Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Today I met my first fellow N900 owner at work. I did not know the guy but noticed him using it at lunch.
I sat down next to him and commented how awesome the phone was to which he agreed. It was only when I asked him what he did with it / Apps and mods he had on it that the full horror hit home.

Just phonecalls and txt bit of browsing not really downloaded much was his reply. This guy has had the phone over 4 months and had not even updated to PR 1 let alone 1.1.

He had never opened the terminal and was amazed when I went into app manager and enabled Extras repo.

Suppose I might have a look was his reply

Angered I promptly bookmarked this forum and ordered him to read and repent for leaving the device in such a state.

Anyone else had such an encounter??

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Wow...what was he thinking when he bought it? Maybe he mistook it for one of Nokia's plain-jane communicators (I get that a lot), or thought it was an iPhone? :p

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Did you give him the normal disclaimers about using that repo?

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Extras (not -testing or -devel) is totally safe...I thought it was on by default :confused: maybe I'm not remembering correctly.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

You did well to put him on the straight path.

I suppose people who only use it for web browsing/texting will probably have a far more smoother/bug free experience as they'll never tinker with the N900 like we all do. But it also means they will never be able to fully show its powers in a group setting.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I think Extras only got enabled by default after Pr1.1

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Extras isn't too bad...

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I`m sorry but what makes you think there is something wrong with what he is doing? Just because you can do things to your N900 and download GBs of (un)finished software does not mean you have to. I am actualy a similar type of user to him, I bought the N900 for its form factor, great physical keyboard, for the OS it is running, for the so customisable UI with widgets, contacts and bookmarks on desktop, for the way it keeps me in touch with people I want to be in touch. I bought it for the awesome browser so I can leave my power hungry PC switched off when I don't really need to run quadcore cpu and a graphics card with 1GB of memory just to read an article on a website. Yes I am running the latest firmware and have installed some stuff from extras-devel but because I am a complete linux virgin I can say I have launched xTerminal maybe twice since december.. I know a person whose grandad treated himself to an Astra VXR (google if needed), a 240bhp hothatch, now I could laugh and think WHY would you want / need a car like that at 65ish years of age or I could say good for you mister, enjoy while you can..

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

are you kidding? I may be a "polite canadian", but if some software zealot came up to me raging about how I'm not "using my phone right" it would probably earn him a punch in the eye.

or at least a polite "screw off".

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I drive a gorgeous car, but I dont tinker with the engine

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

some of you are missing the good humour in his post.
relaaax :)

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Haahahah i guess that is normal for most non-techie users. Mostly they don't use all those feature that have and bought it just because other people bought it.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

@cortina61 - "I drive a gorgeous car"

ERROR....ERROR...

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I dont know anyone else who bought one I bought it to replace my beloved N95 and thought it would be a step up

am totally out of my depth with it to be honest, and I think if youre not a teccy its really hard to understand why people think its such an awesome device
I'm addicted to this forum trying to learn new things to try and fall in love with it, and learn how to make the most of it but am too scared to even open the terminal let alone have the faintest idea what i would do with it once it was open!
also its quite scary to ask advice surrounded by so many clever people on here, as it might be a silly question

I wish there was something in between this and the basic Nokia user forums as I want more than just the basics but am teriified of the extras develoment etc.
I would like to try the open office, but the debian stuff scares me, even though someone kindly explained it simply
so many people are reporting problems from tinkering and its my work phone and I'm on call 24/7 so really scared of bricking it!

( hope you're impressed with the teccy term bricking!)

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

you think the cortina is an ugly car?

take a look at this abomination. derp derp?

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

@ cashclientel
lol, I dont drive a Cortina anymore, but it will always be the one I loved the most, a bit like my N95 really!

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Smug B****rds!

The guy paid his money and makes his OWN choice. I have never opened the x term and would fear tearing a hole in the space-time continuum or something if i did.

I USE my N900 - it's not a toy and earns its keep in my business as well as for my leisure. Sure, an E72 would be the 'sensible' choice, but the N900 is far more interesting and engaging. It has been 100% reliable and more than effective.

I have BIG respect for anyone who can manipulate their N900; that is their priviledge and their choice, but utter contempt for anyone who laughs at others like this.

Besides, mere mortals like that guy help keep the price of devices within the range of all of us.

Perhaps the smug b****rds should go work for Apple - they seem to like to restrict other people's freedom and tell them what they can and cannot do with their own devices...

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I'm not telling anyone how to use their N900, it's just funny, like someone buying a Caparo T1 and using it to get groceries.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

i usually find myself in such positions owning to severe modifications done to my beloved nokia 5800, omnia hd and now n900. Although i might be the sole owner of n900 in my city but i have seen my part of "awwwee" when people see my humble 5800 and omnia hd doing things the others thought wouldnt have been possible on such platforms. The hyperx f.w. of omnia hd made some guys wonder wether m using the same fone as theirs or i got some "special" device under the same brand name.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I am legitimately curious here...

I just purchased one and am waiting on it being delivered but having read a large portion of the N900 posts on here (and messing with the SDK of it) I have a pretty good understand what the phone does and is.

If not for the Terminal, root access, and freedom to expand on... pretty much everything..... why would anyone choose (especially if they had to pay as much as us U.S. people for it) the N900 over any other phone? Be it the Android or the iPhone?

If your primary focus is making and receiving phone calls and texting.... the N900 lacks some of the normal features like making your own/different ringtones for each contact (unless this was added in a PR), no voice dialing and things of that nature.

I currently have an Android; and as a smartphone it's really quite good - and I know I'm going to Miss the new "Beta" Navigation from Google that is on my phone... that GPS turn-by-turn is *amazing* - But the ability to totally get elbow/arm/upper torso deep into messing with every single component of my phone is the reason (and only one I can think) that the N900 is worth so much money and worth replacing android for...

It just seems to me that; even assuming both were free - if my only focus was phone calls and keeping in touch with people... I think the Android phones would be a better solution for someone over the N900.. The N900 was somewhat designed to be taken advantage of.

I'm not bashing or yelling at anyone: I'm merely curious. IF you don't do much with your N900 - Why did you choose it over the plethora of other devices on the market? What made it stand out for you?

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Hmm... Caparo T1... the smell of hot groceries...

I sold high performance cars and motorbikes for over 10 years - that type of ownership is more common than you'd imagine.

Seriously, we have to accept that N900's are in the hands of mainstream users. That has good and not-so-good implications.

No time to search right now, but do we have any data on User vs Developer status N900 owners? Might be quite enlightening.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I have just put 14" wheels on my N900 and use wiimote to drive it with ;-) The only problem i have so far is it cant run that far becouse it runs out of battery. :D

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

@ daffydk
have you had your meds today? ; )

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Cortina by any chance

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Spent the whole day unborking Macafee's monumental cock up today (see news) and this put a smail on my face :) thanks fer chearing me up :)

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I used to feel the same way a few years ago when I would come across an N95 user who had no idea what their phone was capable of as far as added apps etc. Then I came to realize that it doesn't really matter as long as the users needs are met (mms, voice dial, etc)
The N900 on the other hand I would really only recommend to an advanced user, its not a good basic phone but definitely one of the best MID's on the market. If your use case is mobile phone there is definitely a better choice.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I had a 6210 navigator that was just looking shabby. I tried an X6 but found it slow, buggy and the cap. screen failed in week 2. Probably just bad luck.

Research highlighted that Symbian would be replaced soon and that Maemo 5 / Meego was probably the future for top-end smartphones. I figured that being in at the start of the new was better than being in at the end of the old.

Braced for the well-reported issues and shortcomings, I have found N900 engaging, enjoyable and entirely practical. My N900 has been stable, I can do all the really useful things other phones can do and it is a joy to use.

I looked at iphone (too simplistic and lacked features), found Android and WM either like Symbian with knobs on or just plain boring.

I don't miss voice control - never found it that effective. I missed speed dial and other phone functionality at first, but contacts on the screen are way better once you've set them up. I do miss Symbian Ovi Maps, but I have satnav in the car anyway.

I continue to be in bewhildred awe of those who can write code and create these apps and being close to that is part of the N900 experience for me.

Never have I owned a device that is so engaging or controversial. It does things in a very different way, but my wife bought an N97 Mini last week and although it's great, there's no way I'd swap my N900 for Nokia's other Flagship Model...

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I guess it seemed a good idea to delete svchost at the time. I still cant believe they are employing a self help rollout.
As for my OP it is a bit tongue in cheek but like many have said there are far easier ,and better in some cases, phones that make calls and send txts for cheaper.
But like many have commented it is a mostly free world out there and each to their own but its still a damn shame. I will check in tommorow with him to see how he is getting along. You never know it could have been the nudge he needed on his way to complete Karma.
And to the poster that said he would punch someone in the face for making such a suggestion lighten up and smell the free world.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Thank you for your response. Had a few notes though, regarding the bold.

Really? That's news to me actually, I was under the impression Nokia was still going to maintain symbian for it's high-end "smart" phone; and Maemo/MeeGo were just meant for their new "Tablet" that moonlights as a phone systems. Take this article for example. So I am surprised if Symbian is to be replaced..

Also, regarding the engaging experience of the phone and being close to the developers in this community as they do amazing things with it: That is what I meant that makes this phone stand out and worth the money. Not necessarily that you yourself can get into and get your elbow's greasy; but like for example fMMS: iPhone users suffered 2 years for MMS support... N900 users had a working devel model within 2 months.

But, for a person like in the OP; who never comes to this site or rarely checks in here, and who never installs many of those "above and beyond" apps in the Extras repository - what really does the N900 offer them that makes it a viable choice?

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

a million billion years ago before i had my nokia devices, my missus would text me.
i would pull this phone out of my pocket and try to text her back.
i couldn't see the conversation, there was no context and there were only 12 buttons.
she once got a text from me saying something along the lines of
"i am on the dialderum home in 20"
she squinted and strained and tried to work out what i'd written and it pretty much summed up my experience with SMS

now, with the n900 i can have fluent conversations typed using a format i'm used to and readable as any irc conversation.
the n900 connected us in a way no other device has.

i don't blame the guy for getting an n900 if he has one similar experience.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

@lcuk: cmon man.. you don't need to spend that much to get threaded messaging nowadays... and even 7 years ago I already have threaded SMS and qwerty thumbboard on my Treo 600.

SEVEN YEARS AGO! :D

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

@fatalsaint:

That should've read my research. I recall reading somewhere that Nokia regarded Symbian being their main smatphone OS and Maemo 5 (/Meego) would be deployed for top-end smartphones from now on.

I understood that Symbian was to be replaced with a new version, not bthat Maemo would replace Symbian. I think it was referred to as 'Symbian^2' in December when I started thinking about my next device. By the time I decided to buy an N900 in moid-March things had moved on considerably.

As a Symbian user I had been downloading software for years and maemo.org was a new and exciting prospect - I should've tried harder at school!

Being in at the start was part of the experience for me - never had that with a mere phone before, but to come to your final question (what an N900 can offer a totally technically-uninvolved user)< I'd suggest the following:

Image (N900 is sold as being "the most powerful" etc.
Style (beauty is in the eye of the beholder)
Individuality (It's not an iphone. It's very distinctive)
Keyboard (a major plus to some people)
Storage (32GB - big numbers sell...)
Display (I watched some kids in awe in a shop recently)
Colour It's all black - colour does it for some)

All the above are very shallow, but having been in retail motor slaes for years I can tell you how most people's buying patterns are influenced by such seeming trivia.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

Well but again, it just seems to me that if a user is looking inside this very specific box with tunnel vision - that an iPhone or Android phone would be a better option for them.

I'm not bashing the N900; I just spent an ungodly sum of money - the likes of which nobody should ever have to pay for a "phone" on one... however, I think the expectations of people with the N900 are (in my opinion of course) largely a part of the reason there is a portion of very dissatisfied users that have decided to come "grace" us with their presence (and very, very, loud complaints).

The iPhone and Android are perfect for your point-clicky people that simply wanted a cool phone.

The N900 is perfect for people that like to actively get involved in a community, and see some really radical stuff done that any normal person wouldn't think of doing with their phone: like controlling it with a Wii Controller :D.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

But dude... that doesn't sound like a market does it? It sounds... very... specific :D Even that line only describes a subset of the opensource community itself...

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

It is a market... it's a market for me :p.

I'm the only important person anyway :D.

But no, and that is why the future of the tablet and N900-like devices is very bleak. Take a look at the Maemo 6 security structure for how they are going to handle paid software. If I recall right you will have to dual boot: One "secure" mode that locks you out of everything and becomes an Android phone, and one "open" mode that doesn't allow you to play your paid apps - but gives you root.

That to me sounds like "phasing out" those of that appreciate the openness of root. I of course understand the problem: How do you keep "root" from ripping off your app - but someone like me - I'm completely unconcerned with that. I don't write, nor use paid software (short of games on my Desktop). I haven't paid for a single app in the Android Market.

I am sticking like glue to MeeGo to see what they do and how they handle this dilemma; but because of the "market" and the "general consumer" - I see a very dim light for those of us that like the freedom that the NIT series and N900 offered us.

The N900 does a much better job at tricking people into thinking it's a normal device; which I guess is why people like in the OP can use it and be just fine - but I personally think if that user were to use one of the other, more streamlined devices - they'd actually be happier. YMMV.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

im stuck on something.. why did you buy the n900? there are other phones out there with the same form factor. true this is the only one with maemo 5 but what was so special about maemo 5 to you at that point that made you want to get it? your a linux virgin. Do you have experience with other maemo devices?

also.. the n900 keyboard is more like a after thought i mean.. it gets the job done but is in no way anything close to what any of the top qwerty slide phones are. not dogging it but just saying that the n900 will never be notable for how Great its keyboard was. only the fact that it has one.

i agree with the browser.. this may be one of the best out there on a physical slide qwerty phone.

besides that.. there are a bunch of other phones that have these same feature like customizable desk top wigits and all that. Most of which are much cheaper

I was just kinda stuck on that. seems like you just wanted a good mid range phone (not even a smartphone neccesarily)with a physical qwerty and a good browser. much like my wife. so why jump oiut there and get the n900?

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

An unlocked iPhone costs a lot more than the n900. Same with the nexus one. And you still don't get 3g coverage (with tmobile) with the iPhone.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

@fatalsaint: yes... and that will be a lose-lose situation for OSS. if you live by their code, then the open side will not thrive as much as the locked one (due to market demand, etc).... and if the drm code is subverted, it will give a bad name to OSS community/design.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

That doesn't affect me. I need some service, any service, to use 3G on any device in my pocket to be always on.

So whether I need to sign a 2 year contract or not is totally irrelevant.. because for the foreseeable future I will still be using a phone service.

And as you said in your post: Each phone has a specific set of ranges that it will work with - also meaning that there will only be one, maybe two if you're lucky, 3G services with which to choose from.

As far as the N900 here in the United States - if I want to use it for anything worthwhile all the time I have to use T-mobile. So regardless if I have a contract with them or not, I still require their service to fully utilize my new "phone".

So spending $99 or $199 on a phone + 2 year contract... or spending $500 or $800 on a phone and... oh - still using the service for the next 2 years...

I save nothing.

Re: Met a fellow N900 owner and wanted to cry.
 

I had never used linux either, never even seen it in operation before I bought the N900. Although understanding what the phone could do as soon as I got it I loaded up this website, opened x terminal and started to learn.

I have now managed to customise my phone almost in every aspect and have installed many of the great applications developed by the genius people in this forum. Sure if i'm honest there was one point where the phone got a bit slow for trying to do too much but all I had to do was flash it and it's even more fun starting again!

As I can understand from what a lot of people said sure it is your choice if you want to have a phone with the ability to do so many things that you don't use. On the other hand it does seem rather pointless when a cheaper phone could do everything you want it to do.