Re: About The GNOME Mobile & Embedded Initative

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Thilo Pfennig">

> a) I do not like that this was not discussed at all in the marketing list.
> Such major things and announcement have to be discussed with at least the
> marketing team

I think the reality is that not everything will be discussed here. We can
argue about that, or rock on knowing that it will always be the case.

> b) I fear that this is in fact a movement away from the desktop platform.
> I would rahther have suggested to found a new organisation to do this
> because mobile devices are not really desktops.

It is a very conscious way of focusing the mobile efforts on GNOME as a
central community, which strengthens us more than divergent desktop efforts
have for a long time. GNOME is not a desktop project, it's a user experience
project.

> c) In relation to that i fear that this binds ressources that otherwise
> would have been there for the core desktop.

Over the past couple of years, there has been a major shift in our developer
resources: There are now more developers employed to work on the GNOME
platform with an embedded focus than a desktop focus. We should embrace that
and ensure it's upstream-focused, rather than let it slip through our
fingers.

> yet we are going into new directions without further consultation of the
> marketing team.

Sorry, but that is an unrealistic expectation. The community will march on
doing what it does, doing new things, and leaving things behind, without
consulting the marketing team first. That is one of the unique parameters
that we must operate under.

> I would like to know how this decision was made and why. And if you really
> think that GNOME can really develop two platforms (mostly standard desktop
> and embedded). I dont think so.

It's very much two aspects of the one platform. All of the participants have
stated that we don't want the GNOME Mobile Platform to be a "toy", we want
it to be API/ABI compatible, and we don't want to be shipping specialised
mobile patches for things. This effort (for now, and over the last couple of
years) *MASSIVELY* strengthens GNOME where it is currently weakest: Our
platform.

> And to me it looks like GNOME changes direction.

Over the last two years (and if you look back further, at least seven), this
has been a pretty obvious direction for GNOME. We're embracing what is going
on, not changing.

> PS: At least we should discuss now what this really means for us now.  And
> what it means for marketing GNOME.

It strengthens our core message about GNOME as a user experience platform
and development community, and co-ordinates resources around a fundamentally
important and growing market opportunity.

GNOME is already active in mobile & embedded. This initiative helps us make
our case in the market and helps support the project through investment and
uptake.

10x10,

- Jeff

-- 
Open CeBIT 2007: Sydney, Australia              http://www.opencebit.com.au/
 
     "The Irish were next, being the only people who could credibly be
    accused of lowering the tone of a society of convicts." - Guy Rundle