Comment by Niten | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Niten | Hacker News Reader

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What I don't get is why we need another Linux-based mobile OS. Why not just use Android?

People flocked to iOS because it was unique and innovative when it was new, and because it runs on great hardware from Apple. People are flocking to Android because it's an open-source alternative that's in some ways superior to iOS, and because it runs on a skyrocketing number of devices from countless manufacturers and on countless carriers.

For MeeGo to win serious developer-share, it will have to either come on hardware more compelling than Apple's, or outdo Android on technical capability / developer experience or overall market penetration. To my naive eye, neither of these seem likely. So what's the deal here? Am I mistaken about MeeGo's prospects, or is this just a massive case of not-invented-here?

(Lest I be accused of ignoring the overriding issue of user response to the two operating systems, I'm working under the assumption that MeeGo doesn't currently have anything significant to add to the user experience provided by Android on smartphones. Am I wrong about that?)

Android and Maemo/Meego doesn't really compare. Android has Linux kernel, but most of its userland is very specialized custom software. Maemo on the other hand is based on Debian and has all the usual stuff what you'd except from Linux system; bash, X, apt etc.

edit: Also, Maemo is much older than Android as a project/product.

just as a thought experiment: imagine android without fragmentation, over the wire updates for all platforms, on demand by users a-la-iPhone.

different developing environments cause developers to think, and develop, differently for the devices lined within those environments. MeeGo offers something Android does not, and that is not only a "truer" linux stack that is not based on java. But this also gives a flexibility for programmers to use languages that are more within their preferences (read: not java, maybe C, maybe scripting languages, what ever).

I think meego is something more developers are going to feel comfortable with as the gap between developing for traditional desktop/mobile devices and handheld devices will shrink. Can you pack an RPM? cuz that's all you need (as far as i understand) to distribute your app to meego.

just my 2 cents

I recently began developing for the N900. First I did the basic cannon Qt tutorial on PC. Installed the Maemo SDK and recompiled my code in the cross-compile environment (which is basically a chroot+qemu or something) and throwed the binary on my phone. Worked without a hitch. Same source code, with no special considerations for mobile devices, and it just works.

Of course creating packages is bit more involved, but current Maemo uses standard Debian packages, so its not really anything special.

Nokia wants control over the roadmap of its software platform. They certainly don't want to do anything that might risk them being put into a position of being a commodity hardware manufacturer.

You can argue how big of a risk that is if they adopted Android, but that's probably the thinking behind avoiding it. Personally I think it's a smart move for them, if they can execute well.

Even when Symbian was a consortium, they didn't want Symbian to do doing a lot of things (the UI team was one of the first to get the axe when a first round of cuts occurred). There would also be political battles about whether Symbian should be implementing other aspects of the platform.

Hopefully we will see great non-fragmented hardware combined with great and open OS/ecosystem. Both of which Apple and Google deliver only halfway through.

I'd say MeeGo is already compelling to developers purely as an experience, not so much as a great market for apps. With Qt/Python etc. that will be even more compelling.

From Nokia's point of view, it's OS wars all over again. They are branding themselves as a software/service company, which profits by selling hardware.

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