I have a N900 for four months now, and was not very happy with it. I felt - and still feel - that Nokia ripped us of, because the key applications of this PDA: calendar, email, contacts and before all the broken syncing with Google, are ABYSMAL. I am amazed that they are getting away with it.

Yesterday I swallowed the red pill and installed Easy Debian and finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. BTW: the installation went without a hitch, although it can take some time (I think a hour, and the tablet looks as if it has become unresponsive, but just have faith).

Easy Debian runs as an application within Maemo and my greatest worry was if the normal functions of the phone would remain accessible. Well, I got a call and could answer it while experimenting with ED, so that was one worry less. I found that the desktop could be minimalized just like other Maemo applications.

ED gives you a normal Linux desktop on the N900. You need rather good eyes and a steady hand (luckily I have both) with the stylus, but then the resolution is good enough to have, e.g. Thunderbird and Firefox (under different names).

Even better: you can install some addons in Iceweasel (Firefox) such as foxmarks and adblock. I am especially happy with Foxmarks, because it syncs my bookmarks over several PC's and laptops. Alas: no Lightning (the agenda application of Firefox and Thunderbird), but I hope to install Evolution or Kdepim and keep them synced with Gcalendar.

Finally, I can now open email attachments in doc, odt or pdf. Doc and Odt are opened by Openoffice3,. That is real slow to the point of being unusable, but again I hope to improve that by plugging in Koffice in stead of Openoffice.

ED uses Gimp as the imageviewer. That is a bad idea imho, like using a cannon to shoot a mosquito. I looked where to change that but could not yet find it.

The response time of the desktop is not lightning fast, but sufficient. I still have to get used to the fact that there are no mouse buttons on the stylus interface. It looks like the battery is having a hard time of it, after two hours of ED, it was half empty.

All in all, a relief. Finally it looks as if I can use the N900 in the way I expected it.

I look forward to your experiences and suggestions.

Paai

Why on earth you didn't install firefox mobile (fennec) straight to maemo. IIRC it has wave sync.

Opening attachments probably depend on what you have installed to your device.

I do not know what wave sync is, but from the reactions on this forum I understand that Fennec has severe performance problems.

As for email attachments in the Maemo mail client: again I gather from the other N900 users that you need Docs to Go and will run into problems there.

Easy Debian gives me an unified Linux environment that I am directly familiar with.

Paai

I think he meant Weave bookmark sync.

You can install abiword and gnumeric to do doc/xls files direct from mail.

Isn't Maemo just Debian optimised for a small device?

Installing another variant of Debian seems counter-productive to the ethos of the N900?

Ethos? I don't quite get that one, although I could grudgingly accept the feeling in the non-quotable addition to your post.

Suffice it to say that Easy Debian solves a lot of the issues I have with Maemo and I suggest to anyone with the same issues to try it.

Paai

Heyy...so 'easy debian' wen installed...does it make N900 slow?? and the 2nd linux desktop which it creates...can it be minimized to use the normal functions of N900?? plz lemme know...
Thanks!

The ED distro runs inside a normal desktop and behaves as other Maemo applications. Its speed obvioulsy depends on the number of applications that are running, but it is usable unless you want to use large apps like Openoffice... It takes time to get used to navigation with the stylus.

Paai

Don't forget that changing your theme can get you a lot of screen space.