Hi friends.
I was a frustrated N900 user because of the lack of useful apps and OS updates.
I am not a programmer and that's probably why I couldn't cope.
I am philosophically against Apple's "bully" and Windows' "crony greed".
I grew up with Nokias and have gr8 awe for their quality.
They thought from the ground up for mobile phones and that is why they came up successful with earliest phones. Meanwhile Apple thought from the ground up for touchscreens and that's why Apple succeeded. Blackberry thought from the ground up for security and Business grade communication and that was its secret.
Nokia ported Symbian to touchscreens and that failed to enthuse. Same case with Microsoft. But Microsoft realized that and came up with WinMo7. NOKIA did the right thing with MAEMO&HARMATTAN but was done in by the corporate world's corruption for crony greed and stock valuations.

But now that Nokia is in bed with MS; we all have been left without choices.

I call upon everyone to look to the parent Open Source OS for inspiration: Look @ LINUX; Look @ Linus Torvalds for inspiration!

What did Linus do?
He was frustrated with stupid OSes which were bloaty / buggy and decided to write his own OS based on the principle of "getting things done in a straight forward manner".

So when everyone thought Linux wouldn't survive, we saw it climb to the no.1 spot in running servers because:
1) It was stable.
2) It was secure.
3) IT WAS ABLE TO VIRTUAL MACHINE WINDOWS!!! YES IT WAS ABLE TO SANDBOX WINDOWS AND ADMINS REALLY LIKED THAT UNCOMPROMISING SECURITY!

So my SOLUTION to the app availability problem for N900 / N9 is:

TO CREATE A GR8 VIRTUAL M/C client for ANDROID 4.0 APPS.


WHY SO?:
Because 4.0 apps are designed to work with out hardware buttons.
Its open source so Android wouldn't complain using its apps.

How to?
By creating a VM app for N900/N9 and creating a cloud ANDROID CLIENT/EMULATOR service where a user can register as a ANDROID OWNER AND PAY AND DOWNLOAD APPS AND RUN THEM...

On the other hand, we can access those apps from the emulator in the cloud using our VIRTUAL MACHINE engine in our phones.

ADVANTAGE:
solves the problems for app availability.
we don't have to invent apps and maintain them. ANDROID does.
We don't steal because we are an android user in cloud.
less pressure on our device because we don't do most of the work.

MONETIZING?
Every user can avail this software by paying a subscription of $10 per year for the cloud space and android emulator engines!!!

FUTURE!?
We can integrate such Virtual Machine to the OS!


Thank you,
Please correct and contribute!

My eyes hurt.

As a N900&N9 user I have never felt "lack of useful apps". On the contrary - predominant majority of Maemo 5&6 apps are USEFULL, when it is just the opposite with iOS&Android. The only thing lacking in app availability for Maemo 5&6 are apps build for big companies/services like BMW, Eurosport, Philips, Unicredit etc. They all do it just for iOS&Android.
But the community we are in is doing great job in filling those gaps!

Also there are several projects doing that, both commercial and community.
Commercial projects have been demoed and work, but will never be release because such project is really light on copyright/patent grounds. On contrary to what you are saying, it is really a "sue me" bait. Plus you wouldn't be able to access the android market "legally" (amazon market maybe, depends on amazon).
Community projects are still in developpment, because of lack of ressources. As they don't make money and won't be incorporated into commercial products, they are much less of a legal target. It will come at some point, but probably not this year..

...And no one sees to be seriously interested in Android ''apps" for simple reason - we have real programs, so we don't need "apps".

At the very beginning, I was planning to use Nitroid for access to Android things. Before I ever started to proceed, I realized, that there is no single thing in Android world, that interest me, and for what we don't have better and FOSS alternative.

If You lack programs, just install Easy Debian, it now comes with purely squeeze-based image.

/Estel

what a load of BS - your head up your *** much ?

here is a hint - even the tech savy use iPhones and Android (Linus uses Android, and how many IT professionals use Android/Apple compared to N900?) - why ? are they all idiots and somehow YOU are the genius ? or maybe just PERHAPS they are doing it for a reason ?

The willingness to pull the wool over your own eyes astounds me - but then again cults exist everywhere, even in the FOSS world.

No wonder FOSS keeps getting its *** kicked in the mobile world - with a user base like you, who needs enemies ?

Disclaimer - FOSS is good, but to deny there are benefits to other platforms just shows how... bah nvm - its like talking to a wall.

...what are the benefits of Android to YOU then? Please elaborate.

(And you can quote me: yes, i think most people are somewhat inept sheep with no interest into delving deeper technically, that use what their colleagues/friends/marketing overlords use/suggest/promote. Flashy over substantial. Simplicity for the Masses. "App" buckets for such remotely controlled, pure consumers.)

EDIT: Btw, I would not necessarily call someone an IT "Professional" if he/she sports an iDevice. Seen too many over the last 10 yrs; flashy but unsubstantial.

EDIT 2: ...the more i read the word "APP(s)" i want to vomit, or strangle someone on the streets.

EDIT 3: Did you never wonder why most people to some degree strictly adhere to what they are presented with in real life each and every week, instead of trying to (at least partly) "roll their own", which should fit them much better and their personal lifestyle?

Because, "they" are lazy*, uninterested ("it's too complicated", "it works for my friends/colleagues too", "it's not worth the effort, when i can have what's available"), because they like living a template life that to a huuuge degree is shaped by marketing, well-known multi-national corporations, their government, the people they associate with, etc. People often do even look alike in clothing, hairstyle, and other stuff like their silly body modifications! They even listen to similar/the same music or like the same kind of (popular) movies!

OMFG - we, that we really know what's all "out there", that we like to research, to compare, to evaluate, to learn, to decide by ourself, and that we "do it our way", we must be total socially inept, crazy f*ckers according to you!

People are (proven) copycats by nature. Most people could be even exchanged to some degree. Just _one_ reason why people choose too what other people have chosen, for electronics and other stuff in life.

* (we all are, to some degree - i, f.e., am way too lazy to order my receipts, papers, bills etc. - a relatively paperless home & office should be a true heaven for me!)

Just to get some things straight:
What he had in mind was to write a good terminal emulator for his x86 computer to access his university's UNIX servers. When he realized that he had in fact written an operating system, which happened to be somehow Minix-compatible he released it. One of the reasons was that in his opinion Minix was too expensive for students. See: Linux is obsolete [1]
Afaik he never had in mind to write an OS because the ones that were out there were bloaty or buggy and if Minix or BSD had been Free back then he would have never started Linux (as a kernel).

The one who was frustrated with existing OSes (even before Linus thought about Linux) because they were restrictive (and therefore in his view buggy) was Richard Stallman. This is why he started the GNU project which unfortunately never made it to write a working kernel (HURD - it works today but still lacks lots of functionality which one would expect from a modern kernel), mainly because their standards were too high. Linux came in as a stopgap because it was a Free and WORKING kernel while BSD was still blocked due to AT&T's intervention which has probably set Free Software and Unix back for five years or so.

[1] http://groups.google.com/group/comp....47530d082cd95d

1) If you like Android THAT MUCH, then make the jump you won't regret it.
Android has become much much better than what it was before, 2.1 ,or even earlier to v1.5

2) One solution to your problem would be to port Dalvik to Maemo 5/6. This has been done with a really great performance by myriad's Alien Dalvik but they are not selling it to individuals and no-one is buying. So unless they opensource it, or someone hacks into their mainframe and leaks the build, you will never* see an Android VM running on ARM-Linux .

3) The other option is to get an android device with unlocked bootloader and root, and join in the development of Qtdroid, Android-Lighthouse, Necessitas. This brings the power of KDE / Qt to Android. Which means with a custom kernel...you can run actual linux programs inconjunction with Android. The only problem is some applications need light tweeking to get working (mostly due to the package management rpm/deb).

4) Last resort is to get an Android device. With unlocked bloader and root, get it to Dual Boot.
And use Android most of the time. When you get bored/want linux ... then chroot (a very light) Ubuntu build. It will run all your Debian files, however there are inconsistencies, laaag and sometimes even hangs!