I'd like to see the sort of moves suggested by CrashAndDie with one exception: I don;t want a separate 'business' maemo and leisure maemo. I want one device that will do it all. One device that will be my work unit for connecting to groupwise, email exchange etc, and my fun device with games, videos and music, my connected device with twitter, tumblr and LJ, and my 'me-time' device with books and a Bible.

As I see the market right now, maemo is the OS most likely to be able to deliver that in 5 years time.

No one will ever make anything like a correct prediction about computing in 20 years time. Even 10 years time is extremely unlikely.

Would anyone in 1989 really have guessed that the majority of computing devices in 2009 would be mobile phones? Or that the majority of mobile phones would be sold in the developing world?

The only prediction I would make is that in 20 years time computing devices will be so cheap and ubiquitous that the hardware brand will be as trivial as the brand of pocket calculator you use. Most people won't care what the device OS is, as they will use their apps through online services.

[Off Topic] I predict that the conclusion of the Long Count will put an end to all this in 2012. Humanity will be catapulted back to a stone age, where the primary technology will be flint knapping and stitching garments with bone needles, making the superiority of maemo over iPhone all rather accademic[/off topic]

Hey, someone had to say it!

RevdKathy,
and when that happens I will curl up in a little ball and continue to draw my world
I will find some way to power it (ive got plenty of motors and enough circuit knowledge to jimmy something together)

Does this mean we have to start inscribing lists of iPhone zealots in stone right away, so that we can return to them and finish the business with flint weaponry once the new stone age begins? =)

didn't someone say that these devices have more computing power than what NASA sent a rocket to the moon with originally?!
being able to count needles and calculate how many wild antelope you need to kill to make your new furnishings with is important! (I spent 10 years working with a curtain calculations program lol)

Right, I'm buying one of the solar powered chargers. Then I can continue to use my n900. I will be seen as a mystical shaman who controls a powerful god called Mae Mo. Of course, it won't be much use with no-one to connect with, but it will still be Strong Magick.

And Lcuk, I need some new curtains. Is this progamme available on Fremantle?

And if by chance that doesn't happen, the world will have run out of Lithium for the batteries. You don't get much talk time out of carbon-zinc.

Lithium really isn't rare at all. They'll just need to find a way to extract it from something else than those highly concentrated salt lakes.

With MIT releasing SixthSense as open source I think the future will show a lanyard with a speakerpatch behind your ear to have VR bundled with reality, your screen is the environment, your interface is the world and believe me it is just a matter of community how fast this will be available as the hardware the inventing team used is just about a few hundred bucks!