Nokia "Harmattan" Maemo 6 device tipped for release
Nokia's OS policy seemed, although somewhat controversial, pretty straightforward: S30/S40 on the phones, Windows Phone on the smartphones and MeeGo back in the lab working on what comes next. Now, though, it seems Nokia has another product running a different OS in the pipeline for 2011, a Maemo "Harmattan" 6 device "expected to raise the interest of the MeeGo community."
That's according to one of the sessions at the upcoming MeeGo Conference, scheduled to take place in San Francisco in late May 2011. Apparently Harmattan "is API compatible with MeeGo 1.2" but "not exactly MeeGo"; the differences between the two, how apps will be handled and even how Harmattan will be named on Nokia devices are all topics up for discussion.
Maemo was last seen in v5 form on the Nokia N900, but the promised Maemo 6 (aka Harmattan) device was waylaid after Intel and Nokia decided to partner on MeeGo. "The relationship between Harmattan and the MeeGo project is expected to be clarified before the MeeGo Conference" we're told; Nokia is expected to launch a single MeeGo phone, believed to be the N950, before the end of the year.
[via My Nokia Blog]
HARMATTAN IN THE MEEGO COMMUNITY
Session Summary:
Nokia is working on the release of a product this year, expected to raise the interest of the MeeGo community. It comes with an OS codenamed Harmattan that is API compatible with MeeGo 1.2. Let's have a look at the peculiarities of Harmattan, and how to overcome them for the benefit of the MeeGo community. There have been discussions on whether community apps packaged for Harmattan should be available at the meego.com Apps catalog, or whether Harmattan should have an own product in bugs.meego.com as a 3rd party open source project. This session is a good chance to explain the discussions and conclusions (if any at that point) around these topics.
Session Abstract:
The relationship between Harmattan and the MeeGo project is expected to be clarified before the MeeGo Conference. No matter what this session will be useful to get a clear idea about frequently asked questions like:
What will be the official name of Harmattan in Nokia products?
Why Harmattan is not exactly MeeGo and what are the differences?
Why MeeGo developers and contributors should care about Harmattan?
What are the opportunities & challenges of hosting Harmattan related open source activities in the MeeGo infrastructure?
Where should Harmattan bugs be filed?
Where should Harmattan community apps be published?
Are Harmattan specific discussions on-topic in forum.meego.com?
More questions are welcome. The idea is to explain the current status of these discussions. If there are items open at the time of the conference this session might be useful to nail down the main points. Eventually a BoF could emerge from it if needed.
This session is targeting a generic community audience and development skills are not required. We will not attempt to go into technical details about the SDK, packaging, etc, since we assume that other sessions will cover this. Our main focus will be the impact of Harmattan in the MeeGo community processes and infrastructure.