The Whole is Less than the Sum of the Parts

Russ, that is not a bad strategy, but I see a potential problem with it from the Nokia point of view. If the supported applications that the users buy were distributed as packages, you would no longer be able to use flashing of the image as way of updating the system (the users would need to keep reinstalling all the apps). Rather, you would need a normal package manager for mainting the system itself (indeed, that is what you envisage). But in order for this to work for the naive user, it would need to be automated, to a point where the package manager installs required and updated packages behind the naive user’s backs — there is a danger of ending up with something like the WinXP automatic update. So, I am not convinced that a single approach can easily accomodate both the naive and discerning user.

That said, I think the present system is tenable only as long as Nokia does not want to sell and support extra applications, but rather will be giving new applications away free as part of the image, and this is only practicable if the overall number of applications is quite small, and the individual apps have broad appeal.

Bottom line: I think this is all very new territory for Nokia, and it has approached it in a way that it is familiar with; the external apps are treated bit like Java games for mobile phone, they are unnecessary extras, curiosities. However, this device has, as you note, much greater potential than a mere phone, and perhaps some significant paradigm shifts will be needed in Nokia’s thinking to get this potential unleashed — this device would need to be treated as a computer rather than a phone (which, if I am not mistaken, is one of your points). At the end of the day I suspect it will come down to what market Nokia thinks it can make most money from: the discerning or the naive users?

Spent couple of days working on the Pango graphics class for AbiWord. The screen part of it mostly works now (including zoom and justificiation), except everything gets drawn using just one font; it will be some stupidly obvious bug in the font loading code. The printer part is not done yet, but that should not be too much work; I reckon I might be turning this on as the default graphics class for CVS head within next two weeks.

Russell, Maemo is not an image either; Maemo is a development environment. I think the reason the 770 installer applet is set up the way it is, is because Nokia does not want the users to update the system — after all this is an embedded device; you update it by flashing it with an image which Nokia provides for you. If you want to run something else than what Nokia provides, you can install the developer file system, but then you are on your own.

I realise that this does not appeal to the hacker, and it does make things more difficult for the application developers (because sometimes you might want to install a library that the system does not provide), but I think from the point of view of Nokia it makes perfect sense: when a user phones you up saying it does not work, you can make assumptions about the system; if the application installer were ‘free for all’, you could not assume the integrity of the system.

Well, well, well. Microsoft is, in its own way, opening up the xml specs for Office 12; this was inevitable considering Sun’s moves earlier this year, the potential for loss of business just too big.

My comments on Sun’s licencing changes apply here, I think, fully.

Over the past week I have been hacking intensively on libstylus, and expect to have something usable by the end of the year. Read the rest »

I have started a new project: libstylus. The idea is to create a library that would make handling ink in applications running on tablets (such as the Nokia 770) easy, with the explicit intention of supporting ink in AbiWord on the 770 (if you do not know what I mean by ink have a look at the home page of TAbiWord.

It is early days, but I would hope to have something usable by the end of the year. For now, more information can be found on the libstylus homepage; feedback and suggestions are welcome.