[SailfishDevel] Regarding SailfishOS and its SDK

Hotmail imgen at hotmail.com
Sun May 19 00:06:24 UTC 2013


I just watch 3 videos of SailfishOS in Slush 2012 on jolla.com and although I think it’s way too much nonsense about openness blah, blah, blah in the first video ----- Come on, only at the last minutes the UI is demoed. Don’t get me wrong, I love openness and open source, I have open source projects, but open is not the end goal here. Creating great UX is, endearing developer is, bringing in partner is. Not openness. 

I do think the UI is quite good, esp. the swipe gesture and also the more live tile (comparing to the one found in Windows Phone) which is what I was dreaming of. The default home screen is ugly though, it reminds me too much of the ugly default home screen of Android which frankly speaking, I think its home screen is uninspiring, plain dead boring. Come on, you have the dynamic live tile, think a bit deeper, just a bit. Overall, I was optimistic. The competing Firefox OS UI is pathetic comparing to this. 

But last night after playing with the SDK released (which is half a year later of the demo, what are you doing in the half year?), my optimism is gone, probably forever. BTW, I played under Windows 8. 

First one, QT is great, but only supports C++ for native development is a big no no no. Remember, you are a startup, not Apple, you just cannot be so arrogant and like Apple, force Objective C down on people’s throat. I had been a C++ dev for years, and I still loves it, C++ 11 is great. But boy, it’s not for average developer and its productivity will never match that of C#, heck, it’s even behind java, although with C++ 11, it’s quite close, esp. with lambda. Nowadays, C++ just is not meant for app development. You have to swallow and digest that. At least support C# which is open now. The fragmentation of mobile development is already way too painful for developers, don’t mess up it further more, please please please. If you really care developer, do support C# via Mono. Java as well if you have the resources. Xamarin is doing a great job endearing developers, why not give them a call? Don’t give me that openness nonsense. Be idealistic, but don’t be floating in the outer space and thought you guys are aliens so you can be unlike – Anyone or just me thought that there are way too much unlike in the Slush presentation? Both visually and orally. 

Secondly, relying on VirtualBox and also two virtual machines, one for the building and one for the emulator is just beyond me. What is going on here? If you are really really relying on VirtualBox – (IMO VB is not that great), why not package it with SDK? Its 94 MB is not very big comparing to the 600 MB sized SDK. Who made the dumb decision? He or she is not doing their job well?

Thirdly, the merSDK VM started, but the QT Creator cannot detect it, it keeps asking me to start the damn merSDK VM. And even better, the phone emulator give me a blank deep dark screen, like outer space. Come on, you are smart people, you are serious people, do your test. Windows 8 is here for a year, its share among developers is way bigger than among average joe, and you don’t test on it? Just plain dead pathetic. If you guys tried to make a April’s Fool joke, it’s way too late. Or you guys are trying to play dead or trying to be pathetic, then you did it. 

I have high hopes for you guys, the N9 was great. Meego was quite good, too. You guys are super smart and I assume you have high ego, but don’t let this high ego thing and smartness blind you. Being a idealist myself and I have to say, you can get started on something being a idealistic, but you have to be realistic if you really want to succeed and reach your end goal. If you don’t want success, then never mind. 

Regards,
Imgen
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