A look back at a year of Tizen

Nathan Willis summarises Tizen's first year as the Intel & Samsung successor to MeeGo:

"Tizen's goal, like MeeGo's before it, was clearly defined as producing a baseline Linux distribution suitable for consumer electronics products: from handheld devices like tablets to more embedded-flavored-platforms like smart TV and in-vehicle systems. Samsung and LiMo added a mobile phone handset to the mix."

"The first release came in January 2012 and consisted of public Git repositories for the core OS and a "preview" of the SDK. Perhaps most notably, that release was the community's first look at how Tizen would merge in the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) graphical toolkit from LiMo and the project's HTML 5-based API for application development"

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • A look back at a year of Tizen
2. Applications
   • TizMee 0.1 launched - Tizen, HTML5 and Cordova web apps on MeeGo Harmattan
   • Video of FireStarter, allows reading Kindle books on N9
3. Development
   • box.net client for Harmattan under development
4. Devices
   • Easier porting of Mer to Android devices using binary blob compatibility layer

Digia acquires Qt. Now "responsible for all the Qt activities formerly carried out by Nokia"

Digia - the company that previously obtained the commercial licensing of Qt from Nokia - has acquired the remaining portions on Qt. Digia expresses an interest in maintaining the current dual-licensing scheme (open source and commercial) and is "Committed to [a] Thriving Qt Ecosystem". "One of Digia’s key objectives with this acquisition is to improve its position within the Qt ecosystem by further strengthening Qt’s R&D capabilities and expanding its reach on many more platforms than ever before. Since Digia acquired the Qt Commercial licensing business from Nokia in March 2011, the operation has continued to be successful and has grown substantially. Digia forecasts the acquisition’s impact on its 2012 revenues to be positive. In the following years, Digia forecasts the Qt business to grow." Here's hoping Qt continues to get the level of support it deserves from Digia and the community.

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Digia acquires Qt. Now "responsible for all the Qt activities formerly carried out by Nokia"
2. Applications
   • New 'sowatch' screenshots teased for MetaWatch users
3. Development
   • New SDL port for Harmattan
   • Widgets Engine for Harmattan, technical preview 1
4. Community
   • Minutes of August 3rd Maemo Community Council meeting

Recent app developments in NemoMobile

A Talk thread on NemoMobile saw more activity last week when it was populated by posts of new applications that are undergoing development for Nemo. Highlights include qmlcalendar, contacts using gallery's picker for avatars, Tizmee Tizen compatibility layer, Conversations, Dialer, and a proof of concept QML desktop (lipstick) from Timur Kristóf. There is a lot of cool content in the thread and that particular joy from watching an open source mobile OS form into something amazing is acute, so check out the thread and revel in the awesome.

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Recent app developments in NemoMobile
2. Development
   • Open source replacement for configuring N900 wifi driver
   • Replacing and accessing the Harmattan lock screen
   • mxr.meego.com scheduled for decommission 10th August
   • Maemo 5 Community SSU meeting last week
3. Community
   • Minutes of Maemo Community Council meeting (July 27th, 2012)
4. Devices
   • New release of MeeGo TV demoed on Intel CE4200 - community carrying on
5. In the Wild
   • Are Nokia going to try to divest of Qt?
6. Announcements
   • Alternative N9 status menu extensions, without requiring Inception or open mode

Open source replacement for Maemo Fremantle bluetooth-sysinfo package

Jonathan Wilson has made available a "package I call bt-cal which is a replacement for bluetooth-sysinfo as a way to read the bluetooth MAC address from CAL and send it to the bluetooth driver. [...] The ultimate aim is that someone will modify this and make it talk to something more standard than the /sys/devices/platform/hci_h4p/hwaddr that it talks to now (allowing the non-standard interface to be removed from kernel-power/kernel-cssu/whatever)."

Eager Maemo, MeeGo and Mer developers are encouraged to further hack on Jonathan's work.

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Open source replacement for Maemo Fremantle bluetooth-sysinfo package
2. Applications
   • Problems updating Dropian from Nokia Store?
   • unrestricted-system-ui for Harmattan updated with safe mode and LED support
3. Development
   • Documenting N900 D-Bus interfaces
4. Devices
   • Kickstarter campaign launched for new MetaWatch Strata
5. Announcements
   • gPodder updates for Nokia N9 Harmattan
   • Socialty Facebook client updated
   • Orientation lock toggle plugin for the MT-Toggles statusbar add-on

Jolla clarifies position on "developer mode" after misinterpretation of interview comments

A mistranslation of a Finnish interview of Jolla's CEO Jussi Hurmola resulted in a great deal of FUD last week, when comments about Jolla's market positioning were taken to mean that Jolla devices would be locked down, with customers unable to flash the device or replace the kernel. Most of the furor stemmed from a SlashGear report on the IBTimes article that extrapolated from the translated comments a bit farther than was likely justified, claiming that Jolla planned "to lock down its MeeGo phone." The original IBTimes article has since been updated with clarifications from a Jolla spokesperson: "There were a couple of quotes from Jussi Hurmola about the product. I think they were translated from Finnish to English and misunderstood, or then the developer edition was left out. [...] We are however planning on creating a development version of the phone for open source community, those interested in Linux and open systems and for partners. [...] Jolla is going to release a developer edition of the device which gives full access to linux hackers and technology enthusiasts. Jolla will fully support the communities and be part of them, and wants them to be part of creating and developing our device. [...]"

Draft bylaws for non-profit entity to take over Maemo infrastructure

In a proposal on the Maemo Community mailing list, RM Bauer details a draft bylaw to change the maemo.org infrastructure that is currently provided by Nokia to a non-profit entity possibly to be named the Hildon Foundation. "In order to continue the community at www.maemo.org in the future, it will be necessary to migrate much of the infrastructure and associated elements to a new site and to establish a separate entity for that purpose. See generally http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=84933. The attached bylaws are proposed for discussion. Please note that this is primarily a legal document and this is not the appropriate place to discuss many of the issues associated with the actual migration of the community." Time will tell how the idea is received and how the obstacles will be navigated.

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Draft bylaws for non-profit entity to take over Maemo infrastructure
2. Applications
   • Open source video editor for Harmattan from Collabora
   • Unlocking landscape use of Harmattan built-in apps
   • Enable traffic updates in N9 Drive app
   • New version of Shutdown compatible with N9 PR1.3 now available
3. Development
   • Harmattan repository for open-mode/Inception-requiring packages
4. Community
   • How should the community around Jolla look?
5. Devices
   • Nokia officially announces PR1.3 for N9
6. In the Wild
   • Interview with Jussi Hurmola, CEO of Jolla

Ex-Nokians found Jolla Mobile to "continue Nokia's excellent work on MeeGo-based smartphones"

The spirits of the downtrodden stalwarts of the Maemo and MeeGo communities were uplifted Saturday by the surprising announcement of Jolla Ltd., a new mobile smartphone company formed, in part, by former Nokia employees, with the stated goal of bringing new life to MeeGo and continuing the "excellent work that Nokia started." According to the press release they've been "developing a new smartphone product and the OS since the end of 2011" and a "new smartphone using this MeeGo based OS will be revealed later this year." No detailed specifics about the stack have been announced beyond it being based on the Mer Core and Qt, with Jolla providing their own UI on top.

Estel deselected as Council chair; discussions on legal entity

In the Community Council meeting on Friday, the three members of the council in attendance (Craig Woodward, Niel Nielsen, RM Bauer) removed Piotr Jawidzyk as chair of the current council, and will discuss a replacement between themselves this week. Piotr, of course, remains a member of the council; but it seems the rest of the council decided to act after "confrontational" discussions with the community, often in light of the concern regarding the council awarding Community Awards' devices to themselves. In introducing the matter, Craig - as secretary - said: "I think one clear item that has been agreed on in general is that Estel_ has been a bit harsher than most of us would like in recent dealings w/ the community."

"There have been calls, by at least 3 Council now in as many weeks, for his removal as chair. Given that Estel has expressed he was willing to give up chair if Council agreed on the matter (see June 8th minutes) I propose we take such a vote, if not this meeting than next."

Other issues discussed in the meeting included potential resolutions to the "firestorm"; community OBS, and the servers on which they run; and moving to a "self-sustaining" legal entity.

The last item is particularly interesting, slthough it isn't clear exactly what the role and scope of this entity would be.

Migrating maemo.org to community-driven infrastructure

Part of the potential fallout from the layoffs and project reduction at Nokia is likely to be the cancellation of funding for maemo.org. This is likely to happen sooner rather than later given that maemo.org is on a 6-month contract period (currently through Nemein). Discussion about transitioning maemo.org to a community-driven infrastructure when Nokia funding is removed is ongoing on both the community mailing list and on Talk.Given the wide range of services provided by maemo.org and the cost of servers, let alone the labor to keep them running, any viable plan is likely to require the shutting down or migration of the resource intensive services (like the autobuilder).

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Estel deselected as Council chair; discussions on legal entity
   • Migrating maemo.org to community-driven infrastructure
2. Community
   • Council blog now syndicated to maemo-community mailing list
3. In the Wild
   • Rumours of RIM moving from (just) BlackBerry 10 to include Windows Phone 8

Community Council meetings held every Friday, 18:00 UTC

Piotr Jawidzyk has publicised details of the new Maemo Community Council's meeting schedule. They are held "every Friday, 18:00 UTC, at IRC channel #maemo-meeting. Every interested Community Member is free (and welcome) to actively participate. Furthermore, after every meeting, minutes are published on Council's blog and News section of maemo.org."

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Community Council meetings held every Friday, 18:00 UTC
2. Applications
   • Nokia Suite for Windows for Nokia N9 beta
3. Development
   • Fremantle chroot on Harmattan: N900 apps on N950
   • Porting Maemo & Harmattan Qt apps to BlackBerry 10
4. Community
   • Community Council meeting minutes
   • Maemo Community Awards winners announced
5. In the Wild
   • Soon-to-be-ex-Nokia employees form Meltemi support group on LinkedIn
6. Announcements
   • Updated NumptyPhysics port for Harmattan

Nokia closes down more software development

Meltemi, the not-so-secret, low-end, Linux-based, Qt-running platform for the "next billion" is just one of several casualties of Nokia's final confirmation of them as - more or less - a Microsoft OEM. Ars Technica's Ryan Paul wrote: "Embattled phone manufacturer Nokia has conducted another round of layoffs, reducing the company’s headcount by 10,000 employees. The company is tightening its focus and making deep cuts in areas that aren’t directly tied to its current Windows Phone strategy. In conjunction with the layoffs, Nokia has also reportedly terminated its Meltemi project. [...]"