July update from Maemo Community Council

RM Bauer, a member of the current Maemo Community Council has posted thoughts on the the N9 launch on the Council blog:

There are numerous directions in which the community may move. For example, the Swipe UI/UX layer of the N9 is closed source and so there will be interest in developing an open source community alternative. Alternatively, the community can simply continue on with support for previous versions of Maemo. The staying power of maemo.org in the two year interim between the N900 and the N9 has been recognized even by Nokia. There are approximately 1 million downloads per week. A minimal level of support will continue to be provided by Nokia for at least a year. In keeping with its history of open governance, the community itself must decide the best direction forward.

The most interesting pieces of news are that Matti Airas is the new Maemo community liaison from Nokia and that another year of support is going to be provided. Given Nokia's budgetary process has previously been based on six month cycles, this is an improvement.