Now compare OpenOffice to iOS Numbers. If you still can't find a difference, you're not looking hard enough. And if after that you still see no difference, please press ctrl+Q.

To each his own.

I can compare OpenOffice on a PC to OS X iWork and they will come out about even. But when comparing OpenOffice on a 3.5" display and a 1.15GHz single core processor, it fails compared to Numbers.

I have it OpenOffice running on my N900 right along side Numbers on my overclocked N900. This is almost as crazy as the claim that "iPhones can't view full webpages"

You obviously don't get it.

I'll ignore the fact you've insulted many users of this forum.

A desktop app has, as a rule of thumb, MORE functionality than a mobile app. They do that so people like you are satisfied when using them on small screens and underpowered devices.

People like me prefer desktop app power over speed. It's quite simple, really.

If your personally insulted because someone is being critical of the mobile device you are using then you have issues.

As I stated prior, OpenArena is a "desktop application" it was ported to the N900. It works. You are able to use the application. However the frame rate sucks, it kills the battery, it often crashes, it is near impossible to control due to form factor, etc.

So yes, OpenArena/Quake III in theory is a more entertaining/fun game than most "mobile games" - however it just doesn't work, not on the N900, not on an Android, not on a iPhone.

You're desperately trying to fit "full desktop applications" into a device with a 3.5" touch screen, a small keyboard, 1.15GHz (max) single core processor. Your "desktop application" that was so functional on a desktop just got a whole lot less functional.

Now you want to talk to me about "power" of these desktop applications, name something that a desktop application that is ported to Maemo/MeeGo that can't be done using a mobile application. Someone brought up Gnumetric and there's iWork's Numbers that is just as good, if not better. There's OpenOffice vs iWorks. They both do the same thing, iWorks has the edge because it was BUILT around a certain platform.

No one buys Angry Birds for PC, the reason why it sells so well on mobile applications is because it was built around a mobile platform.

And you guys want to go with CSSU is "improving" Maemo 5 - I've been there, I've seen it, It's not improving it - it's fixing the bugs and the features that the developers left out. You're sill miles behind the industry standard - no auto complete or spell check, voice commands, voice navigation, any navigation at all.

It seems you all keep on forgetting; I have my N900 sitting right here next to me, it's on. I have almost every worth while application loaded on here, you want to talk about OpenOffice? I have OpenOffice 3.2 booted up now, it even shows a cursor on the screen (because it was built to be used with a mouse). GIMP? Come on, that one is pretty useless (I don't think anyone is going to object to that), I gave it to a friend who only used GIMP and he couldn't use it for the life of him.

Name me one of these powerful desktop applications running on a mobile device that there isn't a mobile application out there for. That mobile application will not only be just as powerful, but it will be much faster, much more efficient, much more user friendly, and have a far superior interface. So my challenge stands: name me a desktop application ported to a mobile device that there isn't a mobile application equivalent of that doesn't have "power"

I thank you for supporting open-mindedness. However, you tend to be blunt, sometimes to the point of rudeness, in your 'pessimistic bias'.
Yes, MyPaint does not have a finger-optimized interface. It's awkward even with stylus: how do I exit fullscreen, after entering it accidentally? Yes, it lacks some functionality, such as selecting and dragging a part of painting.
And yet, I find it the best currently existing painting application - and that's including the desktop applications.
GIMP is too complicated, as if its primary functionality is editing photographs.
XPaint does not have good support of transparency and layers-overlays.
Microsoft Paint does not support partial transparency on principle.
MyPaint is so far the only painting program with pressure sensitivity, as far as I know, and it's a great advantage.
No, it doesn't do everything I want from it. No, I am not going to look for another device because of this reason: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. If I am lucky, I will create an HTML cross-platform painting 'application'; and with devil's own luck, it will include support for pressure sensitivity. Hardware is not the problem here; combination of software, fingers and stylus is.
For now, as a distraction-inspiration, I am going to try liquid.
Best wishes.
__________________
Per aspera ad astra...

What did you expect? We are the maemo community. We are by definition maemo users. We are here because we use our N900's and our N9's and we like them better than iPhones. If it wasn't like that we wouldn't be here.

To see from what this community is made of go to the "Should I buy a N9xx or an $phone?" threads. You'll find amazingly honest people there, to the point that almost half the posters tell people to buy $phone, despite their personal love for the N9xx.

But telling us that the phones we use, program for, and discuss in our free time are not the best for us wouldn't be met with enthusiasm that's a given. It's not that your phone defines you as you say, it's that in your statement lies the implication "You don't know what's good for you, I know better". Do I need to list all the devices I've been using as primary phones to my signature to not sound like a fanboy? You'll be surprised by what many of the users/contributors around here use.

Finally you can't blame everybody for not trying the iPhone and having a half baked idea of what it is, as long as it is a niche device which costs way more than it's specs justify (like all apple products). So everybody makes an educated guess as what is better for him/her without first spending 750€ and then some more for the "best apps for $activity" and for some people the investment doesn't seem worthy. Add to that cost the investment in time and knowledge some people have put on maemo and the switch is even more difficult.

Now I've got to go, I have a reservation at Dorsia ;-)

Iphones were a joke even compared to the N95.

it's a disgrace putting the N900 and Iphone in the same sentence

Besides the ridiculous pricing, my favorite thing about the iPhone is that it only costs a $100 _every_ year to have the privilege to develop for it. Simply awesome!

This is basically a Linux enthusiast site, stop waisting your breath trying to convince us of the benefits of a walled garden. Or are you just trying to convince yourself?

He isn't trying to convince anyone, he's staying objective.

Just for you I'll translate that wall of text, basically he's saying:
Smartphones arent smartphones anymore, they are superphones.

He's saying that yesteryear there was an advantage of having a full desktop PC in your pocket, but now the hardware has gone far enough for the software to catch up. Now mobile Apps are powerful enough to compete with desktop ones, surely there's a few compromises but its true nonetheless. And that comparing those powerful mobile Apps, the experience, to a desktop App that's squeezed into a mobile device as tiny as the 3.5" N900 is laughable.

I tend to agree, there is a shift occurring. Maybe not fast enough, but the iPad, NOTE, Transformer and WinRT are evolving computing. The PC has already shifted from large servers into big desktop boxes before, and then to a laptop and then to even smaller, lighter, thinner yet more powerful laptops. Now its going to get more personal, tablets do look like the new future. Call it the Post-PC or PC+ era, call it whatever you like, but phones like the iPhone 3GS, SGS2, N900 are beginning to become obsolete, despite how ridiculous that sounds.

Well, I didn't get it quite like you, Kangal.

He never said that desktops transformed into laptops, those into smaller form factors, and so on.

On the contrary, he says these devices are complementary, and I agree.

I have a powerful desktop, with two large monitors. I use desktop applications, IDEs. I would never give up my desktop machine for a smarphone, however smart it is - there's just not enough screen real estate, etc. to use those desktop apps. Even if I could, it would be inconvenient to say the least.
With a smartphone I want do quick stuff on the go, but not serious work, and for that I need apps that are optimized to small screens and touch input.
All these devices are not replacing each other, but complementing. That's why Google refers to tablets as "the third screen", desktop/laptop and smartphone being the first two.