Nokia N900

[Bob Elzer]

Here's the original discussion..
http://lists.plug.phoenix.az.us/lurker/thread/20090831.193415.5df4e42d.en.ht
ml#20090831.193415.5df4e42d


-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of
storkus at storkus.com
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 3:46 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Nokia N900

I'm very surprised no one has brought this device up for discussion yet!
 It would appear to blow away the current Android and OpenMoko devices by
packing a 600 MHz ARM proc, 256MB DRAM, a huge wad of flash, 802.11bg AND
bluetooth, and--biggest of all--quad-band GSM AND a 3G radio compatible with
T-Mobile USA.  It also has USB2 and, curiously (I don't know exactly what it
is) "TV-Out".  On the software side, it runs their distro called Maemo
which, GUI-wise, has Qt at the core, though you can still run GTK apps like
its predecessor the N810.  It's almost entirely free software and hackable,
one of the biggest ones that aren't is macromedia flash being included
(presumably so you can play Youtube video--I couldn't see playing flash
games on an ARM...).

The way I (and a lot of others) see it, this is like the early OLPC's or
eeepc's in terms of horsepower and (somewhat) memory.  More than one person
out there has suggested it could be used as a sort of hand-held file server.
The geek in me is going even more nuts over buying this than the Sheevaplug
since I could obviously do so much more with it. 
The few reviewers that have gotten their hands on it so far were mostly
morons that obviously couldn't fathom the potential that could be unlocked
from it.  For instance, the keyboard gets griped at a lot.  So?
 Get one of those roll-up USB keyboards from Thinkgeek: since it's a
lightweight distro (Busybox was explicitly mentioned) and (hopefully
full) kernel in there, I would presume that USBHID hasn't been neutered.

So what do you all think?  My current phone (a Motorola V3xx) is still
working ok, and the N900 is nowhere near cheap...but, damn, it's making me
drool!  Should I get it or not?  Are one of you planning on it?

Mike

P.S. Another thing not discussed here: Slackware-13's out. :)
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