Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

Hello community
I would like to start off by saying how amazing the community is and how I enjoy being a part of such a collection of like minded people.

After a great deal of research I made the discussion to buy the N900. I love this phone to death and wish it would be this amazing for ever. Unfortunately I don't believe this phone will last more than another two years at most considering I bought it three years after its release in 2010. It will become outdated.

Because of the nokia maemo break I suspect that nokia's new executive rule Microsoft will not be producing more opensorce devices as we saw with the N950. What, if any would the next maemo device be?

The soul purpose of this thread is to brain storm ideas for a UMPC(ultra mobil personal computer). What I want to accomplish is a list of features that people in the community would want to see in a new devise. If we get enough support the idea will be pitched to Kickstarter for funding. Any ideas are welcome no matter how outlandish.

I think this could be a real chance for the community to come together and make real things happen.

Overview of ideas needed: A. What type of hardware do we want?
-Screen size?
-Processor?
- HD space?
- Key board?
- Wireless chipset?
- Blue tooth
- ect...
B. Software base
- Continue with current maemo?
- Completely new Linux type distro.
- What does the community want?

I am sure that's not all but I think its enough of a start. So i hope to hear the best of what the community has to say.

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

Oddly, with a lot of the design decisions of Gnome-Shell, it is very similar to Maemo 5 (as opposed to the more dumbed down 'phoneOS' that Harmattan Maemo 6 is (don't get me wrong, I love my N9, but I loved the setup of Maemo 5 better)).

So my thoughts would be to get a very small N900 or N950 style form factor and just put full blown Debian Wheezy on it, with perhaps Gnome 3.8 (it seems to have most (if not all) of the 'Gnome' applications updated to match with the new style of having the main menu next to the Activities button.

For anyone who hasn't used Gnome-Shell, but has used the N900, I highly recommend it.

If I could get my N900 working with Gnome-Shell and pure Debian Wheezy, i'd be a dream come true!

slaapliedje

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

A Kickstarter-funded device? GL;HF with hardware support when it breaks, successor devices, etc.

I'd much rather prefer ARM platform manufacturers develop PC-style generic Linux support for their platforms.

Android is garbage, and I would much rather have a desktop GNU/Linux system (Ubuntu+Unity?) than deal with it.

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

A Kickstarter-funded device?

http://www.kickstarter.com/

Yea there is a website that will fund a project if enough people donate the startup capitol. I am sure the community could source together some good hardware. Just look at what raspberry pi is doing.

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

I too would enjoy seeing those features. I just feels like cell phone companies are just dicking people out of what is really efficient or something. I think some type of phone/PC hybrid would be the best. the OQO model 3 is one of the coolest pices of tech i have ever seen. I think a design with a better ARM processor would be just fine and more cost effective.

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

Nobody has the courage to speak out here on the topic.
Its not gonna happen.....we have the soft but not the hardware.
Btw
just a device with min 800mhz mtk or omap
3mp with autofocus
400mhz gpu
3 to 4 inches screen with min 160dpi pressure sensitive stylus
usb with otg
b/g/n
extras like infrared bluetooth gps acclerometer compass etc
should the device run on our will not we run on its will:)
oh a microwave oven must !
Thats all:)

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

what do you think jolla is?

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

^Not maemo, thats for sure. Though sailfish OS could still be most intresting up to date linux base gnu like distro for mobile phones when it comes out (not sure). Theyre taking too much time though.

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

It's certainly possible, but not easy. See the Pandora project for evidence of that.

You would also need a hardware designer or two, software guys to write whatever drivers, and other things you might need to get maemo running on your new hardware. And then the hardware would be 2 to 3 times more expensive (at least) than any mainstream phones/tablets.

Re: Furture maemo UMPC via kickstarer funding
 

I have a couple of thoughts. First, to say that, so far, without new hardware (using our old N900), the efforts of the community, leveraging the power of open source, have staved off what for most smartphones is an inevitable 2 year decline built into the product cycle pushed by the big companies. The N900 lives on!

Can the N900 live on forever? Devices get old, and new software more demanding. Actually, I think the point about the software is not too pressing, due to the fact that the N900 is an open platform. However, the actual N900 devices won't last forever.

Would a successor be welcome? Yes! Are you kidding me? If it inherited all the good attributes of the N900 / Maemo platform. Can a grassroot effort do this? Geez... I suppose it's possible, but I just don't see it happening. There are a lot of hurdles in the way. Look at the Pandora, and how long it took to take off the ground.

A much better, much simpler and faster solution is a simple algorithm which I have devised:
1. Fire Elop.
2. Hire somebody with 2 brain cells whose allegiance doesn't lie away from Nokia, and who can understand that the true capital of a company like Nokia is innovation and the people whose minds made great things happen.
3. Re-build the Software Development Group.
4. Resurrect Maemo and bring out a true successor to the N900 (How does the N1X sound? ;) )

Seriously, people. a successor to the N900 would be profitable for Nokia, and it would bring back some of the prestige that they lost by becoming Microsoft's beotch.

In any case, if we can only implement Step 1. of my algorithm, we would be all the better for it. :)