Because Maemo has the best, most integrated, and consistent GUI of any form of Gnu/Linux/X available?

I'd certainly rather use Maemo than any other dist. Especially on a tablet, but even on a desktop. I like Ubuntu, but, really, a desktop version of Maemo would blow Ubuntu out of the water.

Your first question answered itself. It's _windows_. Windows Mobile has less baggage than real/desktop Windows, but it still has many of the same issues (cultural issues, design issues, etc.).

It shouldn't surprise you that people who are on a NIT oriented forum are partially here to escape the WinCE/WinMO environment, and thus largely dismiss or reject WinCE-only and/or WinMO-only devices.

The US has one. This isn't about 3G, this is about the emergence of 4G. The N810 WiMAX is basically a 4G device ... without a reasonably deployed 4G network to utilize. That's true whether you're talking about the US or Europe. The only decent deployment of WiMAX isn't even WiMAX, it's WiBro, in S. Korea.

The N810 WiMAX didn't fail because the US didn't have good enough 3G coverage, it failed because the WORLD wasn't ready for 4G, so a 4G device was incredibly premature. An N810 GSM/WCDMA device would probably have done a TON better (in the US and Europe) than the N810 WiMAX did.

The reason why this device will probably be OK is that a) it'll probably work just fine in Samsung's home country (S. Korea), and by the time it reaches the US, there will probably be a more solid WiMAX deployment to sell it into. And the WiMAX provider here will probably show it more love, since it's a WinMO device, as well.

The issue isn't "GSM vs WiMAX", and whether or not current investments are good enough. It's about the 4G protocol war (WiMAX vs LTE). The lack of adoption of WiMAX in the EU didn't happen because "we're good with WCDMA/UMTS". It happened because LTE became the direction everyone in the EU decided to go for the next generation. If everyone's deploying LTE for 4G, then WiMAX becomes a moot deployment.

(if there's one thing I give credit to the EU for, in this arena, it's that they're very consistent about this -- the US is rather schitzophrenic about it with EVDO and WCDMA, but 4G will be less so, with almost everyone going LTE over WiMAX).

With more known now about the Samsung Mondi, how does it look as a possible port for Mer?

See, e.g.,

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=317960&postcount=7
http://www.pocketables.net/samsung-mondi.html
http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/m...l&tab=features
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/...-33573789.html

Hmm, actually I'm less interested now than when I started this message: It turns out that the unit weighs 7.9 ounces, not the 5.4 ounces that Samsung erroneously advertises. But I'm still curious if it's a candidate for Mer. With a 4.3" screen and no cellphone integration, it seems, in terms of hardware, more like a successor to the Tablets than anything else out there.

kinda pointless as its not a cortex device...

The N800 and N810 weren't Cortex either; and the Samsung Mondi does use an ARM processor -- that's not sufficient for Mer-compatibility?

while it is, i do not see the mondi as any kind of "upgrade".

i would like to see a maemo/mer tablet with upgraded internals.