Thanks for the link, i'm off to look now!


N95/96?!?!?! Did you miss me mentioning i have an E90? Why would i downgrade to an N series?

The two can learn a lot from each other.

And X term is something I actually want on my mobile device. Yet, on such a small screen, you can't get a 80x24 terminal. Which ****s up some applications.

Now, regarding software availability.

1) Many are shareware, demo, nagware. There are also problems with unsigned software.
2) There is no central repository or easy way to upgrade applications. There is no APT or App Store of some kind. Geez, what a load of hoompa to get Viewranger _downloaded_. And then its a trial...
3) Some things are really difficult on S60. The hierarchy of the filesystem is a complete mess. Compare to OSX (not Windows please).
4) Some applications are non-standard, some are. For example, there is no free/open OpenOffice.org-like suite. However, there is some very cool and useful software for S60. And it has the momentum of being developed for. E.g. Google Maps is available for S60 (Maemo has Maemo Mapper though). Although iPhone has this momentum as well.

We'll see some nice competition between Nokia N97 and RX-51 the only thing I wish for, is that the OSes evolve further, learn from each other, and get more compatible (eventually a S60_compatibility_layer, Cygwin_for_S60, or toolkit compatibility via Qt would also be win-win)

I'd like to add my $.02. I have a Nokia 770, Nokia 800, AND a Nokia N95. The N770 and N800 made a Nokia fan out of my and THEN I decided to migrate from a Palm OS phone (Treo 700P) to the N95. I like BOTH the S60 phone and the Maemo tablet. People get awfully defensive when you start comparing platforms, but we need to remember that EVERY platform has it strengths AND weaknesses. Nokia's devices are no different.

I used to use the N800 in combination w/ the data tethering of the Treo to give me Internet away from home. The N95 has proven to be sufficient for many of those tasks and if I were forced to chose a single device to take on a trip, it would have to be the N95 because the N95 makes a decent Internet device but the N800 is simply NOT a cellphone (and was not meant to be).

If I can have both, I like the bigger screen of the N800 for web browsing, video, etc.. I bought Garmin Mobile XT for the N95 and, with the N95's built-in GPS, it is the superior GPS platform at the moment. The N800 screen size makes it better for an ebook reader. I could list all the apps that I use on each, but that would be pointless. I just wanted to make the point that both have their place.

I look forward to the U.S. release of the N97. I think the N97 is quite a step towards the N800 in that it has a larger, higher resolution, touch screen and larger memory capacity. I expect that when I get an N97, I'll have less need for the N800, but I'm very "fond" of the N800 and there are some Maemo apps that I'll probably want to keep around.

One parting note... I wish Nokia would make A2DP support on Mameo as simple and transparent as it is on the N95. The N95 supports my BT stereo headsets right "out of the box" and works brilliantly. It's a pain (at best) on the N800.

Let's not argue of the merits of two fine platforms. Remember, you could always be forced to use Windows Mobile.

Gary

death first!

Not really. Porting an OS to new hardware is extremely difficult. And to make it perform at it's full usefulness is even harder.

If you were to attract more developers to Maemo by making Maemo more mainstream, most of those applications would make it to Maemo. And they would run natively. So really, nobody would be 'porting symbian applications' to Maemo, but developers would create new applications for the platform.

See the difference? (Getting Symbian to work on the tablets is a 'port', while getting more useful apps on Maemo is 'evolution').

New hardware is a little exaggerated. OMAP2 is an old hat for Symbian.