SMRTphone nerds

[ebbomega]

(Looking at rizzy and gusto here)



Nokia N900 has a fully functional (i.e. not crippled compatibility a la Android) OS running on it

Looks like finally a decent functional and programmable smartphone for linux nerds like me.

SO GOOD OR NO GOOD?

Suppose I'd have to play around with one, but I dunno if anybody might have some insight on these. I've been looking for a good smartphone but I haven't really found one that grabs me.... I like the Blackberry OS but can't stand their hardware designs.

[rawb]

i have a buddy at work who got an android phone ~2 months ago, and he generally likes it. if you have "Linux patience" (ex: if something doesnt work 100% you dont mind dicking around with it yourself -- he has this and im sure you have this) you will get a lot of miles from it with the extra customization and hacking you can do to it, at the expense of not always having everything working out of the box.

his biggest complaint is that android takes a "beefy" system to run and therefore his battery life isnt that great. other than that he's glad he chose it over the iphone/bold when he was given the choice.

[rawb]

oh wait i didnt rtfa, this runs some crazy jacked up linux ive never heard of.

my only worry would be developer support, i'd go for an android device imo unless there is a huge community for "Maemo" which i havent heard of before AND OBV I KNOW EVERYTHING.

[dj_soo]

With Nokia, I would say that their 1st gen launch stuff is like most other companies - rife with bugs. That being said, I've never used that particular phone - only the larger N97 which i believe that is based off of and it's definitely cool.

Symbian is a powerful and fully functional OS, but ridiculously poorly designed from a UI perspective - there are millions of apps out there tho - you just need to look for them yourself rather than having an easily navigatable store like apple's...

[rawb]

^phone isnt using symbian

[dj_soo]

ah, well maybe it won't suck as much as most nokia 1st-gen phones...

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by rawb

oh wait i didnt rtfa, this runs some crazy jacked up linux ive never heard of.

my only worry would be developer support, i'd go for an android device imo unless there is a huge community for "Maemo" which i havent heard of before AND OBV I KNOW EVERYTHING.

The cool thing about dev support seems to be that the OS is GTK-based, which means there's a billion libraries already available for developers, and porting GNOME apps should be a breeze. That's what has me the most excited.

[amelia]

have you used it yet?
i had softbanks phone before, and i've found that they're sluggish, prone to freezing, bulky and break easily.
i've found everything except the iphone to be extremely buggy, and sluggish. if anyone finds something as quick and bug free as an iphone i'd love to know tho, because i really don't like having itunes on my computer.
while there's "crazy hacking software" (this was a nightmare) it's sketchy as hell and can ruin your phone if not done right. (i didn't do it myself, it was done by a friend who had the exact handset as i and had put the same software on his phone with no problem) but because we had different wireless providers, that software from his phone ruined my phone.....
dave you might remember this episode.....

i'm with rawb on his worries about developer support...

[fritz]

my iphone has "ssh" that's like a quiet version of linux right?

[ebbomega]

^ Maybe if it's 2000.

[amelia]

i would have thought that jailbreaking an iphone would be exciting enough for dave.
hmm

[amelia]

by that i mean the apps and modifications that can be made would be fun enough....
and the fact that it voids your warranty, we all know that anything that voids your warranty is fun.

[decypher]

I haven't looked into many phones that use linux distros but usually people complain about Nokia's lack of proper UI implementation with their phones. If it does what you need to do often and well, then go for it. If you're wanting to do lots of linux stuff then you might as well get a 10" netbook or a MID. Trying to do advanced things on a phone usually turns out to be more work then it's worth.

[ebbomega]

I don't like the idea of a netbook. If I'm gonna go that large I'm just going to go for a laptop. But I do like the idea of being able to do various internets stuffs from my phone.

I just think using OSS libraries is going to be hella helpful for developers of phone apps, which is exactly where both Google and Apple lack. As long as it has a good web browser, IM client and a tactile keyboard, I'm happy. Media I don't really care too much for, but if I can install mplayer on it that pretty much solves any worries I'd have.