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| The story of Nokia's Maemo and MeeGo |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-10-11 21:41:35 |
| It's a long read - but totally and utterly worth it. After interviewing ten former and current Nokia employees, and combining their insider information with publicly available information, Sampsa Kurri has written a long and detailed article about the history of Maemo and MeeGo within Nokia, and everything that went wrong - which is a lot. It's sad tale, one that reads almost like a manual on how to not run a large company. Still, between the bad decisions and frustrations, there's a red thread of hope that leads to Jolla. |
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| RE[2]: Remember... |
| By moondevil on 2012-10-12 07:35:58 |
| Being a former employer in the German units, I can attest that the article describes pretty well how things work there, and still do. |
 - Score: 7 |
| I wish this would end |
| By arsa on 2012-10-12 09:07:10 |
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When it comes to computing, I seem to have some strange attraction to tech visionaries who went bankrupt for non-tech reasons. I always choose the electronics I love, not just use, and then have it in plural. When I started to deal with computers seriously, it was Amiga several of them throughout years. My first job was to work with several AlphaServers. Then I started using mobile phones, and they were and still are Nokia only. During all that time I specifically picked Hi-FI and A/V almost solely made by Sony. At my current employeer, I deal with the leftovers of the Sun microsystems. This long article about Maemo describes in details what I felt over and over again. All those companies had unbelievably great engineers and equally great organizational mistakes. I have always bought their products because of technical value and I was always let down by their managerial decisions. It's like some mental disease spread over mankind long and deep enough so neither engineers nor managers can see it and heal it. Or maybe I think like this just because I was born and live in a former communist country and can recognize the pattern? :-) I just wish this would end. The way I see it, free and open software (and hopefully hardware, too) is the only way out. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by ukki |
| By ukki on 2012-10-12 10:06:53 |
|
This is quite a sad read for someone once heavily involved in Maemo (have 770, N800, N810, N900 and N950). For me the N900, after all the rumors and speculation, felt almost magical to hold. And the effect hasn't really worn out. I still use it as my phone and haven't really found any potential alternatives to it. Sure some features on other phones make me envious sometimes, but N900 for me has too many advantages to list. At the Maemo summit in Amsterdam they made Harmattan seem like something special. After receiving my N950 I pretty much lost all hope for the platform. For me N9 is just a bad iPhone copy. Swipe UI alone doesn't save it from total lack of originality. Aegis (which can be disabled nowadays) ruined the rest. And the WP decision meant the whole platform was a dead end anyways. I guess Nokia can only blame itself for the situation it's in and as a finn it's sad to see it go. But nothing lasts forever and I still have my memories. And killer Nokia rubber boots that will probably outlive the company. Edited 2012-10-12 10:07 UTC |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE: Comment by ukki |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-10-12 10:18:43 |
|
You have an N950? :o |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[2]: Comment by ukki |
| By ukki on 2012-10-12 10:29:13 |
| Yes, I have it for development. Too bad they never gave us the official pr 1.3 or even 1.2. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[3]: Comment by ukki |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-10-12 10:31:22 |
| They're basically impossible to get by these days. Would love to have it in my collection, but I doubt there even ARE people in The Netherlands who own one, let alone who are willing to sell it. |
| - Score: 1 |
| Comment by MOS6510 |
| By MOS6510 on 2012-10-12 10:37:05 |
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My experience with Nokia is that the hardware is often let down by the software. The software on their dumb phones was fine, easy to control, fast to use. I liked EPOCH on my Psion 3a. It was clever, could do what you wanted to do, but when it morphed in to Symbian it became less convenient, slower. My Nokia 9500 and E90 often felt sluggish. Surfing, ssh'ing, it wasn't very pleasant. Also the screens of S40/60 phones and other systems often felt very crowded, too small. WP works much better on their Lumia range, but then again that wasn't made by Nokia. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[4]: Comment by ukki |
| By MOS6510 on 2012-10-12 10:38:09 |
|
If I had one you could have it. Not sure that makes you feel better or even worse though. |
| - Score: 2 |
| small team? |
| By zhulien on 2012-10-12 11:05:57 |
| a few dozen employees isn't a small team - that is a huge team. a 1 man band is a small team, 2-3 perhaps, 10 a stretch. |
| - Score: 2 |
| Gives a perspective. |
| By dsmogor on 2012-10-12 12:35:09 |
|
From this story hiring and outsider seemed a good idea. But hiring one that has trouble telling best interest of his present employer apart from the former wasn't. It validates the story of SW not being ready until late in 2011. On the other hand it proves "only one device" argument as present in the Feb 2011 cover story was twisted as it was the conscious choice, not platform induced necessity. From the hindsight it now looks Google made a mistake by not offering any incentive for Nokia. They would at least have a counterbalance to Samsung and didn't have to buy Motorola. |
| - Score: 2 |
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