@sondjata: are there issues with XMMS? buggyness...

@JayOnThaBeat: thanks, good point on the stereo output!

I think I'll step in here for a second. I flat out hate Windows with every fiber of my being, even if I have to use it for certain programs I've already grown accustomed to.

Now, I have every right. I've used Windows since Windows 3.11: WFW and yes, I've used just about every OS.

Windows 3.11: WFW *
Windows 95
Windows 98 First Edition
Windows 98 Second Edition *
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 2000 Standard/Professional
Windows Millennium Edition
Windows XP Home/Professional *
Windows Vista Home Premium/Business

Any Windows version that has an asterisks (*) is my favorite of them, but that's not saying much. I've never had the displeasure of using Windows CE/Mobile and that's a good thing. From what I was told by many users, crashes too much and it's too slow. MAYBE the new Windows 7 (Mobile and x86) will fair much better, but not since the end of Windows 3.x has there really been a "stable" Windows OS.

Anyway, think what you will of Windows. Even if they had a free mobile version that could be put on our devices, I wouldn't use it, not even for testing. Still, I use Windows XP Professional on my PC because:

1.) It's a "decent" OS for this PC
2.) Some of the really good programs I work on everyday don't work under WINE in Linux
3.) I got it for free from M$

Anyway, that aside, I'd Mer is going to be really awesome once it's out of Alpha/Beta and is basically on the same level as Maemo with initial end-user release.

Jesse~

Oh boy, okay I post-poned this reply cause I was looking for a chart that I thought I had seen floating around on the 'net (it turned out I was thinking of another image entirely)

All the "hate" for Windows here is simply the closed nature of it compared to OSes such as Linux. Now as far as this thread is concerned OS choice is simply personal opinion.

The issue is a user that has only ever used Windows their whole life and then takes the plunge into Linux needs to know a few things.

A lot of the things they "take for granted" of how an OS works, looks, etc. is thrown out the window because there are no hard-coded defaults (technically).

For instance in Windows you have Windows Explorer, yeah there are some third-party file explorers but very few people use them and they tend to only be useful for specialized functions such as batch file processing and not day-to-day use (or more importantly don't incorporate all the features of explorer.exe), on Linux you have Nautilus (gnome), Konquerer (KDE), Thundar, Midnight Commander, etc.

Next window managers. Ok so there is Redmond classic (or w/e from the Win 95/98 era). XP's luna. And Vista's Aero. All of which are basically the same except for graphical improvements down the line. Of course there is a great third-party suite call Stardock that offers all kinds of theming and uses a lot of system resources to get around that "unsigned" theme thing. But really these aren't different window managers at all, they are just different themes - and there are themes a plenty for Linux, only about 20-30 for Maemo though. In Linux popular wm include Gnome+gtk+metacity (or emerald for compiz support), KDE+qt, IceWM. For Windows XP you can use an alternative shell like Litestep (there are several others including X WM ports), "However the level of customization which is even possible in Windows XP compared to X is severely limited due to the tight integration of the various components" (Wikipedia).

I could go on and on but I think one more, command line intereface. In Linux you can boot into a computer and utilize the CLI without starting X (interfaces with monitor to allow graphical User Interface) and then when desired run a command such as $ startx. You can also access a virtual console with CTRL+ALT+ (1 through 8 depending on distro). Now there is DOS on the Microsoft side but that's very obsolete. Of course there is MS-DOS a virtual implementation within Windows and for Linux xterm, gnome-terminal, ROXterm, konsole, etc. similar but more user friendly and more powerful. You can even ssh which is like using a terminal on a computer remotely (among other things); yes there is telnet but that's not exactly know for it's security.

Now obviously most of the above applies best to desktop Linux and obviously desktop Windows which is different from the mobile Linux versions available for the Nokia Internet Tablets.

The point of this post is that you logon to a Windows install and you know what to expect, Windows explorer, the Luna theme in XP and Aero in Vista, etc. While Linux, BSD, and others are all about choice in every respect.

Speaking of choice rather than flame wars, just multi-boot (desktop/laptop; true multi-boot isn't there yet for the tablet )

And on the EQ note, I personally never use EQs cause my hearing isn't that sensitive/picky. However, it's a reasonable feature, though please don't expect those features on the included/default media player because that's a half-assed POS. I'm currently about to download the maemo port of VLC which should have an EQ.

So uh, jalladin, let us know when you receive your tablet

@Linuxeventually:
Your postings have great content, and should be a great help for newbies, but (no offense) it might help if you cleaned up the punctuation, run-on sentences, and excessive abbreviations. Don't take this the wrong way - I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I had a bit of trouble following some of it, and I already knew everything you mentioned there; newbies finding this thread in the future would have likely get more out of it if it was easier to read.

I used to be into WIndows shell mods a few years ago. There are many way to replace Explorer and the windows "theme." You can install alternative shells (like KDE or Gnome in a way) such as lightstep, darkstep, etc... There is a ton of ways to modify Windows, but obviously not as much as Linux.

The composting engines on X are much better than Aero, but Aero does a good job.

Yeesh. My windozing goes back as far as your does, and IMHO, it keeps getting stabler and stabler (...law and order svu spinoff?).

I used to get BSOD's all the time in older versions, thru and including XP. Since I've been running vista 64, not one *knocks on wood* , and i'm on it 8-12 hours a day, running all kinds of progs.

maybe it's cuz i'm not a programmer, i dunno. what i do know is that until they start making games for linux (like the ones i have for windoze), i'll stick with ms. (mlb 2k9 is the bomb, yo )

EDIT
oh, and I run it aero off. not sure if it's faster/better, i just don't need it to be that fancy.

EDIT2
hey, who hijacked this thread? i should start an off-topic "what do you think of windoze?"... i wonder how that would turn out :P

@linuxeventually the very last line was just about all i was able to understand, as much as i wish i knew what you were exsplaining, but( I most definatly will let every one here know when i get it).Thanks


Not to sound to redundent in my questions, I know they are two different OS's but will "Mer" more or less be like the Fremantle for n8x0 tablets once its ready...

Mer is not Fremantle. Mer is/will be based upon many components of Fremantle, but also on Ubuntu, rather than normal Maemo. I believe the initial inspiration for Mer came from the question of "how could we make a better Maemo, if we were to do it again?", and, as such, it is bound to be somewhat different than where Nokia is going with Fremantle. Secondly, being a community-run distribution, based on Ubuntu, born from the minds of hackers in the Maemo community, Mer can be many things; yes, there will be defaults, but it won't be difficult to say, run LXDE instead of Hildon-desktop, etc.
So... in some ways, the answer is yes - as far as Nokia is concerned, it's a "Fremantle Community Edition", but the actual experience may be different. At any rate, Mer will make sure your N810 doesn't get left behind, and in the mean time, Diablo should meet most/all of your needs.

thanks Jaem, for clearing that up and also giving me something to look forward too later, I knew "it wasnt fremantle" but i was only trying to verify, for myself, if it was similar to or like Mer at all. because i hear a lot of things in other blog/forums saying how the tablets are old and pointless, which to me is ubserd when software is what makes devices like the Iphone seem so appealing IMO when compaired to the n810 but to me its just the software that scare ppl off for ease of use and not being as up to date as the latest apple stuff. sorry i just really like the tablets

jalladin, I won't pretend to be a sage on this topic, however I will give you an idea of my natural progression with Maemo and the N810. First I think the N810 is the best toy I've ever had. Now I say that because I really like Linux. For me, i started out with the default OS installed then did the first upgrade after a few hours and was pretty happy. I tested the device with Android and that was fun for a little while however I haven't played with that in a very long time. I've since been using the Diablo release and have cloned the OS to an SD card because I wanted to have more room for installed applications. I've been using Linux for just over 10 years and this little machine runs Linux well. There really are a lot of applications out there and a lot of options such as downloading a big file and loading Debian as you have read previously. I use mine primarily for hacking/penetration testing for work, navigation (both car and hiking) as my personal computer for all times traveling/my communication device (this device is great for that), and as my remote control to my home computers/DVR boxes. So far I've been able to do all of this within Diablo. Also for less common, but not infrequent uses it is my mp3/ogg player, movie player and book reader. I, much like jaem, believe that Mer is something to look forward to and will probably move to it when the time comes. It is Linux so if you need to do something you can always find someone to help you or you can figure it out and post your process. Either way to me it is not an issue as to what OS should i put on it, but which one should i start out with first. To me that is the fun part.. IMHO that is where the Iphone fails and Windows based devices suffer. You can try to tweak them but you have serious difficulty replacing the OS completely. This device comes with an invitation to really explore. Just to be clear I like the Iphone, just not willing to pay for it.