the community at large for other uses.

Forecast on Nokia N900. Ultra-customizable weather widget for showing forecast the way you want. Supported by various icon sets.

Shiny Iconsetby Jyri Kuparinen

Tango iconset

By Chris Stark

Beginning iconsetBy B. Gint

Contour iconset

By Andrew Zhilin

Grzanka's iconset

by Iconbest

A simple, lightweight interface to the Google's GoogleVoice (tom)

service.

With this native application you can initiate Click2Call sessions, send

SMS messages, view and call from your google address book, see you

recent call log, view Voicemail transcripts and SMS messages,

and change your preferred callback number.

One of the most popular apps, with 16358 downloads to date!

In work: an evolutionary app called The One Ring, a Telepathy

manager for GoogleVoice

Development Status:

5 - Production/Stable

Environment: Gnome,

MaemoIntended Audience:

End Users/Desktop

License: GNU Lesser

General Public License (LGPL)

Maemo/Tablet OS

version: All OS

Natural Language:

EnglishOperating System:

Linux

Programming

Language: Python

Topic: Chat, Telephony

Development Status:

5 - Production/Stable

Environment: Gnome,


End Users/Desktop

License: GNU Lesser

General Public License (LGPL)

Maemo/Tablet OS

version: All OS

Natural Language:

EnglishOperating System:

Linux

Programming

Language: Python

Topic: Chat, Telephony

Current Project Admin and developer:Ed Page

A mobile OpenStreetMap EditorOSM2Go is a lightweight editor for

OpenStreetMap intended for mobile devices and small screens.

This mapping tool is particularly suited for small-screen portable systems such as subnotebooks, handheld devices and netbooks

which do not have a network connection at all times.

OSM2Go features a tagging presets system, background

satellite/WMS layers, and gpsdintegration. It was originally

designed for the Maemo mobile Linux platform, and so is

lightweight and sports a simple, speedy interface to map editing.

Development Status:

4 - Beta

Environment: Gnome,


End Users/Desktop

License: GNU

General Public

License (GPL)Maemo/Tablet OS

version: OS2008

Natural Language:

English

Operating System: Linux

Programming

Language: C

Topic: Front-Ends,

Vector-Based, Visualization

Development Status:

4 - Beta

Environment: Gnome,


End Users/Desktop

License: GNU

General Public

License (GPL)Maemo/Tablet OS

version: OS2008

Natural Language:

English


Programming

Language: C

Topic: Front-Ends,

Vector-Based, Visualization

Project Admins:Andrew Chadwick

Claudius Henrichs

Till Harbaum

Keep track of all your sports and outdoor activities. With eCoachyou can get the most from your

workouts by monitoring your speed,distance and heart rate in real time. You can also use the built-in training diary feature to

track your progress as you work towards your specific training

goals.

eCoach supports Open Street Map, Google Earth, and Virtual Earth,enabling you to view your

routes on the map and share them with friends at a later point. It currently supports FRWD B600

and Zephyr HxM heart rate monitors.

Development Status: 4 -

BetaEnvironment: Maemo

Intended Audience: End

Users/Desktop

License: GNU General

Public License (GPL)Maemo/Tablet OS

version: OS2008

Natural Language:

English


Programming

Language: C, C++

Topic: Other/NonlistedTopic

Development Status: 4 -

BetaEnvironment: Maemo

Intended Audience: End

Users/Desktop

License: GNU General

Public License (GPL)Maemo/Tablet OS

version: OS2008

Natural Language:

English


Programming

Language: C, C++

Topic: Other/NonlistedTopic

Project Admins:Jukka Alasalmi

Kai Skiftesvik

Sampo Savola

Veli-Pekka Haajanen

Displays a real-time mirror image from the internal camera.

Interesting fact: this application came about when a new female member joked that she wanted to see more apps for her gender. She offhandedly mentioned a mirror, and in short order Attila Csipa(achipa/attila77) had coded one up!

Goals •Integrate the best solutions for a wide

variety of small form-factor devices

•Encourage wider access to device

capabilities through the Vendor Social

Contract

•Demonstrably provide an easy route to

market for vendors

•Dramatically reduce costs to vendors of

supporting EOL hardware

•Focus, harness and support community

contributions to the platform

•Encourage and ease migration of existing

applications

•Support experimentation, innovation and

development

An open, community-led,

Linux distribution (OS) for

mobile devices

“Mer shows there’s a big

enough repository of coders

interested to maintain a

community variant of Maemo.”

-Carsten Munk (Stskeeps), maemo.org distmaster and MerProject coordinator

Mer

"The Nokia N900 shows where

we are going with Maemo and

we'll continue to work with the

community to push the software

forward."

-Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia

"The Nokia N900 shows where

we are going with Maemo and

we'll continue to work with the

community to push the software

forward."

-Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia

Going Forward…

“I think openness is the number

one sign that a company _and_ a

community is healthy. If a company

feels free enough to be open with a

community, then something right is happening.”

-timsamoff, 06 August 2009

“I think openness is the number

one sign that a company _and_ a

community is healthy. If a company

feels free enough to be open with a

community, then something right is happening.”

-timsamoff, 06 August 2009

More Success Stories• Testing and early usage of the OS and SDKs by the device actually

helps add quality to OS and SDKs for all developers

• Nokia developer Vitaly Repin dives into talk.maemo.org to solicit direct feedback on Mail for Exchange (MfE) issues, listening thoughtfully and

responding with helpful candor

• Developer events and community outreach activities gain immediate

high interest

• Brainstorm solution proposal activity at maemo.org enjoys high

popularity and deep engagement from all types of community members

• …?

•VisionMobile blog article, “Open is the new closed”: http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2009/08/open-is-the-new-closed/

•Mer replacement OS Project: http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer

•Maemo community: http://www.maemo.org

•Introducing Maemo @ Forum Nokia: http://www.forum.nokia.com/Technology_Topics/Device_Platforms/Maemo.xhtml

•Qt development: http://qt.nokia.com/developer/qt-for-maemo-developers

Thank you!

2

Randall Arnold

[email protected]

tabulacrypticum.wordpress.commaemo daemons group on LinkedIn

Another great point about community/commercial interaction is we've

created a lot of example code for the commercial appsmore especvially

for the more exotic areas like phone functionality. Not a commercial

app but my work om The One Ring (Telepathy connection manager for

GoogleVoice has been greatly accelerated by the existence of

telepathy-butterfly. Some might fear the legal line between reading

the code and using it in a way an open lisence might be violated.

I would also guess that except for a few cases polish and

innovation are the areas to focus on to stay competitive.

> 2. Testing and early usage of the OS and SDKs by the device actually

> helps add quality to OS and SDKs for the commercial developers