hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0416.txt

Episode: 416
Title: HPR0416: Mer Project Interview
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0416/hpr0416.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 20:07:26

---

intro music
Everyone, this is Clat 2, I'm at Southeast Linux Fest, which is really, really great festival.
It's turning out to be a lot of fun, lots of people here.
And right now I'm talking to Andrew, who was carrying around in 810, and apparently has
a 770 in his bag, so he's like all no-keyed out, and figured I should chat with him about
this.
So, Andrew, well first of all, thanks for talking to me.
And the problem?
And you are involved with Mer, Mer, what is Mer?
It's a new operating system for the start off, for the Nokia tablets, and it's been ported
to just about everything, from laptops to any other tablet out there.
There's a whole list on our website, everything that is imported to, I think it's 13 or 14
different devices now.
You can actually boot it on your laptop even.
That's really cool.
So, I guess, I mean, is anyone using it, I mean, are you pushing it as a netbook thing
at all?
We're not pushing it as, but actually I booted on my EPC all the time, so it does work
pretty good for that.
Are you running it on either of your devices, that you're in XX devices?
I do.
And then mainly on my N810, it does boot on the 770, we're still working on it to get
it more.
Okay.
Hope to speak.
Okay.
So, this is actually something I could put on my 800.
Yeah, it's really simple and scholarly, just download the Mer and Staller from the regular
MAMO repository.
Oh, okay.
And then just follow the program and it puts it on there for you.
Wow.
That's really cool.
So, is it something I might have to flash, or put it on your car?
No, you can put it on your car.
Wow.
You can do it in her car, or the extra on car, just click a different button on the program
to where you want to install it.
Wow.
This is actually a lot more intriguing than I even realized.
So, so this is, who is doing Mer, I mean, like where is this coming from?
This is obviously not a Nokia official project.
No, but it is, Nokia is really back behind this sportnet that they've opened up some
of the stuff that was closed source, they made an open source for access to it.
Very nice.
And what do you think about that?
We're working on using the more stuff open source and basically got started because the
new operating system for the tablets won't be ported over to the new, to the old tablets.
Oh, really?
They're not going to port.
So, there, Nokia is coming up with like an official one and they're not going to port
it back to it.
Yeah, it's, they said that it's too hard to keep an official update on the older tablets
because of the new hardware and the new one.
Yeah, okay.
So, the community, hardly community started to just make their own operating system to run
on the tablets.
Wow.
The community project, nobody's really in charge, we say we have a lead developer, but
you know, it's all basically like mentor, like kind of leadership.
Okay.
So, how are you involved?
I got involved because when we first started, there was no theme for it at all because all
the themes are closed source, the ones that come with the tablet.
Oh, really?
So, I started off by taking one of my old themes I created for MAMA and redesigning it so
that it would run on MIRR and since then we've completely re-changed the line up, the
entire left bar on the user interface is gone.
It looks more like a standard desktop, kind of like a way to space I always thought left
bar was.
So, we happened to design totally new interfaces on that, but the great thing about it is
you can run pretty much any user-facing one.
Actually, I want Alex to eat on it most of the time.
Wow.
That must be blocked for the fast, huh?
It pretty much.
You see, slow it down a little bit, but I prefer to run it and just go like the look of
it.
Okay.
Flux box noise on it.
Enlightenment.
I have seen on one, I don't think it was in person, but yeah, I saw on it.
I think it was Rastamann's blog, he had it on there and it looked really slick, so, yeah,
cool.
Is E17 is what they've got over there?
It's the one, yeah.
So, who's developing the applications for this, then, like, who's?
A lot of it.
We're just bringing over from MAMA.
The great thing about it is pretty much the thing that was compiled already for Ubuntu
on the ARM process was already run.
Wow.
You just have to install it.
Now, something that I'll admit will run kind of slow because it's not designed to run
on a slower process.
Right.
Okay.
But I, you know, do word processing itself on OpenOffice all the time.
Cool.
So, you know, it takes it-
OpenOffice is not exactly a small process.
It is not.
It takes a lot of boot.
Once you get booted, it flies away, so-
OpenOffice always takes a lot of boot anyway, so-
Okay.
So, okay.
So, I can install it onto my SD card, start running it.
There's no risk because I can keep the firmware flashed with MAMA.
What about support for- like me?
I do actually all my podcasting off of my Nokia.
At least, like, the microphone does- does- does- does- does- do you know if it's out of the
lock support for the microphone or is that not where it's being?
Um.
We're still working on the sound.
Trying to get all the drivers in thing as far as for the- the Nokia's- we're working
on getting it there.
You know, the best thing is, you buy that can help with programming or that.
You know, we always need help and not only that, testing is probably just as important
as the actual- getting it programmed because-
Yes.
Are you using Bugsilla or are you got something on that?
Well, you use Bugsilla and- because it's a- a MAMA community project.
We use all their garage and we actually use their own Wiki for our website and all that
stuff.
Cool.
So, what is the site?
Wiki, or W-I-K-I-I dot M-A-E-M-O dot O-R-G, that's a slash M-E-R.
Cool.
With a capital M.
That's a capital M.
I forgot.
That matter.
It does matter.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You think they've aliased, like, lowercase mirror and the capital mirror to the same page, but
I don't know how Wiki's work.
I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's Wiki.
Yeah.
Wow.
Cool.
Yeah, it's a really cool project.
I mean, something about it in, like, a lot, maybe, probably your blog.
He never knows who you're talking to at D-E-R-S, you'll think, oh, yeah, I've been reading
your blog for the past year.
But I really didn't- I didn't realize what it was, but now I think it's really cool.
That's one of the big things is just getting the word out.
So people start using it and start testing it.
We release a new version in the four weeks.
Cool.
We're pushing to our 1.0 version.
We're still in beta.
Okay.
But we're really trying to get there.
What would you recommend for the internal card?
Or the SD card?
I mean, I guess you can do it on internal or external.
But what size?
Like, one gig is fine.
Two gig?
Uh, you can do it on one gig.
It all depends on how much, uh, it's all for you when it's all in there.
I'm sure you're going to be running an open office and stuff.
Right.
I probably have at least a two or three gig.
Okay.
Because some of the programs get kind of big.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Cool.
Um, I can't think of anything else to ask you.
So, uh, thanks for talking to me.
Thank you for listening to Half the Public Radio.
HPL is sponsored by caro.net, so head on over to C-A-R-O-DOT-N-T for all of us in the