In early 2019 we, together with the Mer project, announced that we will unify Mer and Sailfish operations under the Sailfish OS domain. The blog post we released at the time explains the full rationale for the decision, but here’s a brief summary. In public Mer as a name is still in use along with Nemo, Maemo and even Meego at times. All these names are related to developing a Linux-based mobile operating system. Many of us in Jolla have been part of this story from the beginning, since the times when also Nokia was involved in the project, and we appreciate and cherish the legacy that is carried in these names. At the same time we have undergone a transformation during the past few years, and we need to develop the offering further. Sailfish OS is a European-based mobile operating system based on open source software, offering a transparent and customizable alternative to dominant operating systems. It is independent from large industry players developing closed ecosystems. Building the community under one brand - Sailfish OS - is a very meaningful factor in our joint effort to create a viable Linux-based mobile operating system.

It is evident that we cannot do this alone and we need the support of the whole mobile OS community. The commitment and the amount of contributions from the community is significant and important part of Sailfish OS - past, present and in the future. Let’s make Sailfish OS even better - together!

Services and channels impacted

Now as the migration project is reaching its end, it’s time to provide an update on the changes we described in the earlier blog post. In addition to unifying our services and offering, we are merging the brands under the Sailfish OS name. This will be done in phases and you may have already noticed some of the changes taking place. For example https://git.sailfishos.org/ (including https://git.merproject.org ) will be migrated to https://github.com/sailfishos. We are also changing naming conventions, so our repository names will use Sailfish OS instead of Mer. The process is slow as there are dependencies, but we are closing in on the last tasks in this effort.

Issue handling will be simplified, with discussion and issues moving to this forum. Our old bug tracker at https://bugs.merproject.org/ will therefore be closed. Sometimes it may be more appropriate or effective to post bugs as issues against specific projects on Github rather than the forum, and that’s fine too. For example we’ve already been handling Sailfish OS browser bugs also using the Github issue tracker for some time now (e.g., https://github.com/sailfishos/sailfish-browser/issues).

We will also start the process to close the Open Build Service (OBS) https://build.merproject.org/. Before we close the community OBS we will provide detailed documentation on how to build packages, including guidance on repository structure best practices. This should help to reduce any problems caused by this change. We understand the importance of OBS to community and especially to Sailfish OS porters. We will plan this transition in close co-operation with the developers using the service.

In all cases, we will do our best to provide guidance to all who is impacted by these changes. Feel free to start a discussion on anything that we might have missed.