Jolla Mobile Set To Launch Its Sailfish OS Today, Signs Deal with Finnish Telco

New submitter zzats writes "The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Jolla, started by ex-Nokia Meego engineers, is showing it's Linux-based Sailfish OS for the public for the first time today. The first keynote speech aired at 9:15 GMT, with an UI-focused presentation starting later, 15:00 GMT. In addition to using the OS on their own devices, Jolla is planning to license it to third party manufacturers. The company has previously stated their initial focus for creating an ecosystem is in the Chinese market." sfcrazy adds: "Jolla has signed a deal with Finland's 3rd largest mobile operator DNA to market the MeeGo based smartphones in the Finnish market."

Comments

The bastard child of Windows Phone and Android...

[tuppe666]

...is awesome looking. Having only part bought into Microsoft marketing of a third smartphone OS [no its not an ecosystem]. This is the the first time. I have been sold on an OS on first impressions. I'm not overwhelmed with the swipe-down menu...or self customising...but the lock-screen; Multitasking widgets? both great looking and functional features.

Sailfish

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who finds that name more than a little unmarketable to non nerds compared against the likes of "iOS" and "Android"?

Re:Sailfish

[jon_doh2.0]

Am I missing something? The name doesn't mean much to me. So, why exactly? Gosh maybe I'm am a non-nerd. Here, someone take my card. Besides, people said the same thing about Android, and it's done all right. And how many thetes even know what the os in iOS stands for?

Re:Sailfish

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, and mispronounced sounds like selfish, which should attract many iOS users anyways.

kidding... kidding.

Will it be open?

[kthreadd]

Does anyone know if this operating system will be made open or if it will remain closed? Would really like if there was a good open alternative to Android.

Re:Will it be open?

[Pieroxy]

Sailfish being based on Linux as well, it will at least have an open kernel.

Re:Will it be open?

[gmuslera]

Based on Mer if it gives you a hint. Looks like it will be pretty open.

Re:Will it be open?

[Volanin]

No, it won't be open source.
From the wikipedia page:

Jolla said that mobile phone manufacturers (e.g. Nokia, Samsung etc.) will be able to license and use Sailfish on a phone, just like Android. Similar to Windows Phone, it is also not open source.

Re:Will it be open?

[Keruo]

It's just a gui for Mer, which you can fork already.

Re:Will it be open?

[gstoddart]

Does anyone know if this operating system will be made open or if it will remain closed?

Presumably, if it's "Linux based" they'll be required under the terms of the GPL to release their changes.

The stuff they write on top probably not so much. And then I'm sure they'll have some stuff they say is patented or licensed they can't tell you about.

I don't think I'd count on getting something which can provide a usable OS on other phones without a lot of work by someone.

Re:Will it be open?

[kthreadd]

They would only have to release the kernel sources, which is far from the entire operating system. So while it sounds great that they are using Linux it doesn't really say anything about the rest of it.

Re:Will it be open?

[kthreadd]

That looks very interesting. Thanks.

Re:Will it be open?

[wvmarle]

It's just a gui for Mer

You say it as if the GUI doesn't matter. In a consumer device. Where all the user gets to see, is the GUI.

It's the underlying OS that actually doesn't matter, it's all about the UI.

Re:Will it be open?

[ryzvonusef]

https://sailfishos.org/wiki/QA

Will Sailfish SDK be available for Linux and Windows?

Yes Sailfish SDK is based on QtCreator and will be available in Windows, Linux and OSX.

When will Sailfish SDK be available?

The version presented at Slush will be available very soon. In the meantime you can follow the steps on the merproject.org page and build most of the SDK yourself.

Will you support HTML5?

Yes we are studying Cordova Qt which is an open source version of PhoneGap.

Will you support DRM

No.

What APIs (application programming interface) will Jolla / Sailfish provide from device platform?

Qt APIs (QtQuick, QtMobility, QtWebkit and more) should be used by typical Sailfish OS applications. Also standard Linux APIs within reason for mobile usage will be available.

Do you use in-house patched Qt version with Jolla specific modifications?

We use the fully open version of Qt delivered by Mer; like many distributions this carries small patches to fix bugs, enhance performance or backport features. Mer tracks upstream Qt very closely.

What is the relationship of Sailfish OS and Nemo Mobile project?

We are using parts of Nemo Mobile in Sailfish OS. Specifically Nemo Mobile has a UI and a set of applications that we won't use in the final Jolla product nor in Sailfish OS. We are contributing to Nemo Mobile and our intention is to keep Sailfish OS compatible with Nemo Mobile and vice versa.

Will you have a developer program and if, what are the benefits for a developer?

We will disclose more information regarding this during next year.

What is your open source contribution model?

Sailfish OS is based on Mer and Qt which are already existing and known open-source projects with good contribution policies.

What do the Android app developers need to do get their apps run on Jolla devices / devices based on the Sailfish OS?

Many Android(TM) applications will run on Jolla devices unchanged (Android is a trademark of Google Inc.). If you want to take advantage of all UI and other features of Sailfish OS and make your applications fast, you can port your applications to native QT/QML. There are extensive guides available on how to do that.

What does Sailfish OS have on top of Mer?

Mer provides a functional core Linux stack that boots up to the screen. Mer does not provide HW adaptation nor a functional UI. There is where Sailfish fills the gap and provide you with a productized mobile OS.

Re:Will it be open?

[aaaaaaargh!]

What do the Android app developers need to do get their apps run on Jolla devices / devices based on the Sailfish OS?

Many Android(TM) applications will run on Jolla devices unchanged (Android is a trademark of Google Inc.). If you want to take advantage of all UI and other features of Sailfish OS and make your applications fast, you can port your applications to native QT/QML. There are extensive guides available on how to do that.

Okay, sorry for the other post I've made in this thread. That actually sounds pretty cool.

Re:Will it be open?

[Anonymous Coward]

Android's kernel is open.

Re:Will it be open?

[ryzvonusef]

I heard it uses alien dalvik to achieve this (but don't quote me on this)

Re:Will it be open?

[G-forze]

There's a quote: http://www.facebook.com/JollaMobile/posts/502893053077328

Re:Will it be open?

[ryzvonusef]

Thanks!

Re:Will it be open?

[SpzToid]

Yes thanks! Mod up!

Another closed, proprietory garden...

[Anonymous Coward]

And it's closed source... What a great way to alienate 99% of your prospective early adopters.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[Anonymous Coward]

Only Jolla GUI is closed source I guess - if the rest is open source and the userland is 'linux like' thats enough for me.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[Anonymous Coward]

It worked for Apple and every firm before the smartphone era. There still are good OS'es made by those firms, they just didn't know how to market them.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[kthreadd]

Only Jolla GUI is closed source I guess - if the rest is open source and the userland is 'linux like' thats enough for me.

And if the system itself is fairly modular AND the hardware is open then there should be no stopping you from replacing the closed bits. But that's a big if.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[tuppe666]

It worked for Apple

The smartphone market is split between Android and Android [Came to market with a open/zero cost competitive smartphone OS], there are many ways to compete with Android, being like Apple [Who were first to market with a compelling product] is not one of them.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[wvmarle]

Whether it is closed or open source is totally irrelevant for probably >99% of the buyers. Most buyers don't even know whether it's open or closed source, and if they do, they don't care. They want a nice phone, one that works, and that has lots of apps available. That is far more important than whether the source to the OS is open or closed.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[zzats]

And if the system itself is fairly modular AND the hardware is open then there should be no stopping you from replacing the closed bits. But that's a big if.

There's three parts to this puzzle here. Mer, which is the core distribution. Nemo UX, an open source UI for phones built on top of Mer. Lastly, there's the Sailfish UI, which is the proprietary, Nemo-compatible Jolla-look&feel UX.

It's currently possible to build Mer along with Nemo for N900/N950/N9 (along with several non-Nokia devices), but as far as I understand, the Nemo UI is not usable for the former device. The Mer wiki has quite a lot of relevant information on the topic.

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[da_matta]

Jolla could be the true third (or fourth) ecosystem by using Open Source to the full extent. Include a slightly curated collection of open source repositories to get their phone full of content. I.e. it should be free to signup and they should just make sure there is a semi-respectable community behind the repo (with access cut if turns to piratism, child porn, etc). The only chance of success they have IMO is to get the best of FOSS software (and content) ported to them. They will never attract developers as an "Android alternative without users".

Re:Another closed, proprietory garden...

[21mhz]

Whether it is closed or open source is totally irrelevant for probably >99% of the buyers. Most buyers don't even know whether it's open or closed source, and if they do, they don't care. They want a nice phone, one that works, and that has lots of apps available.

So those buyers will likely choose something running iOS, Android, or Windows Phone?

But, wil it run...

[srussia]

on the Nokia N9?

Re:But, wil it run...

[gmuslera]

The demo runs in the N950, so odds are high that it will run in the N9. But Jolla also said some time ago that it won't be supported. So will be up to you (or the community) to make it run it there, won't be an i.e. official Nokia upgrade to it.

Re:But, wil it run...

[KiloByte]

Screw the OS, gimme a J950, quickly!

N900, even after all these years, is worlds better than any competition, in terms of hackability and input method. Sorry, but the keyboard is not optional -- with one, you lay down and start coding, noticing you could have been sitting at your big computer only after a few hours. You need to beat some sense into the keyboard layout, but after some customization it ends up on par with a small laptop when it comes to typing efficiency. And unlike a laptop, it fits into a pocket rather than a backpack or a car trunk.

It's just the CPU and RAM of N900 that puts it in a dire need of upgrading. Hear me, Jolla! Hear me, HTC!

Re:But, wil it run...

[zzats]

Yes it will. They even demoed the OS on N9s, but the good question is, whether they'll actually release it for the N9.

In any case, the N9 will benefit a free operating system from Mer and Nemo UX - which will be application compatible with Sailfish.

Re:But, wil it run...

[Jack Malmostoso]

In any case, the N9 will benefit a free operating system from Mer and Nemo UX - which will be application compatible with Sailfish.

This. The N9 app store is pretty much dead and it's quite understandable why. If Sailfish has some success then we'll see more apps developed.

CEO and Marketing

[sanosuke001]

Their CEO seems like kind of a tool with that haircut... and the marketing campaign makes me feel like they're trying to be more of a hipster brand than iOS is. The UI looks like the bastard child of Metro and Android, too.

Re:CEO and Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's nice to see a man criticized for how ridiculous he's made himself look. Usually it's just women who get picked on for their looks.

Re:The bastard child of Windows Phone and Android.

[Pieroxy]

Can you provide a link ?

No bastard child

[Anonymous Coward]

To me it seems more like the disowned firstborn from Meego-Harmattan.

Re:No bastard child

[Anonymous Coward]

Modernized Bibble, Matthew 2:16
        "Then Elop, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men,
        was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the mobile OS
        which were in Nokia and in all the surrounding countryside, from
        two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had
        learned from the wise men."

"Its Sailfish OS", idiots.

[1u3hr]

Not " It's Sailfish OS".

See eg http://garyes.stormloader.com/its.html Or ask any elementary school teacher. How does one get to be a fucking editor and not know this?

Re:"Its Sailfish OS", idiots.

[1u3hr]

Hmm, not only my original post of a few minutes ago, but the whole thread modded to zero or lower. Who could have done that? But at least it's been fixed now to "its". Is it so hard to read articles before you publish them?

Re:"Its Sailfish OS", idiots.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, not only my original post of a few minutes ago, but the whole thread modded to zero or lower. Who could have done that?

Anyone with mod points. You're really not as interesting as you seem to think.

Re:"Its Sailfish OS", idiots.

[mcgrew]

Hmm, not only my original post of a few minutes ago, but the whole thread modded to zero or lower.

The whole thread is offtopic. Kudos to the moderators. If you don't have excellent karma, don't make offtopic comments and don't respond to offtopic comments.

The way to not get modded offtopic is to ridicule whoever made that aliterate (not illiterate) mistake in a way that's genuinely funny. And hint: funny is dangeroud to karma, too.

But at least it's been fixed now

So why did you even post a complaint about being modded down? Mods, the parent is offtopic and so am I. Mod us both down, we're offtopic. Lu3hr, take your karma hit and stop bitching.

Who could have done that?

One moderator with fifteen points, three mods with five points each, or an editor, who has unlimited mod points all the time.

Re:"Its Sailfish OS", idiots.

[1u3hr]

The way to not get modded offtopic is to ridicule whoever made that aliterate (not illiterate) mistake in a way that's genuinely funny. And hint: funny is dangeroud to karma, too.

Actually, adding a bit if venom seems to have got the message across. Anyway as the saying goes "I have karma to burn". So sometimes I do.

And it is "illiterate". Or maybe "ungrammatical" to be more charitable and precise. "Aliterate" is someone who doesn't like to read. Some overlap, but not the same.

The whole thread is offtopic. Kudos to the moderators.

The comment was 100% on the topic. Unlike 90% of highly modded comments on Slashdot which a half page down are usually about politics or cars or jokes.

So why did you even post a complaint about being modded down?

I wasn't surprised at my comment going down, but the speed, and the entire thread was gone in a few minutes was notable. You could post racist bigotry or pro-Al-Qaeda paeans here all day and not get modded down so fast. And it happened at the same time that the headline was fixed. So there's a suspicion that it wasn't individual mods.

Who could have done that?

That was a rhetorical question.

I used to make polite posts pointing out such mistakes. After a few years of seeing the same errors repeated, I have no patience left. So, I just let rip. If they are going to be petty and vindictive, it just reflects on them.

Re:"Its Sailfish OS", idiots.

[mcgrew]

"Aliterate" is someone who doesn't like to read.

Exactly. One who reads doesn't make ignorant mistakes like that.

It looks fabulous! :)

[tuppe666]

We don't care for cricket scores in Walkaboutmissiquanga or rioting in a village deep inside the African Congo anymore than we do about this !!

Not sure why not. I'm personally a little tired of the Media desperately pushing the lie of the "third ecosystem", and trying to pretend the destruction of Nokia by Elop; Microsoft; The shareholders byvarious fanatics and paid shills around the net that Windows Phone is sensible rational choice, and throwing good money after bad is a great thing, when lets face it its simply not that good, in fact its awful. I'm also tired of the the Smartphone market becoming the Android market. Its a great product, and continues to be, but its a one horse race, with Apple unashamedly chasing profit over market share, making the same mistake as the PC market [or success if your an Apple fanatic]

This is the first OS I've seen that has made sense; I could see myself buying. It could be a great product, potentially an even more open OS in the market; Android compatibility; multitasking done right. [and I miss that from Meamo]. Its done by professionals; the underdog; those pushed aside for Elops vision...its a true underdog story. Personally I hope the Finish are flag waving, and pushing the the Government into offering Jolla real support. The only thing that might stop me caring...is BB10, but I'm not holding my breath.

Re:It looks fabulous! :)

[recoiledsnake]

This is the first OS I've seen that has made sense; I could see myself buying. It could be a great product, potentially an even more open OS in the market; Android compatibility; multitasking done right

Isn't Android compatibility a death sentence for an OS because of Google's blackmail of the Android OEMs?

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/09/google-blocked-acers-rival-phone-to-prevent-android-fragmentation/

I am curious which OEM(s) Jolla lined up. It can't be any of Samsung, HTC, Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, LG, Sony, Motorola(cough), Huwaei, Toshiba, Dell, ZTE etc.

What major OEM is left to make the phones? Nokia? (har har) Apple? (Yeah right.) RIM?

Any other no-name OEM or even self manufacturing is going to cripple the adoption of Jolla making it stillborn in this competitive market. Other problems are lack of access to Google's Android apps and the Play Store, but they're not insurmountable, maybe they can get Amazon to share it's app store which has a decent collection of apps. So much for Android being open when even MS doesn't (probably cannot due to antitrust) block OEMs from shipping Linux machines with WINE preinstalled.

Re:It looks fabulous! :)

[tuppe666]

Isn't Android compatibility a death sentence for an OS because of Google's blackmail of the Android OEMs?.

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyun_OS
"According to Google, Aliyun is a forked but incompatible version of its open-source Android operating system. The company therefore attempted to prevent Acer Inc. from shipping an Aliyun-powered phone, arguing that Acer, a member of the Open Handset Alliance, had agreed not to produce phones running incompatible Android versions.[4][5] Alibaba disputes the claim that Aliyun is a version of Android;[6] however, the Aliyun app store does prominently feature pirated Android applications, including many from Google.[7]"

So the Meego-forked based OS is good to go. In fact "Tizen" by Samsung shares the very same lineage.

Re:It looks fabulous! :)

[recoiledsnake]

I don't see how that follows.

Sailfish has to effectively fork the Android compatibility layer to get it working. Is there an example of an OS that is compatible with Android but Google doesn't ban the OEMs from shipping?

Tizen doesn't have Android compatibility AFAIK so it has nothing to do with this.

Re:The bastard child of Windows Phone and Android.

[tuppe666]

Can you provide a link ?

http://www.phonedog.com/2012/11/21/jolla-demos-meego-based-sailfish-os-on-video/ has both the promo video, and more importantly a demonstration video which is very short and covers the main features.

Hehe...

[Iniamyen]

I read that as "Selfish OS," and I was like, "I'm already using one of those!"

Re:Hehe...

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Actually, for me it is a selfish OS. I want a phone where I can open up a root bash shell and putz around, and find some trouble to get myself into. And I want a free SDK where I can download Linux source tarballs, and compile them for the phone. I could do all that with Nokia's former Maemo/MeeGo/Harmattan thingies.

If I can do that with Sailfish, I, at least, will be a very happy camper. It's not what your average user will need. But I am being very selfish here, indeed.

Patents

[jbolden]

One thing that is worth mentioning here is that Apple in court, during the Samsung hearings, indicated they believed MeeGo was independently developed and thus didn't infringe on their patents. So one of the advantages of Sailfish will be that it doesn't carry with it all the patent issues that Android had from the Apple side. Microsoft might still sue like they did with Android, but given Microsoft's problems in Europe from a PR perspective going after European handset makers could be totally not worth the backlash. hard to tell.

At the very least Apple's comments would do a lot to help indemnify this OS, "Even Apple has statements made under penalty of perjury that this OS was developed independently..."

Re:Patents

[gl4ss]

afaik/iirc one of the points about meego was that the companies involved agreed that it's free from patent burdens at least as far as they can tell(iirc you can't release something in gpl and then later assert patent rights to it anyways - of course totally unrelated 3rd parties could assert their patent rights on it. some evil dude might say that's why some patents from some manufacturer were spun off into a 3rd party company).

Re:Patents

[jbolden]

The Nokia patents that were spun off AFAIK are mainly for the phone portion, that would mainly be a hardware issue.

And yeah I'd assume lots of evil dudes will step forward. But one won't be Apple and being able to site Apple in their defense...

Re:The bastard child of Windows Phone and Android.

[wvmarle]

Interestingly in the second video I saw the Android logo (the green robot) flash by :-)
 

Re:The bastard child of Windows Phone and Android.

[tuppe666]

Interestingly in the second video I saw the Android logo (the green robot) flash by :-)

That is because of its Android Application compatibility.

Great! Another mobile OS!

[aaaaaaargh!]

That's just what I was looking for! Now if I want to write a cross-platform application I not only need to develop for OS X, Windows XP/Vista/7 and Windows 8/Metro, GNU/Linux and the mobile OSes iOS, Android, and Windows RT, I also should develop my apps for ChromeOS, FirefoxOS, WebOS, and last but not least "Jolla."

Let me guess...additionally the makers of these operating systems have no particular reason to ease interoperability and also want me to put my applications on their personal app store, each with different guidelines, fees, etc., right? Hey, that really sounds like a developer's dream! So many job opportunities for making boring and tedious GUI gluecode translations!

Sorry for the rant, but someone had to say it...

Re:Great! Another mobile OS!

[CreamyG31337]

It can run android apks and supports qt/qml and html5, so actually will be one of the easiest devices for developers to target. If they get this OS running on devices other than phones, that's a nice bonus for developers too! I'd say it's already a developers dream since that UI demo was shown on an n950, a devkit thousands of developers already have.

Re:Great! Another mobile OS!

[buchanmilne]

That's just what I was looking for! Now if I want to write a cross-platform application I not only need to develop for OS X, Windows XP/Vista/7 and Windows 8/Metro, GNU/Linux and the mobile OSes iOS, Android, and Windows RT, I also should develop my apps for ChromeOS, FirefoxOS, WebOS, and last but not least "Jolla."

You can develop for all of those platforms with the toolkit that is native to Jolla, Qt.

You'll still have issues with app stores though.

Re:Great! Another mobile OS!

[gmuslera]

If your application/game is popular enough, you will develop it for even more platforms. Ask Rovio about it.

Re:Great! Another mobile OS!

[21mhz]

You can develop for all of those platforms with the toolkit that is native to Jolla, Qt.

Can you? A Qt port for Android, Necessitas, is a non-mainstream effort and it's currently in alpha. A Qt port to WinRT has been investigated, lack of OpenGL support seen as a major obstacle. Chrome and Firefox... good luck merging that with the browser environment.

From the looks of it, PhoneGap (AKA Apache Cordova) has better promise at the moment, but it's a rather cumbersome programming environment, and you are often out of luck if you need third-party plugins depending on what platforms you want to target.

Re:Great! Another mobile OS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you hate Plan 9, OS/2, Haiku and VMS???

Jolla means 'dinghy'

[tuppe666]

Am I missing something? The name doesn't mean much to me. So, why exactly? Gosh maybe I'm am a non-nerd. Here, someone take my card. Besides, people said the same thing about Android, and it's done all right. And how many thetes even know what the os in iOS stands for?

Jolla means 'dinghy' i.e. small boat, in Finnish. A particularly delightful meaning in Finland is perhaps the most common usage of 'jolla', in relation to the 'optimisti jolla', a one-person tiny sailboat on which many of us learn to sail. It actually takes the core distribution (which mean it does not contain system kernel and UI) from Mer (operating system)

Jolla = "Fucking" in Korean

[Sangbin]

Jolla means "Fucking" (adjective) in Korean. I wonder how they would debut in Korean market.

Re:Jolla = "Fucking" in Korean

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they should market it as "fucking delicious" and get a Korean Gordon Ramsay equivalent on the add.