Dream Scenario (Re: Maemo roadmap, SDK improvements...)

Hi,

to me, the relationship between Maemo's FOSS parts and
Maemo's closed
parts are like the relationship between Ubuntu and its
closed source
driver packages (NVidia, WLAN firmware, etc.). I would be
nicest if
Maemo was distributed similar to that.


Dave Neuer schrieb:
> What exactly are asking for here: an official tarball
release of
> everything in one tree? Pointers to svn tags for each
component?

My dream scenario would be something that would easily allow
non-Nokia
developers to build a working firmware binary that is
equivalent to the
current official release, using as much source as possible.
To do this,
one would need:

- An official deb-src repository of all open source Maemo
packages
  written by Nokia
  (which developers can modify, build and package in
Scratchbox)

- Another official repository of all closed source Maemo
binaries
  (which developers can add to their own Scratchbox
environment)

- A tool to prelink the software and create a firmware from
these
  packages

The workflow for a non-Nokia developer would be like this:

- (Modify and) build all open-source packages that the
developer is
  interested in using apt-get build-dep / apt-build / some
similar tool.

- Install the closed-source binary blob packages the
developers wants
  using apt-get (for those .debs which have no foss
replacements)

- create a custom firmware, flash it

- Bingo


That way, non-Nokia developers can easily tinker with the
open source
parts of Maemo and learn about the system's API to write
alternatives
for the closed source parts (e.g. to replace the opera-based
browser
with a browser based on gtk+ webcore, while keeping all the
other parts
of Maemo).

Also, it would allow us to create custom firmware. E.g. a
firmware that
 contains my language only or adds languages that Nokia
doesn't support,
e.g. Japanese. Or a firmware that does not contain the RSS
and the Mail
application, but still can play MP3s.


I don't know how naive or impertinent this dream scenario is
and I hope
that the folks at Nokia like it, as it's not meant as a rude
request.

So far, Nokia has made a great effort to allow non-Nokia
developers
write applications for Maemo. However, it is obvious that
people are
interested in working on Maemo's core itself to add small
features and
remove minor nits. (I am.)

The dream scenario outlined above would make this possible
and it
appears to be doable and manageable without the need for
NDAs, as binary
blobs remain binary blobs.

Regards,

Hanno

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