Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Er, yeah, "Maemo".

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

what's that supposed to mean, GA? Explain, not just act crass and sarcastic, either.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

As far as I can tell, Android is designed to be a free common infrastructure (free/open OS and kernel, and then a common device independent application infrastructure) that phone makers can layer upon their devices. Essentially, it turns the mobile OS into a commodity, instead of a value component. IMO, the OS, kernel, and application infrastructure SHOULD be a commodity.

It's not meant to be "Linux/Unix in your pocket", in the traditional sense of Linux/Unix (and, iPhone OS X isn't meant to be this either; both platforms leverage Linux/Unix under the covers, but they aren't intending to reveal those layers to end users). Maemo does seem to be aimed that: full Linux/Unix in your pocket, even with an X based environment (and they do a great job of making X not suck -- no small feat). It's also leveraging that into something entirely new, but not in a way that conceals Linux/Unix from the expert user. A very good thing, IMO.

(and, obviously, there's a difference in how Android approaches the open-ness at the upper layers, but I wont re-visit that hot potato)

To me, the best platform would be a hybrid approach between Android and Maemo. Like Maemo: access to the traditional Linux/Unix layers, native hardware optimized applications, and leveraging as many open components as possible. But with a high level, hardware agnostic, application eco-system (Dalvik) that has a rich and growing central application conduit (the Market), as well as easily lending itself to secondary conduits. As for the UI, I'd probably take the look and polish of Maemo, but leverage some of the extras that Android brings to the table (automatic screen rotation, portrait and landscape keyboards, etc.).

You could do that by adding Linux things to Android (a full local terminal app, missing bin-utils stuff, a "me" account, an X layer that sits on top of the Android graphical environment, an rpm or deb package manager) ... or by adding Dalvik on top of Maemo (or Mer). I'm sort of agnostic about which approach is better ... there's trade-offs to either, and most of those trade-offs are likely to be dictated by an individual's biases. But, either one could work.

The problem with going with Android: a lot of work to make it into a useful Linux/X environment. And, not all of Android is fully "open and free" (though, at least one of the open android developers seem to be doing fine producing a workable platform without that open code).

The problem with going with Maemo: very small supported hardware selection. In this regard, Android is growing and spreading like kudzu. I don't expect to see Nokia put a lot of effort into making that happen, as opposed to Android.

The problem with going with Mer ... while I'm sure the team wants to fill in the gaps of Maemo wrt to supported hardware, and produce a platform that also doesn't have Android's gaps ... I don't see them having enough there, now/yet/soon, to make that kudzu like adoption rate happen.

And, in all of those cases, for me, the goal is a common commodity OS, kernel, and application environment, that is both flexible to the expert, and accessible/usable for the consumer.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Hm. I wonder what it takes to license Maemo (both in terms of agreements, and money) ... and which versions are available for licensing.

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

It's only Maemo in so far as it's using some of Nokia's open source components. It hasn't been licensed from Nokia, it doesn't even come close to including Maemo's complete software stack and it's a rank violation of Nokia's trademark.

As far as I'm aware, Nokia does not license Maemo and has no plans to.

Perhaps one of the reasons you've been having trouble on these forums over the past few weeks is because you're not assuming good faith? Not immediately assuming people are reacting aggressively or condescendingly to your posts and the posts of others would be a good place to start. Treating them like children is also probably not the best strategy for maintaining civil discussions, no? :)

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

I'm wondering why Motorola has been able to make the Droid as thin as it is and still have a slide out keyboard and the specs it has.

The thickness of the N900 is the one thing I most don't like about the design (since it will impact pocketability). Mostly I've read the thickness is due to the slide out keyboard. But then along comes Droid (13.7mm vs 18mm).

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Perhaps it's the features the n900 has that Droid doesn't?

FM Transmitter, TV out, Infrared? Granted it can't add that much to the size..

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

I think this is a very apt analysis, The winning strategy will be making the OS a hardware independent commodity. It's Windows vs. Apple all over again. The thing that positions Google so well is that their revenue stream is not based on selling/licensing the OS. It's based on tying people into their universe of services and then advertising to them. This gives Google a unique position. Microsoft can't do it (or their attemtps at it keep failing--Google just has too big of a head start) and has to license WinMo. Apple won't do it (they want to control the hardware and software). Likewise for Palm and Nokia really. These three all need to sell the device to make money. But it's a huge opening for Sony Ericsson, Motorola, HTC, Acer, Dell, and other not yet existent device manufacturers, on the device side, with Google being the big winner.

One problem of course with Android/Google is not just the technical question of it's halfway open, halfway closed OS. The problem is that Google will always be strategizing to suck people further and further into it's universe of services. Of course, there a privacy concerns. But this is also a limitation of choice in and of itself. In the long run, Google could become a monopoly controlling your desktop experience in a way that makes Microsofts attempts at this pale in comparison. I presonally would really rather not have Google suck up the entire world and I try to avoid being part of that. So I really appreciate Nokia making Maemo so open (but I also worry it will always remain a niche product).

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Google does at least give you the option of leaving their cloud with all your data. So if you do want to switch your more then welcome to. They're currently working on ways to output all your data so you can take it anywhere you want.

But yes, in the long run this is what I see.

Android will be the dominant OS on most of the devices out there. And then the smaller camps with their own marketshare (one guaranteed camp is Apple). Then maybe BlackBerry, Pre, Nokia as other camps, who knows what slots they will be fighting for.. but I'm pretty sure it's

1) Google + everyone with Android
2) Apple
3) ?
4) ?
5) ?

Re: N900 vs. Motorola Droid (Verizon Android device)
 

Getting back to my original post. It looks like the design is very close to the final one (Verizon sent out this mailer: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/...scare-children) and I still think it is quite an ugly device.

The N900 may be thicker but at least it looks nice.