Yes, I suppose the N900 is my first Linux computer, though by way of decoding my username, I was an owner of an Archos PMA400, which was also a marvelous, ahead-of-its-time, multi-tasking WIFI enabled piece of Linux-based hardware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archos_PMA400

I was never afraid to install things willy-nilly on it, and not afraid to fry/reflash; as I am (nearly) the same with my N900.

But the PMA community was very supportive, with multiple privately-hosted sites for applications-hosting, several robust forums (notably the Yahoo forum), and all of it was privately managed, i.e. independent of Archos (which pretty much washes its hands of their hardware as soon as the next generation comes out).

So while I am not completely new to the concept of an open hardware platform with a slightly higher-technical learning curve to it, I still am firmly in the camp that needs verbose explanations when it comes to things.


FWIW, I actually edited my original rant down a bit, because I thought I had put enough on my plate - but seeing as how this thread has been so lovingly relocated and renamed, I'll say one more that I feel applies to this topic here:

I really do believe that the issue I raise is a central one to the much larger debate of iPhone vs. Android vs. N900 (you know what I mean, I trust).

By making the hardware device modification/personalization so technical (I have personally never seen a forum with so much code thrown about so casually), the MAEMO/Nokia team is doing an awful lot to alienate potential customers; meanwhile, Apple and Google are going out of their way to make it easy to install and configure apps.

That means a lot to the average user. It just so happens that I have a slightly higher tolerance for discomfort, coupled with a slightly higher desire for personal freedom.

If you were to decrease mycombination of tolerance/desire down a notch or two, it seems to me you would end up with a customer that would get frustrated with the hardware's potential very quickly, and would bail out rather than do the hard work of figuring things out for themselves. After all, it's much easier to open your wallet than to open your mind.

You see my point? I hope I'm not coming off as a zealot here, but I think MAMEMO/Nokia could do a whole lot to make the user-experience a more pleasant and "seamless" one (i.e. not seeing the nuts-and-bolts side of things).

Once that hurdle was overcome, the quality of "freedom" that we all perceive in the N900 would become a commodity more easily perceptible, more easily attained, and so more treasured by the user

As it stands, it tends not to be so visible an attribute. (I think of all the cranky posts telling "I can't do this like I used to be able to do on appliance X".)