Jolla chief quits: Fawning Putin lickspittles to take over? Jolla co-founder, COO and figurehead Marc Dillon has quit the Finnish phone outfit. Jolla was created as Sailfish and escaped from the burning platforms of Nokia to develop the MeeGo (formerly Maemo) Linux OS for phones. Nokia abandoned that, taking key developers to the startup. This year, it sidelined hardware design to …
Ahhh, this gives me nostalgic feelings for when I had my N900 and it had to go back to Nokia under warranty because (as they frequently did) the USB port snapped off from the board.
They sent me back a replacement which was missing the keyboard, it was surprisingly difficult to convince them that they had sent it this way.
maemo (Nokia) + moblin ("Intel's Linux") = Meego
Sailfish is based on Mer, which is a community project based on Meego, but Mer actually started already before Meego
And then there is Tizen, which is also based on Meego
"Jolla was created as Sailfish and escaped from the burning platforms of Nokia to develop the MeeGo (formerly Maemo) Linux OS for phones"
Jolla is the company, Sailfish is the OS.
"Nokia began work on what today is Sailfish in 2002" is as true as saying Linus started work on it.
Sailfish is based on Meego but differs quite a bit. And Meego differs a lot from Maemo.
etc...
I've had my Jolla now for almost two years [since the first tranche of deliveries] and have to say it's excellent. Still my main device. Not the best screen by current standards but the following features make it an excellent device:
A removable battery
SD Card slot
2/3/4G support
Sailfish UI is excellent
Not Android
Sandboxed Android support meaning the BBC application works, LinkedIn et al
And excellent soft keyboard
Non chargeable applications meaning no Android style crap-ware.
Will there be a Jolla Two device ? Not sure. I hope so.
Sailfish development, certainly.
Perhaps the best way to go is to run Sailfish 2.x on bang up to date hardware.
And about Marc Dillon, a shame. A high profile front man who showed guts, energy and just what can be done even when fools like Elop try to kill great software.....
As to whether there will be a Jolla 2 phone, Jolla are in the process of splitting into separate OS and hardware companies (although we haven't heard much further about the hardware company, which is not a particularly encouraging sign).
However, there is a new Sailfish OS phone coming from the Indian manufacturer Intex:
https://together.jolla.com/question/98883/intex-jolla/
I have to agree, as someone who also got their Jolla from the first crowdfunded batch I've been very happy with it and felt no need to replace it in the interim. I also have a Nexus 4 as a company phone and the thing just feels clunky compared to operating the Jolla.
It's a shame about the lack of native apps, which I think are stalled somewhat by the ease of installing android apps and using them.
I'm keen to get my hands on SFOS 2.0 but am currently resisting the urge to activate early access, still hopefully the tablet should be here soon enough anyway.
I wish Marc Dillon well, as under his leadership Sailfish OS has rolled out as a lovely operating system to use which for me feels much more natural on a phone than the alternates. Hopefully he'll be as successful in his future endeavours.
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I've had the pleasure of seeing some presentations by him and he strikes me as a totally credible, intelligent and driven man. I hope he finds even more success and I'd love to get my hands on the sailfish os, the Google mothership should come with ky it's so far up my ass.
It is somewhat unfortunate timing for a high-profile person in Jolla to be moving on (where to, we inevitably have to wonder?) at this exact point in time just now.
The Jolla Tablet is just about to start shipping to the public (it looks nice, but there is still not much in the way of native Sailfish OS apps (or a proper paid app store), which really needs to improve, in order for both the tablet and phones to be able to develop a proper market niche);
Sailfish OS 2.0 is to come soon to the phone and tablet, but will it really be polished and full-featured enough to merit the 2.0 label? Sailfish OS is pretty nice as far as it goes, but it is unfortunately still somewhat lacking in a number of key areas that do need to be addressed;
..and to leave just as Apple are about to release new iPhones definitely seems somewhat unfortunate timing. I would have thought that Marc Dillon would stay long enough to celebrate the release of the Jolla Tablet and Sailfish OS 2.0, so I have to assume that his new job must be something special (otherwise it does look a little potentially worrying for Jolla - I can only hope not, but I am sure that everybody who wished them well and really wanted them to be able to develop their niche can unfortunately only give them so long to try to make a go-er of it: here's hoping that the tablet does help in that regard).
I agree, without some sort of celebratory act in the line of "Jolla enters a new stage and so do I" this seems like bad timing – with the tablet and Sailfish 2.0 finally ready to go. Dillon is a very likeable guy and Jolla should see to replace him with someone of similar charisma to keep the brand moving forward.
Anyway, whatever happens next: I gladly forked out for that tablet and am very much looking forward to getting my hands on it. I am also keen to see the OS on other makers' hardware.
From my perspective, Jolla and Sailfish are among the most interesting and significant things to happen in mobile since Jobs' death and Nokia leaving the building. They are a force of positive disruption desperately needed in a market saturated to death with samey uninspiredness.
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