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Nokia and Open Source — a Trial By Fire

An anonymous reader writes "The H has a damning piece on Nokia's open source smart phone projects, Maemo and MeeGo, and why they failed. 'They did dumb stuff like re-writing the whole networking stack, duplicating as they went. So instead of re-using NetworkManager and improving it, and getting to market fast – they re-wrote, got something that still doesn't work well, failed to push Linux forward, and failed. Repeat that for every technology pick and you get the idea,' said Andrew Wafaa. 'The N900 was a great product. Immediately [after] it was launched it was announced that it was a dead product, ISV-wise. They announced a Qt re-write/project re-set. Then they merged Maemo into MeeGo, giving another project re-set. Then, when they were coming up to release in September 2010, there was another project reset to switch to a different Qt technology (even the Qt groups in-fight in Nokia). In consequence they have no shipping product.' At the same time, 'both Nokia and Intel were working on separate handset UIs using Qt, the former proprietary, the latter open-source. A better worked example of squandering your leadership role and wrestling yourself to the ground is hard to see. Nokia deserve their trial by fire – and I hope the people who truly screwed up the amazing Linux opportunity that was the N900 get shut down in the process.'"

1 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Are WE misreading THIS, Americano, is the question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "Me: 1) Degree in Biotechnology and Computer Science. (Did your troll factory offer dual majors, or just the standard "how to be an obnoxious twat on the internet" syllabus?)" - by Americano (920576) on Friday February 18, @02:27PM (#35247076)

    First of all, Kevin B. Pease = AMERICANO from Merrimack New Hampshire - kbpease@hotmail.com - YOU DID NOT GET A DOUBLE MAJOR!

    http://www.linkedin.com/in/kbpease

    PERTINENT EXCERPT:

    Kevin Pease's Education
    Worcester Polytechnic Institute
    B.S., Biotechnology

    1993 Ã" 1998

    Minor: Computer Science

    ---

    LMAO - it took you 6 YEARS to get a CSC MINOR? Rotflmao... AND, YOU OUTRIGHT LIED ABOUT IT ALSO? Please... give us a break, quit trying to play "expert" around here... you do NOT have "what it takes", period!