I don't especially want a smartphone -- I want a modern UNIX-like system in my pocket. The best machines I've been able to find so far aren't phones, but if at some point the best one happens to be a phone, that doesn't bother me. While I'm not entirely pleased with the compromises made in the name of micropocketability (having full-sized pockets and no aversion to various holsters, pouches, etc.), it still sounds like it would adequately serve the function I'm looking at; even if I don't fall in love with the UI, the bundled apps, etc., it's standard under the hood, and I can ignore or even rip out as much as I like, and replace it with stuff I like better. None of the smartphones I could have gotten already can do that; there's really only two options that come even close.

The closest hardware would be a massively hacked iPhone or iPod Touch. However, while iPhone OS X has UNIX code, the system as-shipped is the antithesis of UNIX-like, and while it's hacked enough to be a possibility, I've seen practically no effort in the jailbreak community to build a UNIX platform on it. I don't have the time to waste doing that solo, and besides, as soon as you start trying to port standard desktop apps to it, you see WVGA >> HVGA. I've used X11 with normal apps and window managers (GNOME 1.2, fvwm1, et al.) on a full VGA screen (with a mouse, so no fat-finger woes!), and it works, barely. Thanks to a lot of work from Nokia, standard apps can be very usable on a WVGA touchscreen, even if it is a little cramped at times. But even reusing Hildon, 30% of the screen space isn't much to work with -- and the iPhone fanboys brag about that resolution next to all the QVGA phones; one more reason almost all of them couldn't work, even if their OSes weren't in the way. Oh, and performance? about the same as an N8x0; the only reason to switch would be the integrated connection.

A close second on hardware is the Neo FreeRunner, with a rather nice screen (2.8" VGA, about the same dot-pitch as the N900, although only 80% the space), and way ahead in software -- I've heard reports that slackware (armedSlack) runs on it, and Debian, Mer and a host of others are known, but while it's got that near-useless (to me) voice call capability, it doesn't even have EDGE for data, let alone HSPA ala N900. I'd end up using it like a smaller, awkwarder N800, tethered to my phone for decent data access. Performance is poor again; last year's phones use last year's processors, and while I could have gone for them last year, there's really no way I can see it as better than the N800 I did get.

The N900 should fit nicely in the role my N800s and N810 have filled: same lovely pixel-count, with improved dot-pitch, fits in the same pocket (even if it rattles a bit), runs similar software. I gain: ditching my current mobile (I can use the same data plan direct on the device), less battery waste (no bluetooth radios used), more performance (you always need that, right?), FM transceiver, and even a (probably decent, for what it is) p&s camera. Even if I don't like all the changes, it's clearly another option that is in many ways unmatched by any smartphone out there; for my use, the N810 is its only real competition, and I can't see the smaller screen being annoying enough (to me) to override all the ways it's a step up from the N810.


I think this is where a substantial minority of the complacency comes from -- people whose need is better approximated as "pocket Linux box" than "internet tablet", even though many of us would agree that the smartphone design involves bad usability compromises, it's still a world apart from any of those other smartphones, which simply can't do it. That and people who are waiting and seeing about the second (and further) device(s) -- I predict a massive resurgence of vitriol if the second device turns out to be a slick feature-phone!