I've been using Maemo for a number of years now, but I'm just a regular user, not a developer. I know very little about using Linux of any flavor, and while I appreciate open source software, I'm in no ways a purist. So the following post for me is all about the usability and interaction with the device.

I've used Android a fair amount too. My wife has had an Android for a couple of years now that I use frequently, and I've bought 3 Android phones myself over the years (only to return two of them later because I found them to frustrating to use daily). I mention this just to say that this isn't just a matter of the OS being new to me.

My N800 generally feels like a laptop replacement. It is slow at a lot of tasks these days, and it frequently turns off on its own, but when it is working I generally don't feel the need to go to the laptop to do something since almost everything can be done almost as easily with the NIT.

I have had a Galaxy Note 2 for about a month now, and I distinctly don't feel that way when using it. The phone works great for playing Angry Birds, it works pretty well for internet browsing and/or watching YouTube videos, but actual work like things, like replying to an email are so painful that I postpone almost all of them until I'm at my laptop.

The thing is, I can't really point to any single reason why. There are somethings for sure, like being unable to find a keyboard that really works well, and the fact that copy and paste is awkward and doesn't seem to be universally supported/applied. But it seems more than the sum of these small parts, there is just an overarching feel that you are not using something that was conceptualized as a full featured desktop replacement, and I'm having trouble accepting that.

So any others feel the same way? Any tips from other Maemo users on how to adjust?

I simply buy android for their screen size. They are superior in that area. And soon we can hopefully install ubuntu phone OS on other Android devices than galaxy nexus. Hopefully you like that better.


Dolphin, SwiftKey are great. The only application I use nothing more is needed or wanted.

I've had two android phones and I agree to a point, I just can't keep my sim in them. i'm not a dev, just a passionate user. Android is to me really bloated and inefficient, tons of bad UI desicions, (tool bars on top navigation on bottom?, app tray in slow moving pages, only folders on the home screens, such waste of homescreen.) that causes you to do magical tricks wtih your hands to use it with any ease. Then is the hardware, there isn't a single android phone with a nokia quality camera, speaker, or sound quality. I do also go back to symbian, n8 after my n900 and 808 after my n9 (now back on n9) and get frustrated with the glitches of symbian.

I think part of the reason is that Android is designed as a single-task OS. Sure, there's multitasking now, but it wasn't built in from the start, so each app behaves as though it were the only one, rather than recognizing that there are others. This means that if you are trying to do something with multitasking you have to more completely switch contexts, which is harder to do - whereas on Maemo you have applications based on desktop libraries that are designed to cooperate with each other.

This definitely feels like a big part of it. This morning I was trying to look up something on my Note. I started typing in the phrase I was searching for into the search field in Dolphin, but I had to look up a model number in another app, so I briefly switched away, looked up the number and switched back only to find that I had to retype the first part of the string again. Did the OS decide to shut down the browser that I'd just been using to save system resources, or was there something else going on? I don't even know the answer, but I know that little things like that seem to happen all the time, and so the devices just don't seem to lend themselves well to easy multitasking.

I recently got a Nexus 7. I like the big screen size and the smoothness of the device, but when I go back to my N9, it makes the N7 feel like crap. When I was about to get my N9, someone told me that if I started to use the N9, I would not be able to use any other operating system. They are right. Android feels just too plain and boring for me. I know it has a lot of apps with a ton of stuff I can do with it, but the OS itself is just too blah.

i agree to this point..i just cant see myself with an android..they seem to lack somthing..ive got an ipad...my twin went back to a 4s after using a galaxy s3... even when i boot into ics4 on my n9 to play temple run...i feel weird

I constantly have issues like that in multitasking, games restarting, browser, downloads stopped, etc..... Its year behind symbian, not even starting with meego or maemo. Its multitasking is horrible. I might of had better on my silly nokia 3650. when I try to explain this to people on engadget/the verge they dismiss me and just say those are dead stupid platforms, but those people were using razrs when I had symbian smartphones, I don't think they are capable of understanding what a snartphone should be capable of. That includes mobile editors on these sites.

This is not actually true. Android has supported activity based multi-tasking since API level 1, or the version before the first commercially released version of the OS. Some apps run completely as services (eg. VX Connectbox SSH) and only shut down on an explicit exit, which is analogous to the way it's handled on the linux desktop (for example).
http://developer.android.com/referen.../Activity.html

It is certainly more complex than process exclusive multi-tasking, but it also has the advantage of allowing the OS to determine how best to manage limited resources, and gives the app control based on a number of states. This is a big deal on mobile devices with limited memory and battery capacity. I also suspect would be very valuable addition on the desktop as well. It even simplifies user-management, as it is generally not required to actually exit out of apps. (I say 'generally' because some stubborn apps stay in memory and do not allow the OS to clean them up.)

And I agree that some apps do not cache well, or otherwise re-start when selected from the task manager. Of course, this is avoidable through better code, and the developer should be contacted.

Yep. But under Android one can use:

Hacker's Keyboard
CalDAV-Sync
CardDAV-Sync
aCalendar+
Aqua Mail

which, plus some other bits, more than make it acceptable.