maemo 4.0 Chinook beta SDK released

Nokia has released the beta version of the maemo 4.0 SDK, codenamed Chinook (shortcut for the impatient). Developers are encouraged to port their applications from maemo 3.x Bora to the new version and be prepared for the next Nokia Internet Tablet OS release. You can also use this SDK to create your brand new maemo software. A new Chinook repository has been created to host your new packages. 

As previously announced, Chinook comes with lots of new features an enhancements, including an upgrade to the upstream GTK+ 2.10 and Glibc 2.5. More details can be found in the release notes and the documentation explaining the API changes between maemo 3.2 and maemo 4.0. If you are developing a GUI application make sure you use the Hildon audit tool, it will save you a lot of time and hassle.

The beta SDK has still some missing packages and known issues, but the APIs are frozen and the software is solid. The Nokia binaries are not included either but none of this is an obstacle to get software working in maemo Chinook. We could choose between releasing now or waiting until getting more packages and fixes. Giving developers more time to get their software ready has been considered a top priority. We can't compromise to a public date yet but you will know in advance when the new Nokia Internet Tablet OS will be released.

The Chinook beta SDK offers a new modular installation, allowing to choose the components needed according to the type of development the SDK is used for. This means that now the rootstraps are reduced to a small set of critical packages, while all the rest are hosted in the repository. This setting provides us also more flexibility releasing updates. More information in the installation instructions.

We hope you like this beta! Please provide feedback, we have room for improvement until the final release. We are specially interested hearing about the SDK specific components. Remember to file your bugs at bugs.maemo.org specifying the 4.0 beta version.