Actually, taking a touch UI and using it with a mouse is not ideal either.

Take the main menu in liqbase - its very functional on a 4inch screen with fingers, theres a screenshot on my site - expand it to fullscreen and see how much mouse work is involved to navigate between the options.

Its more usable than the other way round, but certainly not optimal.

(its even worse if you have a nub based mouse as a lot of laptops have)



edit: actually it could in part be related to the designed for 4inches of space vs the 17+ inch screen.

I was talking about a) the width of scroll bars and b) the height of list items (and menu entries) in OS2008. This could have been a setting in the system preferences.

Of course, once you go further with finger-friendliness (and I guess this is what you had in mind), there's no way to simply switch from stylus to finger so easily. Depending on how far you go, you can't change switch at all. (Or else we'd have a decent UI for Canola by now.)

As for the rest of your post:
I think we agree that we can't have both. The only difference is that you're looking forward to a more finger-friendly version of Maemo while I'm keeping my eyes open for other products that can replace my N800 as my mobile computer.

The NIT is being marketed as a device to get internet access while on the move.
One simple case that I often face -
while driving I put the IT on the car mount, but while driving and keeping an eye on the road and one hand on the steering, it becomes very difficult to even select the network access icon from the top menu and then select the network to connect to - all this while driving, or event o select the volume control icons. I so wish those icons were more finger friendly and visible so that even when mobile one could easily access it.

Those menus on the top are very much stylus oriented and this is what happens when you are using a mobile stylus oriented device when you are actually moving and thus having less freedom (or in similar situations).

This is why I much prefer finger friendliness - its only rarely that I am using it propped up on the desktop.
This is why I don't see much point of a mobile on-the-move device being marketed for mobile usage and form-factor but having a desktop paradigm-ed UI interface.

And Ragnar explained very well the difficulties of an interface which can support both stylus and finger based widgets and UI simultaneously.

nilchak,
what a perfect usage case and clear explanation
I agree entirely and best of all with Linux both camps can and should be accounted for.
I would love for the out of the box experience to be a finger friendly fully functional nice clean interface.
Add to that then the knowledge that under the hood or behind the touch UI you have a standard OS and desktop which is stylus/mouse friendly (as we currently have in hildon).

using the web while driving a car?! is it just me or is that close to criminal carelessness?

the only use of the device while in car, if the user is the driver, is as a gps. at least, thats my opinion.

you cannot use agps without network connection, and you cannot use maemo-mapper in routing mode without a connection.

But I find its exactly the same not just for the web, but for brightness or volume.

Core primary functions are impossible to modify without pulling over.

tso : Ever tried Maemo Mapper in the car ?

Personally, I'm happy to hear about a more finger-oriented UI. And I'd be even happier if a capacitive touchscreen is used in the next-gen tablet, even if it means dropping the stylus...

difficult challenge for the marketing droids when i can do this much easier and cheaper with my cell phone. a device must offer a lot more to make me pay ~€400.

and dropping gloved touch, or fingernail or anything remotely precise, that means no more real sketching or pen based methods.

I stopped finger painting when I was about 5 years old, I really don't want to go back to it.

I am a massive fan of touch based UIs, most of all because they are backwards compatible with stylus input.