The problem is that there simply aren't enough of a market for geek-centric devices like the N900.

In order for Nokia to compete, it has no choice BUT to make a mass market device, thats from the UI layer looks 'dumb', but has enough oomph and open source so that the geeks can also use it as a powerhouse.

An extremely delicate balance. As much as people on this forum complain about it and ask for features built in, Nokia will probably ignore them - they want the people that would not consider joining this forum, nor have much interest in geekish device to buy the N900.

Money makes the world go round so nokia have no choice but to comply and compete with the iPhone/Android.

But I do think that if the Nokia N97 was a bit more powerful AND had a web browser better than the iPhone then even with symbian they could be onto a winner.

That's neither here nor there on this issue.

I really don't understand Nokia's interest in pursuing a scripting layer like this when they already have a stable full of developers and budding developers willing to make apps (which will be more efficient) with the system languages. A javascript app layer doesn't appeal to iJoes, so this move is puzzling. It's not going to get them greater market penetration, and will also turn off some of the more staunch supporters that aren't the kind that want to play with Barbie's Espoo Adventure. Those developers are already off playing with the borg queen and the Apple.

Anyway, this is no longer anything to do with the N900 except that it may end up being my first and last Nokia device given present trends. If so, it's at least a nice detour. Back on topic for my next post. I've still got to find a suitable spreadsheet to replace Hancom Sheet on the Z, so that may be the subject.

It is important to remember that Maemo/open source and internet tablets has been an experiment from Nokias point of view. The move from the N800 to the N810 was probably the largest HW vise (keyboar and gps), even though the units are more or less identical in most respects. The N900 is a much more powerfull device with phone functionality, but is still very much an experiment. So even if the N900 will become a practical and usefull device with software updates, it is just an intermediate step towards a "fully functional" mobile computer as far as Nokia is concerned. But, where the N8XX were targeted as a tablet for geeks, the N900 is targeted at technology enthusiasts with emphasis on high end smartphones.

Personally I am not sure where Nokia draws the line between a smartphone and a mobile computer, or if this is only the marketing language for Maemo and Symbian. I guess the concept of pure internet tablets was a dead end, but the concept of a Linux smartphone was not. Maybe Symbian is too complex for low series production high end devices, and Linux is too inefficient for high volume lower priced devices and phones.

flandry.

where have you beedn all my life. :P

i think you have echoed the thoughts of all of us. good to see your posts.

gnumeric is available for maemo 4. I have no idea whether anyone is porting it to maemo 5 or how much work it would be.

You can download sc for amel from debian.org - it's a command line spreadsheet that works perfectly.

Hm, I guess the original Visicalc spreadsheet should run fine in dosbox. Visicalc was made available for free use and download by the original author. And it's a nice spreadsheet too! It's the 1981 version for the PC. (Strictly speaking the very original VC was the 1979 version that ran on Apple II. This was the killer application that started the whole computers-in-every-office explosion.)

http://www.bricklin.com/history/vcexecutable.htm

I don't know why you think it is an either/or thing. I can see both having a purpose on Maemo. One being a more lightweight framework but more accessible as opposed to a more low level framework which can be more tightly coupled with the hardware.

I doubt Nokia is going to go down the path of Google in that "you MUST use Java", which seems to be what you fear.

Ha that would be something, wouldn't it? Go back to an office app from 30 years ago!

Thanks for the suggestions. The main problem is that i got used to a fairly good spreadsheet on my Z. The Hancom program wasn't finger-friendly, but it was very capable and could handle XLS format.

This (spreadsheet, esp. for lab work) will probably be the last of my previous use cases i tackle on the N900 because i don't really want to put my shiny new phone in the way of solvents, anyway, and my Z still works ok in that niche. I read people's reports about the need to select a cell and then click in the function window before it can be edited for gnumeric and it doesn't encourage me, either.

N900 Problems

I've not stopped using my N900, i've just not been keeping the same detailed usage records as before. Having established that the battery life is within a reasonable range and the relative impact of different uses, i have left that alone for now and am focusing on other aspects: i'm going to take this chance to report on the problems i've encountered so far. This may prove useful to those who are still uncertain about the N900 and want to know just what kinds of issues they might encounter.

The following, then, is a list of outright "bugs" in the N900 experience. Not missing or poor features, but failure of existing systems to operate in a normal fashion. A discussion of lacking features and suboptimal results will be found in other posts. This is the "fail".

Issues experienced to date

• App Manager unable to complete any action. This only occurred once, and was related to some combination of the network connection being enabled/disabled during usage of App Man. It got in a state where both apt-get (command line utility) and App Man were unable to complete installation or updating operations. I used my limited apt-fu to try to clear the blocking process or permission lock file, but finally had to reboot.
• Camera app crashing on opening Also a single occurrence. This happened (at the most "opportune" time, of course ) when i was showing off the video and still camera to my photographer friend. After taking a video clip, i switched to still mode and snapped a shot. I got an "Unable to save" message of some sort and the app closed. I closed the shutter and opened it again. The app opened...and promptly crashed again. Reboot resolved the problem.
• Spiking processor usage causing input loss This was mentioned in the earlier post where it was occurring. I haven't had it happen to that degree since, but i consider any UI that can lose keyboard input due to load spikes to be flawed.
• Flash 10 site crashing browser. This happened when i attempted to load the id doom flash app someone linked. It was a Flash 10 based app, and informed me that it wouldn't work without an upgrade...and then locked up all the MicroB windows. After MicroB died, i opened it again and continued with no problems.
• Doubled media directory listings The Audio Clips, Camera, Documents, Images, and Video Clips folders all show up twice in the File Manager. These are all represented by . directories in MyDocs, and there is still only one actual directory for each, so it's just a breakdown in the localization that names those in File Manager according to my language settings. (In other words, it's cosmetic.) I haven't looked into this because it's not an issue for me.
• Stuttering audio/video There's already discussion of re-nicing the video recorder app to avoid dropped frames. In general, as with almost every linux installation i've used, media can be a bit suboptimal at times. Precaching and renicing can probably fix a lot of these issues as the software matures. If it matters to me, i close apps and/or restart, which generally helps.

I will add to this list as i experience new issues or recurrence of old ones. If a problem happens enough to make a coherent bug report out of, i will do so. I suspect there are already reports about some of these.

My overall experience is still positive. I'm noting down things to discuss in this thread as they occur and will try to add another general installment on Sunday.

Digression: the WRT issue

TheLongshot, i went into great detail on the nature of my objection to Nokia's web runtime plan in the thread i linked up above, so you will find my response to your comment already there. In short, though, it comes down to this: resources are limited, and my opinion is that adding WRT at this point is not the best use of those resources for advancing the Maemo user experience (i.e. Nokia customer satisfaction) or market share (i.e. Nokia's Nxx0 sales). One might argue these are not the best metrics for us (the current users) and might find agreement from me, but it's not us driving the WRT policy decision, which is, to be precise, that WRT will be both included and integral in Harmattan.

I don't really want to discuss the issue more. The decision is made, like it or not. I don't like it, and am annoyed at Nokia jumping on the bandwagon. However, we can only buy or not buy when step 5 comes along. I would like to be able to replace my N900 with a better device when it is EOL, but it is appearing that there won't be such a thing coming out of Nokia, I'm especially referring to battery life and some hardware features when i say that. It's still possible that things could end up ok, but the laws of physics aren't going away, and improving efficiency is obviously not top priority.

I went 6 years from buying the Z to finding a step up, i can do so again, but that isn't really good for anyone (would-be sellers or me).

Here are my comments from that thread:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...6&postcount=15
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...1&postcount=28
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...2&postcount=33
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...6&postcount=41

Old people want things to stay like they were when they learned stuff: "Why use a gui media player when i can do all that from the command-line?" That might sound like an extreme example but people actually do this. Does that mean a gui is 'reinventing the wheel'? Or is it adding tires to the wheel?

Android effectively ditches linux for something new, Maemo bends as far back as it reasonably can to support the old linux 'ecosystem' along with innovating the new.

A good framework for mini-apps fills a role in that ecosystem. It does not make economic sense to go through the linux/autotools/debian/autobuilder/extras-devel/-testing/extras process for a mini-app that takes 30 minutes to write. Sure you can walk to Washington DC. But it would be wasteful to file your federal income tax that way.

Perhaps a better analogy is found in the growth of industrial technology. Early tools were primitive, and the production process was labor intensive. The results were characterised by craftsmanship and indivuality. As time went on, more and more tools became standardised and 'high level'. This lead to more efficient production, but less 'craft'.

You can still buy hand-made furniture if you want. But not many people are going to do it for free.

A hearty thanks for the UQM port, and best wishes for 2010.