well, that.. really... sucks... one of the main reasons I wanted the n810...

@kingka, Texrat

I had an old Pentium 200 that I used exclusively as my linux box until roughly 4 years ago. It wasn't fast, and certainly didn't have copious amounts of RAM (32MB, I believe, later upgraded to 64MB), but it was *more* than sufficient for conducting my tasks. What were those tasks?

Watching movies (mplayer ~ 1Mbit/second -- DiVX DVD rips at full resolution)
Listening to music (xmms ~ MP3/ogg <= 320Kbit)
Surfing the net (Dillo/Opera)
3D modeling (using Blender -- no joke)
3D games (Quake 2 + Emulators as high as N64 -- albeit sluggish)
Development (nedit, and command line compilers: gcc mainly)
Word processing (AbiWord)
Graphic Manipulation (GIMP, before the GTK 2 ascension)
Picture viewing (GQView, again, before the GTK 2 ascension)
Web/Database/SSH/FTP Server (running at all times)
etc, etc, etc

I was considered a 'power user' among my peers, and they vocalized their perplexity that I would continue to rock such paltry hardware. But my system often outperformed theirs for the vast majority of tasks. I had found a set of applications that were both full featured and light on both memory and CPU usage.

But as with the most tragic of tales, I was heavily influenced to upgrade (...or I'd still be using the same system. I like to develop given constraint; it ensures my code is efficient. I digress... which is the point of parenthesis, I suppose...) to have the full Web and Office support, and as many of the projects that I loved 'upgraded' their libraries to newer ones that were ridiculously bloated and a good deal slower.

When I moved up to my current system (a mere 1GHz AMD Athalon sumthin'-or-other) I was BLOWN AWAY by how much speed I had with the current applications I used. I was even more blown away by the wretched performance of acclaimed applications like Firefox, OpenOffice, Azureus, etc. If the Blender Foundationcan fit an entire 3D modeling/animation application complete with: rendering engine (raytracing/global illumination/shaders), game engine, particle simulator, video and sound compositor, video encoder, *and* its own user interface (!!) in a package that's a 12MB download and 15MB in memory at startup, why-oh-why is my text only IM client slower to load and consuming the same amount of RAM?

I see similar trends with maemo development. This causes people to complain, though their complaints are misdirected: people blame the impressive N810 hardware for the responsiveness of their applications, when it would be more productive to harass the development community. The hardware is *more* than capable of handling most applications well. I think it's a shame that developers today often rely on processor speed and memory to offset sloppy design and poor design decisions.

We can have PERFECT browsing. We can have 20 apps open simultaneously. We can have flawless video playback. We can have all the applications we love dearly on our desktops. What's more, is we can have them all run at blazing speeds.


}:^)~
YARR!!

Scrapt'n

@kingka

Pidgin is hugely popular. I anticipate that it will be ported quickly.

Great post, cap.

one minute i'm bitter (but still a future owner). next minute someone posts something to educate me a little more and I'm hopefull (and an excited future owner). I'm hoping pidgin is ready by the time I get mine.

I've been using Jabber with transports to connect to AIM using the built-in Jabber client on my N800 since February and it works fantastically for me. Just find yourself a Jabber server that supports the transports for the protocols you use, sign up and set up the transports on your computer with something like Psi before you set it up on the IT.

Much less bloat than Pidgin and a lot much usable since it's built-in.

The jabber setup was way too confusing for me. Much like the SSH issue we already went over, I could not find clear, thorough instructions on how to setup my account. There always seemed to be something critical missing (I believe it had to do with the transport). Whereas with Google Talk and Pidgin, everything Just Worked.

@kingka
I know what excitement over this tablet is like, trust me! But even so, I implore you to do your homework before you make a purchase.

I know, if I didn't do my homework, I would have bought an Sony Mylo (when I first read about it, I was floored that you could surf *and* play mp3s on this device ) or an iPhone, and would have been tremendously disappointed. Not because of the quality of hardware/software, but because they don't do what I want; at least not to the proficiency of more personally suited options (the Nxxx series) currently on the market.


@Texrat
Haha.. Thanks. I'm just a passionate developer lamenting about the seemingly lost art of optimization...

I could go on about this forever, so I'd be wise to stop here.


}:^)~
YARR!!

The Bonnie Capt'n

the reason I didn't buy the iphone is because I did my homework. (doesnt support flash, kind of a pain to use the virtual keys, the annoyance of itunes) the n810 does what I want, and more. I'm sure if the more experienced user are having trouble with jabber, I may have trouble too. the guy from thoughtfix said pidgin will be on the n810 once it's released. so I'm guessing everything should be fine. thanks guys, you rock.

Yeah, I chose against iPhone for the same reason, and others.

1) The price. While the unit prices are seemingly comparable, the iPhone really is far more expensive after tacking on $100 for data/voice per month.

2) Open system. This is a biggie for me, as I like having freedom with my purchase, and dislike limitations on what can/can't be modified.

3) The screen. The iPhone may be multi-touch, but the N8xx has great resolution. Screen real-estate is large selling feature. Without it, and I doubt I'd be able to use the N810 as an ebook reader as reliably (a feature I'm *really* looking forward to).

4) Flash. Just like you, flash is a large part of the internet experience. There are tons of great flash applications and tools (flashearth.com, fauxto.com, blog.papervision3d.org, etc) out there, with a growing number. This includes internet audio and video.

5) GPS. This is a HUGE feature that will ensure that I take my N810 everywhere. I can plot my own course, but knowing where I am in the first place is a very useful feature.

6) Keypad. Being able to peck away in the back of a shaky car, is more appealing than using the screen. Plus I'd likely use this alternate input for other applications.

7) The stand. This is SUCH a great (and simple) feature. When playing a movie, having a video conference, talking on your SIP phone, the stand allows you to simply sit back and enjoy without a fuss. If you don't want it, it disappears back onto the unit body.

8) The stylus. Though fingers are good for some tasks, some tasks simply are benefited with a stylus as input. This includes sketching, jotting written notes, routinely selecting small items, etc.

9) Cut and paste. Seriously. For all the great design decisions the iPhone has, leaving this one out is baffling. I cut and paste text all the time (see I just did it again).

10) Internet Phone. $10/mnth for unlimited incoming and my own number and $0.01/minute outgoing is a pretty hard to beat deal, especially when the number follows me anywhere there is an internet connection.

11) Longevity. Even if Nokia went out of business a week after I got my N800, I could still enjoy it for quite some time afterwards. This is the byproduct of an open platform.

12) Value. I've seen no other device out there that packs so many features into a pocketable unit. This makes the N810 a terrific value.

and

13) Apps. While I'm sure the iPhone will have/has plenty of tools, knowing the tools that the N810 has, and even more that exist for desktop linux (or even the command line), I'm know that my needs are thoroughly covered.


}:^)~
YARR!!

Coluptu-san