"Would it be possible to help you?" was the important piece.

/me cowers in fear.

Several of us have volunteered, but we have determined that Reggie is like Superman... with no known Kryptonite...

As well you should.

I look forward to driving you into the Negative Zone. [imagine evil smiley here]

Pfft. You? No way, you'll be just a drop in the bucket next to the hordes of indignant *****s that will drag me down into the deepest, darkest depths.

Yeah, we totally need one.

declining to make any *****ic comments before my first cup of cofee

Thank you Reggie. I figured as much from the my first reading of your idea.

By way of background, as I'm sure others here may be, I have been around the IT business and commercial software development for nigh on a quarter-century now. I have also been involved in evangelizing new technologies, most notably the Internet in the late 80's and early 90's, and a number of network security technologies. Most recently I have been CTO of an enterprise software startup. That experience colors my perspective on things like this.

I love my Internet Tablet and know that several people have bought them, largely as a result of my ranting.

I have to admit my first reaction was to be a bit appalled at the reaction to someone who, for all intents and purposes is offering essentially free marketing to developers of maemo applications. My second reaction was a bit more critical in that it reminded me of many of the reasons it has taken us so long to see credible efforts at end-user friendly Linux desktop environments. (It requires an effort of will for me to avoid launching into rant about the behavior I have seen in those communities and how many of those people, however well-intentioned, seem to have a complete lack of understanding of end-users and the necessity to make things easier for the intended beneficiaries. In general, I tend to feel that people like that deserve to lose. I know they wouldn't last ten seconds in a commercial software business.)

As someone who has had his Internet Tablet for about a year now, I have to say that though I totally understand and appreciate the value of the other places to obtain maemo software, I have found many of them, including garage, maemo.org/downloads and some of the repositories problematic in terms of availability, ease of finding specific appropriate files (no end user should have to know what "bora" means), or in many cases, and as one developer has already mentioned, context.

People don't download software in a vacuum. They want to know how it's different from other choices, perhaps including the choice of not using a particular application.

Developers, if they're professional in their outlook (yes, even hobbyists can think this way- my amateur radio club has several books to their credit), should want whatever constructive input they can get to make their creation better, even if they choose not to use it.

I read several Internet Tablet related sources every day, but as an end user, this is the one to which I keep coming for the majority of information that matters.

I totally appreciate and support the desire for a unified site (and perhaps repository) for installable maemo apps. I don't see any conflict from having resources here, of whatever sort (.install links, .deb files, or hot links) to help people find things that are right for them to use.

All that having been said, I do think that people should use things like the repository mechanism to allow for updates and the like. I have another linux-based platform (a Dreambox satellite receiver), and the best images for it all have a little button that allows for the easy addition of plugins and upgrades. There are issues with the developers on different continents not always updating things in ways that suit other continents, but on the whole, people are trying to make things easy to use. Despite this.. I have to go to a forum not unlike this one to find the most timely updates for certain components.

I realize that many developers don't have a lot of time. I also realize that applications often gain advocates who aren't even the original developer. Anything that better showcases an application in a way that makes it easier for the intended audience to find it is a good thing. In what some would call the "real world," it costs people a lot of money to find those.

I can see that in general, folks here are constructive, I'm glad. I think in summary, I'd simply urge people not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Oh, thanks Texrat, you just reminded me of my high school theatre days. I was in that show.

Though I do have to admit, we had the prettiest girls coming to visit the drama department.

Did you get Mickey Rooney's autograph?