I bought an n810 around the end of 2008, in the early days of the Smartphone Revolution. At the time I had an awful feature-phone (Nokia 6555) and the n810 absolutely blew me away. It was almost scary how well it could replicate the functionality of a desktop OS without being overly complex or hard to use. Over the next few months, I used it as much as I used my laptop. IT was that cool. I'm sure a lot of people here know what I'm talking about!

Since then, I've gone through three smartphones (two Android and one Bada) and I use iPhone OS at work as a software developer. These devices are all lightyears beyond the n810 in terms of hardware capacity, but I can't stand using them. It's like using my old feature-phone, but with a bigger display and a touchscreen. I don't understand why there's so much hype surrounding these systems, like they're a vast improvement over everything else; earlier phones (Symbian especially) had far more futures and were just as easy to use if you knew what you were doing.

I'm also worried about Maemo going the same way. I've played with Maemo 5 a bit, and wasn't impressed at all compared to the OS2008. The screenshots of "Meego" (ugh) look like they're going down the same road as iPhone OS and Android: Nice to look at, finger-friendly, but seriously lacking under the surface. Personally, I'd happily take an n810 with a phone modem over any of the other devices I've used so far.

Sorry for the rant as a first post - I'm just interested in hearing what others think on these points. Are mobile OS's genuinely getting worse, or am I just too nostalgic?

Think it is just a case of liking what you are used to. Apart from the bugginess Maemo 5 seems great to me to use.

If it is not the case that you just like what you are used to and dislike change then I need to try out the OS you are used to because it must be seriously amazing.

Thanks for the reply, and you may be very right. I admit to not using Maemo 5 long enough to really form a good impression of it, but I've spent far two many hours on Android and iPhone OS. Some issues I have with them vs n810:

-Real web browser vs the stripped-down ones on Android and iPhone. Those things feel like toys by comparison.
-Method of application switching. iPhone either has NONE (which is just sad) or the strange system in iPhone OS 4. Android has multitasking, sort of, but it involves holding your home key, and it may kill your applications without warning if it decides to. Internet Tablet OS is simple and elegant in this regard.
-Software development. Android locks you down to Java with their libs, iPhone to Objective-C. I'm aware that there are limited exceptions to this rule, but none of it comes close to how Maemo does it, where you have full access to a Linux system.

I guess it's just different preferences for different people, I just don't quite see what the appeal of Android/iPhone is over the more feature-rich mobile OS's.

I agree with you on iPhone (god, just looking at that UI in screenshots makes me feel inhibited and unable to make **** work the way I want). Android OS, I feel is a little better, but I've never used either enough to know how much better.

Maemo 5 - well, I don't know how OS2008 worked, and maybe it was the best thing ever, but I myself am not feeling like Maemo 5 is bad. MeeGo - yes, MeeGo worries me. On the other hand, it is, at least in principle, going to be ENTIRELY open source, so no matter how badly every mobile device is ****ed up by the people releasing it, you know that it'll be possible, albeit with some effort, to make it work the way a proper OS is supposed to.

On the other hand, knowing American carriers, they will do everything they can to make it impossible to improve your device - unless they actually collectively develop a sense of being ethical as a company - which is unlikely.

As far as I can see, yes Maemo 5 is not really flawed in the way you mention Android and iOS as being. Browser is very good at doing full desktop webpages, advanced settings can be accessed through the about:config page. And you have Digia @Web, which isn't perfect, but it works (including Flash without needing to enable it in the settings as with the Firefox port, making it the only non-native browser to readily do it that I can see), and it renders pages like on the desktop. As I understand it, the mobile Firefox renders things desktop-ishly too. Java is really the only bad offender in this... Maybe Shockwave too, but I rarely run into that nowadays. Java, both ME and SE, is ported to the N900 already, it's just a matter of making the damn thing work in-browser.

Application switching, in my eyes, it damn good in Maemo 5, not sure if it's that much better in Maemo's earlier versions.

I haven't seen Maemo lock you down to specific coding languages - or lock you out of any - but yes, other OS's are horrible in that regard. (Palm OS is supposedly pretty good too, as are a few other the other not-well-known smartphones.... *Shrug*)

Hopefully MeeGo will go the way of Maemo, or at least is made so that it's extremely easy to make it that way if the makers decide to implement it dickishly.

Such is life, the WISE shall live off of the FOOLS. My mother says that and if you apply it to technology and the business world you realise it's very true.

I think it just sounds like the OP's preference is something closer to a PC. With Maemo5 Nokia kind of tried to make their tablet line more mass-market, and I think a lot of computer-like functionality was replaced with stuff more common from mass-market mobile phones.

Personally I feel that the N900 is almost a laptop replacement, but then again my aims, needs and wants don't include the wish for my laptop to be replaced. I also haven't used any of the previous tablets.

Fact of life #3274E: In the world of ignorance, dumb things that look smart dominate over smart things that look dumb.

big point is not all and most people aren't techy guys. Most people just focus by the phones design and luxurity. The hell would they care if it has a built in time machine all they would want is just a phone that can call and text and make people drool by its design. And lets face it they are the majority. Us techy guys are just a small proportion compared to them.

I find Maemo5 much better than OS2008. The multitasking and homescreen in Meamo5, is exactly how things should be. It may look as though MeeGo will be ven better, but it is so limited right now, that I can't get a feel for it

With the N900 Nokia officially introduced the device class of "mobile computers" (to distinguish them from mere smartphones).
Future mobile computers from Nokia will run MeeGo, which is essentially just based on Maemo 6 with the OS level stuff being based on Intel's Moblin instead of Debian. Actually, Harmattan might be a hybrid with a Debian-based OS.
The UI of the free MeeGo reference handset implementation from meego.com is certainly not what Harmattan will look like.