Does the N900 firmware not allow for filesystem access on boot when tethered? I'm running a Linux system that can definitely read the file system used on the N900. Do I actually have to use a custom backup solution for the N900 like "backupmenu"?

I'm really hoping I am wrong in my estimation. I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for in documentation. I assumed that I could just mount it and do as I pleased to the filesystem and partition scheme.

Remember, this is my first week to touch an N900 - give me a break. Eventually, I intend to develop a couple of ideas on the platform so long as there is a community around wanting them.

By the way, what percentage of the community has jumped ship for Meego? Also, has Intel essentially abandoned Meego for yet another Linux platform (Tizen)? I understand there are some business dynamics involved in everything with licensing being high on the list but it would stand to reason that a constant and consistent Linux based (don't mention Android to me or the scary Google mothership) smartphone platform would be viable and profitable for a few businesses to at least release one line of phone in. Given the track record, I can't expect Intel to do anything but abandon "Tizen" sometime in late 2012. Are there any people actually working on it or is it more of an idea from a think-tank session within Intel that made it out into the public? Are there any companies seriously intending to release a very open mobile Linux platform onto a modern version of the N900? I thought Intel was serious about some low powered x86 processor phone (was a branch from Atom?). Disclaimer: I am aware of the fact that many seen and unseen variables determine business practices among these major corporations and that profit is the utmost but it seems to me that these companies would actually save money if they worked together on one or two platforms. In doing so they could also have what most want - a huge app store to draw from rather than the disjointed split from Maemo and Meego.

Forgive me for ranting - it's just that I am new to the mobile Linux community (I'm a UNIX/BSD guy who also uses Linux more than I would like) and seeing a really great platform and community abandoned really irks me.

Thanks,

Abe

You can't access the entire filesystem over USB with USB mass storage mode because you can't have a block device mounted in two places at the same time (the n900 and the computer).
In USB-mass-storage mode the FAT partition of the 32GB internal flash memory and the external MMC memory is exported over USB. So it is available on the PC but not the N900.
When you install backupmenu you can export the linux partition on the 32 GB MMC also. In that mode the N900 can still access the 256 MB flash on the SoC, so even then not the entire filesystem is exported that way.

You can access the entire filesystem using a network connection (SSHFS, NFS, SAMBA, OBEX etc. etc.). Repartitioning of the 32GB flash can be done on the device itself (use SSH for more easy input), or using gparted on a ubuntu PC for example when you export the entire 32GB drive over USB with backupmenu.

That's not exactly what they want -- Apple makes money off of its app store because Apple retains full control over its app store, and receives a ridiculous cut off the top for each app sold. The competitors don't care about quantity of apps, they care about trying to do the same thing Apple is doing.

Eventually, every corporate-owned device or OS grows old and dies. It is in the nature of the beast -- a company can only survive so long as it can keep ahead of its competitors, and the cost of supporting an aging platform is a burden that allows competitors to create superior alternatives.

Ultimately, this is what drove me to the Open Source world. I'm not a Stallmanite myself, but a world in which you have to throw away an entire operating system and all of its associated apps every few years is honestly kind of insane. Linux has never been a revolutionary operating system, and is always being forced to play catch-up with commercial products; but eventually it does always catch up, dragging along decades of legacy code with it. The work of, by this point, probably millions of coders never goes to waste.

So, in short, I would argue that you should enjoy the brief, colorful lives of corporate products, but don't attach yourself to them -- they'll all be gone before you know it.

Not that this single point was really at all important to the general theme of my rant but I do rather think companies want a large quantity of apps because Apple has a large quantity of apps and advertising a large number of apps, as Apple regularly does, is "doing the same thing Apple does" and, in turn, very much in the realm of what the aforementioned competitors desire to do in an attempt to do as Apple does. (gasp) But - app quantity is only one tiny variable in emulating Apple and really isn't even worth bringing up as Apple emulation isn't really the subject matter at hand. What is the subject matter at hand? I'm not sure anymore but I can say that applying an abstract and philosophical outlook of the following nature to the situation would yield a state in which none of us have any productive interest in platform, the Maemo community, or this conversation:

However, if we wane omnipotent philosopher we may find ourselves asking the original question and that is something to the effect of:

Is any company presently seriously considering releasing an open platform resembling the Maemo/N900 pairing?

Kind regards,

Abe

Edit/Addendum: I realized in rereading the post it sounded vindictive - it wasn't. It was intended to have a teasing tone.