Comment by bsimpson

1 year ago

Sailfish is the successor to Nokia's Linux efforts, before they scrapped it all for Windows.

The community got fractured when the N9/950 did MeeGo Harmattan. This was a continuation of Nokia's Maemo OS that was based on Debian, but they just called it differently when they announced a collaboration. Nokia and Intel started a 'merge' called MeeGo (based on moblin and fedora). Nokia never actually used this in a device as they signed the famous partnership under Stephen Elop's guidance standing on a burning platform.

Sailfish is a successor of this actual MeeGo work that was done and therefore had an uphill battle. They never got the same traction as Maemo (or even Mer), so I never called this a successor of Nokia's work. Nokia created a community with developer conferences and handing out devices. Jolla couldn't do this ... and therefore remained niche.

  • My N900 with Maemo was fantastic. It's still working Just Fine, mechanically as good as when new (the Mercedes-door feeling sliding keyboard, for example), the only reason I'm not still using it is because it only supports up to 3G, and that isn't available anymore where I live. Such a nice phone. I could easily make Debian packages and install them, my minicomputer emulator for example. The MeeGo transition stopped it for me, and Stephen Elop's burning-down-the-house strategy killed everything.

    • I have all of the NIT devices, but found the N810 the best; great keyboard, large, thin... but unfortunately no 3G. N900 is second best; great camera and nice User Experience