Just apps. Can you install other OSes to android phones?

the n900 is hardly a smartphone. a smartphone is............. well a phone thats smart. and "phone" is proberly the weakest part of the n900. its a mobile tablet.

Like... Debian? Yes. Like... MeeGo? Possibly. Android doesn't have a phone, but most handsets that have been designed for Android seem very CAPABLE of running other OS's (as much as the N900 is), but there hasn't been much interest to doing so, so far. In either case, I'm not sure that that's what defines a computer versus a phone.

still on anti n900 pro android mission??
doesn't it get sometimes boring?

IMO To be able install different OSes is the one of biggest factor when I´m thinking how to define computer or desktop computer. But then again it´s just me and my little world.

Naw. It's less boring than sitting on Maemo 4 waiting for a new Maemo tablet computer instead of a phone.

so what makes for you the n900 to a phone and not to a mobile computer?
for me there is nothing that a mobile computer have and n900 miss

Well, for one... a cell phone radio helps make it a phone. I can't say that doesn't make it a computer, though. Which is my point--it's kind of silly to try to convince anybody that it's NOT a phone or that it's NOT a computer. It's clearly capable of being both. (I very terribly awful phone, with the given software, but a phone nonetheless.)

as mentioned before in this thread , all phones qualify as mobile computers .
any object that can process input into useful output can be called a computer , if you can carry it with u , it can be called mobile computer .
so your calculator , wrist watch , mobile phone , portable cd player , psp , blah blah blah... are all mobile computers...

if all these are mobile computers what is a smart phone ?
definition from wikipedia :

A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary basic 'feature phone'.Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated within a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones are able to run applications based on platforms such as Java ME or BREW, a smartphone allows the user to install and run more advanced applications based on a specific platform. Smartphones run complete operating system software providing a platform for application developers.

sticking to the above definition , the n900 qualifies as a smart phone too , also all smart phones are mobile computers...

how to convince people that your n900 is a mobile computer is irrelevant , that fact that it is already running proves it , all android phones and the iphone ,are mobile computers too.

the n900 or any phone that runs android as a stock OS , or the iphone , are able to run different OS , if they are available for that architecture , and configured correctly for the devices , provided required drivers they may be considered usable .

if iOS was open , you could port it and run it on n900 , and also if maemo was 100% open , you could port it to other devices .
u may find debian or ubuntu running on different devices because they are entirely open , and some people took the time to get them to work..

so having many OS running on the n900 , won't help the n900 become a mobile computer , it already is one..

since all other devices are also mobile computers , your question maybe rewritten as , how to convince others that n900 is different / special ?
my question would be , why would u want to do that in the first place ? if u find that the device satisfies your needs , you don't need to convince anybody that it is special.....

if you want to show off , u can try some of the suggestions mentioned in the previous posts , but why ?

On Nitdroid, I found that getting an xterm was about impossible, or at least very difficult. The response that "well, you CAN get xterm somehow" is kind of like saying that a jail isn't a jail, because some people escape from jail. On the N900 you don't have to do anything special to get an xterm, just click.