Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

I'm buying a new phone this week and I've narrowed it down to either the N900 or an android device. I've got store credit with newegg, so that is the selection I'm looking at (the android phone will probably be the mytouch 3g slide). Here is what I would like to know from people who have been part of the maemo experience and community:

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1. If you were faced with buying the N900 or an android device today, what do you think your choice has over the other option?

2. A big concern of mine is not being part of a large and evolving community, not having access to a quality app store, and not being able to easily share my apps with my platform users. Is this a valid concern and am I right to assume Android has the step up here?

3. I LOVE linux and I LOVE everything maemo seems to stand for. The idea of SSHing into my laptop or desktop give me jollies. Assume we're comparing a maemo with root access to a rooted Android (ignoring efforts that go into each), is there any comparison in what you can do for each?

4. Is the platform dead? I've been researching this choice for a while and it seems that Nokia ditched maemo to merge and make Meego, which doesnt look quite the same. Do maemo users generally feel abandoned?

5. In a couple of months after I buy the phone, what is one reason that could make me regret my decision over an android? I've heard battery life was less than 12 hours...

6. Finally: If you think maemo is still a fantastic OS and I would be missing out on nothing by not buying an android, what positive things can you say about android? (bias testing question)

I GREATLY appreciate any advice I can get on this question. I identify with the technology I own and I definitely don't want to regret my purchase.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

1. Well, considering there's Android coming for the N900 I'm content with my choice.

2. If you're looking for a huge app store you're probably better of with Android.

4. MeeGo will be ported to N900 too, though not officially by Nokia. There's still apps coming, if that's what you're asking.

5. Battery life varies obviously, some get 4 days, some get 12 hours. Depend on what you have running(just like a laptop). I get about a day of battery life, meaning I charge it every night.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

1. Today, I think... Price would have a lot to say.
2. Small store, but not harder to share your apps. Infact, Maemo relies on it.
3. Maemo is Linux, Android is Dalvik.
4. The platform isn't as much dead as a small village on a side path to MeeGo town. There's stuff happening here, but in the future, MeeGo will be the place to be. Supposedly.
5. Battery life isn't going to be your biggest worry. I think what most people find disturbing, is the lack of features they have grown used to in cell phones. Examples like MMS, custom ring sounds per user, portrait mode, etc. User apps are made, but...
6. I don't know Android well enough to answer. I see pros and cons on Maemo by using it, and have no pros of cons with Android - apart from the store pro and dalvik con.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

You might want to check out the NITDroid project

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

i have an n900 and a htc desire and i prefer n900. you can do alot more on an n900 and the loudspeaker on the desire is pathetc, its destorted where as n900s sound is quaity.
also the battery is poor on the desire. i think this goes for most androids. the android os just feels a bit disney to me

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

Do a search... there was a guy here who had his n900 stolen and bought a mytouch slide as a replacement. It sounded like the mytouch was pretty disappointing....

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

Found it:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...hlight=mytouch

It seems like the only thing he thought android had over maemo was the appstore, which is a debate point for me currently.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

The N900 is getting a bit old, and Nokia definitely needs to start releasing more devices per year. I think I'd still buy one just for the OS, but might wait until the N9 is out instead.

I've tried Android devices for a few minutes, and the UI seemed very boring and traditional compared to Maemo. Android is definitely better at portrait mode support.


Depends on whether the apps you need are available. I'm happy with the Maemo repositories. I don't think we'll see a major increase until the N9 is out, but after that commercial developers should become interested too. "Sharing your apps" is no harder than on desktop Linux.


I'm sure there's a lot of stuff you can install on Android, but Maemo comes with a nice set of commands out of the box, which makes for a much more hassle free terminal experience.

Easy Debian is really easy to install on Maemo, but honestly most GUI apps are a bit of a pain to use. In the terminal, it's great.


Many are feeling abandoned, but I think the merger makes a lot of sense. Moblin and Maemo were so close to each other that combining resources is the only logical choice. I'm looking forward to the N9, and people who want to stick with the N900 will be able to install MeeGo without official support. Keep in mind that Maemo 6 was always going to require multitouch hardware anyway.

My biggest fear regarding MeeGo is that they'll dumb the UI down a bit to go more mass market.


Don't keep IM services or constantly refreshing widgets on and the battery is fine. Portrait mode and general phone functions are what annoy me the most, but I'm missing my old Symbian phone rather than hoping I'd gone with Android for this generation.


Android is more mature, and is currently better as a "simple" phone. You might need apps that Maemo doesn't have yet.

My recommendation is that you wait until Christmas, if you can. All the current options have too many negatives. The N9 will have the best OS with top of the line Nokia hardware.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

Thanks, your post was very helpful. Do you think you can elaborate on your future predictions? What phones do you think will be major contenders and is Meego supposed to be as open and linux like as Maemo?

EDIT: I just watched a video review of the n900 and learned that It has an fm transmitter.... thats a massive noteworthy plus that was not very obvious before.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

Without dwelling on specific models, I think the N9's only major weakness in its price class will be that there won't be a keyboardless variant out initially. Even though Nokia's been asleep at the wheel, everything indicates that the N9 is going to be a comeback device.

Android will no doubt continue to advance, but it won't be able to match MeeGo's architectural advantages. Google can't just turn around and switch to GNU and X11. They're stuck with Dalvik. Once MeeGo eliminates the remaining problems with Maemo's UI and commercial developers show up due to the N9, Nokia's offering will meet or exceed the competition in all aspects.

I think we can rely on MeeGo being open, for now. Lets keep an eye on how much DRM content providers demand on any new devices from any company, though. IIRC, Nokia has said you can turn off DRM if you're willing to refrain from purchasing encrypted content. As if that's a hard choice :rolleyes:

Ovi, apart from Maps and Store, will probably still be mediocre at Christmas, but nobody's going to force you to use those services.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Heres one thing you should know if you havent heard already:

You will be using the n900 in landscape mode, thats it. it annoyed me a bit at first, because i couldnt text while driving without looking :O but im probably better off now, and i feel like a god with two handed multitasking and such... def more of a computer feel.

from the few minutes ive played with my friends mytouch slide, it can definitely tell its more of a traditional portrait mode one-handed phone...

1) I would pick the n900, for many reasons. I dont think it can compare to the n900 in web browsing, for one, homescreen customization :D

2) As others have said, the android app store is obviously bigger right now... ive found all ive wanted in the maemo apps, and there will probably be more as we approach the release of the first meego phone, n9? as far as community, maemo.org has been really cool :)

3) i SSHed my friends desktop with his help once, i was giddy like a little kid. i cant rememer how to do it though :(

4) i dont feel like im abandoned, except for flash 10.1 support, hopefully something will happen and magically we will get 10.1 support :( :) the 'small village' on the path to 'meego' town was probably a good way to say it...

5) my battery life has been mediocre... although im usually texting, skyping, browsing web onwifi while listening to music...

6) some prefer capacitive screens, most android have capacitive screens, with multitouch, not sure about the mytouch slide. way more apps to choose from.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

buy N900 and choose the OS you want to install.
If you need too much apps (not all useful) go for Android, community wise, maemo is good.
PS. typo: "Next Smartphone: Android of Maemo?" or*

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Actually one of the things I liked about it was the landscape only. Ever since qwerty's i havnt been able to to use it with one hand anyway (or wanted to) and portrait always feels so confined to me.

ALSO, another question: Is the terminal bash / bash like?

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

glad to hear i t, i feel the same way.. thats a good way of putting it, landscape is less confined..

im not quite sure what youre asking about with terminal...

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

buy android we dont want more whinners

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Yep, the N900 has a bash-like shell. (You can also install bash proper, too.)

buy a spellchecker, we don't want more lhoozerz.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

If SSH'n your way with the N900 tickles you, then there's no way you can go for an Android device.

Get the N900. You'd enjoy the Android device as well, but I think you are one of us that can't go back from the N900 to anything and think that the N900 is worse.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Thanks for all of your advice, I think the fm transmitter cemented my interests in the n900, and all of your user input won't make me feel like I'm missing out on anything. Pretty sure i'm getting it now.

Anything else that isnt obvious but very cool? I had no idea about the transmitter until a reviewer mentioned it, theres got to be more hidden tricks in there.

loving the bash

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

There are so many amazing android devices out now or coming out now it is so incredible. And all so snappy not lag fest like my N900. What has made me uninterested in android so far is the lack of devices with hardware keyboards. However, just discovered the Samsung Epic today which is truly epic. Not only does it have a keyboard but has 5 rows. Wow!!!! Plus 4 inch screen. It looked so snappy I am in love. However, it does not overcome another thing that has prevented me from jumping to android which is the lack of internal memory.

I will manage my N900 for now till I see if there is a meego device with keyboard and 32gb but if I had to choose a new phone today there would be at least 5 android phones I would pick over the N900 even with the lack of internal memory and lack of keyboard options.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community
 

I feel I need to qualify this a bit. Other devices will beat it on individual features. There's no way a device with a hardware keyboard is going to have the best camera, for example. The CPU will likely be fast, but not fastest, or they won't be able to make enough of them.

Nokia has traditionally been cheap with RAM, but the N900 is fine. I hope they realize the N9 needs even more relative to its generation, to really minimize the perceived faults people can pick at.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

If you like linux, get the n900. The app selection isnt massive but we got most of the linux programs covered. Things like Kismet, aircrack-ng and Vi. N900 also has the best painting software. Its lacking in games but thats what emulators are for.

N900 is a PC like experience. Android is coming to n900 in the form of NITdroid. No cellular or 3D acceleration yet.

Android is more of a sandbox within linux. You can't smell the linux in Android. So it depends on how you want to program and what sort of apps you want for the platform. If you're a programmer the n900 is made for you.

I would choose an Android phone today, but I know I would be losing a lot of freedom and flexibility to make the switch.

I hope this post made some sense. Typing from bed after just waking up :)

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

stick to n900
its the best platform in terms of hardware *in my opinion*
and wait for the NITdroid project for dual boot or wait for meego
but n900 is still worth keeping.. unless proven otherwise

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

latest has 3D acceleration
not complete though, they're still working on 2d gfx *whatever that means*
im jus waiting for a memory card to try it out but it seems stable and fast

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Would like to thank everyone again, I read every post and each one helped a lot. Just placed my order for the n900 today!

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

I actually think nitdroid will be totally useable once phone/3g support is enabled. Wifi works great and many apps and games are working as well. Although GPS would be awesome so we use google maps :cool:

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Welcome as a new N900 owner!

The infrared port is pretty cool, you can use it as a TV remote.
The camera is pretty beastly.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

I just posted a message "Project Gus: The Sad State of Open Source in Android tablets" which counts as a serious strike against Android.

For the average Jane Public Android does seem to offer more, especially in the short term, than the more serious Nokia N900 with limited future support (a little better if serious geekery isn't an obstacle).

There are other N900-like (but with better specs) devices running Android and with Android being "hot" more are on the way. The problem is knowing whether any of those can/will be unofficially or officially supported by Meego. It all depends on the level of openness of the Android devices' hardware and whether the paid Meego devs will incorporate potential support for competitors' devices.

So it's "Wait for Meego news (or other) before decideing" (sic) for me.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Congratulations on your purchase, I hope mobile computing has advanced far enough to keep you happy :D

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

I bought a 7" Chinese android tablet for wife, who is not a techie type ;)
It's just like http://www.posh-book.com/posh-pad.html (but no brand).
It's going to arrive today or tomorrow and I'll document my impressions of old Nokia user with no android experience in the competitors section.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

Get a N900. Heck, if its too slow, OC it!
Its just so nice a machine, and the ability to simply pull up xterm, get root, and mess with/fix stuff is great!

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

There were times, I got frustrated using my N900. But I don't think I would go for anything other OS other than Maemo (or MeeGo).

The potential of the N900 and especially this community is that great. I just love it (honestly).

This said, if I were you, I would wait for the N9 (or whatever that would be) if I can.

But as it was already said, you will definitely not feel sorry for choosing an N900 now over Android or the upcoming N9. Good Luck.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

The problem with recommending the Nokia N900 because of its potential is the problem of recommending a Nokia 770, Nokia N800, Nokia N810 and Nokia N810 WiMax Edition because of their potential.

Re: Need advice from the maemo community: N900 or Android device?
 

I have a n900 and played some with several smartphones of my friends and honestly the hardware quality of n900 is far better. May be an iphone4..... but at higher price and less openess.....