The embedded long-term support initiative [LWN.net]

The embedded long-term support initiative

Posted Oct 30, 2011 23:16 UTC (Sun) by dsimic (subscriber, #72007)
Parent article: The embedded long-term support initiative

Here's how I see that -- embedded industry (and business in general) needs something they can rely on. They don't care if it's called Linux, Andoid, Red Potato or whatever. They just want something for free, for what they at least *think* somebody is standing behind.

If the mainline Linux can't go and provide that, somebody else will do (hm, Android?), taking the big piece of cake mainline Linux has at the moment. Indeed, Android will be actually no better than the mainline for someone's purpose to build a networked TV set, but Android is backed by Google and gives to the industry what they need -- felling of someone taking care about. And Google has the $$$ needed for hiring good people and making Android do what businesses need.

I'd say -- mainline, hurry up and don't shoot your own foot. ;)

See what Nokia did? They gad a golden egg called Maemo (or MeeGo or whatever the name), which could've kept them as the leader of that industry area, having everything under one roof -- own harware and own software. One can say that Maemo is a full-blown Linux with everything opened up and no Java VM's in between keeping things secure... I'll just ask if Windows Mobile is any better from that point?

Do you *really* think WinMobile is more secure than Maemo? And Maemo / MeeGo is now killed like a two-day chicken and left to rot. And what a great product that was. Now I have to throw my N900 in garbage -- because industry doesn't care about technically correct things, or things that require too much effort.

Do you really think that Nokia's CEO even knows the differenece between Win Mobile and something else? ;) It's all the same touchscreen pictures and revenue charts for him. ;) It's the same with embedded world -- they'll keep trying and go somewhere else when they reach point of "too much effort required".

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The embedded long-term support initiative

Posted Oct 31, 2011 21:49 UTC (Mon) by cmccabe (guest, #60281) [Link]

> Do you really think that Nokia's CEO even knows the differenece between
> Win Mobile and something else? ;) It's all the same touchscreen pictures
> and revenue charts for him. ;) It's the same with embedded world --
> they'll keep trying and go somewhere else when they reach point of "too
> much effort required".

Nokia's current CEO, Stephen Elop, worked for Microsoft as the head of the Office business division before joining Nokia. Whether or not you believe his business decisions were in Nokia's best interests, he definitely knows the difference between Windows and something else.

The embedded long-term support initiative

Posted Oct 31, 2011 22:13 UTC (Mon) by dsimic (subscriber, #72007) [Link]

> Nokia's current CEO, Stephen Elop, worked for Microsoft as the head of the
> Office business division before joining Nokia. Whether or not you believe
> his business decisions were in Nokia's best interests, he definitely knows
> the difference between Windows and something else.

Well, I can believe that, and I already knew he previosly worked for Microsoft.

Taking everything else aside, I really can't believe how such a great CEO could've
been asleep for years, without realizing that Symbian -- Nokia's flagship and business
core -- was already dead in water for years.

So they've been floating already dead on their previous glory and reputation, and
suddenly the big CEO realized that leads nowhere, so he boldly killed everything
they've already developed in-house and went to his old home -- Microsoft.

Well, however -- I'll never again buy a Nokia, and many people I know will
do the same. When compared to Android, Windows Mobile looks like a joke.

The embedded long-term support initiative

Posted Oct 31, 2011 23:25 UTC (Mon) by cmccabe (guest, #60281) [Link]

Elop became CEO in late 2010. He wasn't around during the years when Nokia was trying to pretend that Symbian was still viable.

Back then, Symbian had more than half of the marketplace, and analysts were still producing graphs showing Android and iOS slowly gaining market share over a period of years. What the analysts didn't understand is that Symbian was a horrible platform to program for and to extend, very little loved by anyone other than Nokia itself. Nokia is still a hardware company at heart and that is what they ought to have focused on. However, it would have taken a brave CEO to do that back when all the MBAs were gushing about the cloud and the oh-so-urgent need to be "more than a hardware company."

Now Nokia's platform ambitions have come to nothing, and it looks like their hardware business is circling the drain too. The best case scenario is that they become another generic OEM for Microsoft. The worst case scenario is that they go back to making rubber boots.