Got hook on Linux back in 98, know enough about command line to get in trouble and find my way out of it. Last time I did coding was with Fortran. Came to the maemo community looking for Skype video on the N800 and heard that N770 and N800 are based on Linux, that is all I needed to hear.

I like to have some control and input over the apps on my hardware without having to wait for the blessing of the maker of the product.

I came here after reading about the N810 0n Cnet, to better learn about this awesome device that I seemed to be almost two yrs late for. being a cell phone junky and a gadget hound I knew this would be a fun new gadget to play with, but I never knew it would be such a milestone type of gadget "for me" that helped me learn a whole new way of life out side of windows OS and mobile device that run it ( i now have a newbie variant of ubuntu as a dual boot for my laptop and have learned tons of things from troll'n this site and yes though I'm fairly new I have actually helped others with questions that I once had, an also things that I've come across myself... Amazing .. but like the other members said, I hope this site attracts more ppl to help it grow because though some have more skill at certain things then others we all are here for essentially the same thing which is our love/interest for maemo. So with all of us doing what we can and sharing ideas an knowledge, we mite see this once small community turn into a big one that even non maemites and techies can partake in and be apart of.

Years ago we used to say an expert is the person assigned and a guru is someone that did it once. Despite being a software engineer for 45 years I'm a fan because my interest is in using my N810.

I'm just a user/fan as well, and ending my second term as Maemo Community Council member. Go figure. But, open source software is great in that regard -- just join in where you can and make history!

Tim

Linux user for fun and profit since 1999 (Red Hat Linux 5.2). Good old x11amp. at home I switched my main desktop with Red Hat Linux 6.0 which I borrowed from a math teacher. Because I had to learn command line and C I learned a lot due to experience in little time. My first handheld Linux device was a Sharp Zaurus.

Does the above matter? Hardly! The differences are so huge nowadays. Back then we had no Linux 2.6 (we had 2.0 and 2.2), no D-Bus, Qt was proprietary, we had hardware support issues, Debian was still a slow behemoth, there was no such thing as FD.o (FreeDesktop.org), there was no GIT, accelerated graphics sucked, GNOME had all kind of WMs, XFree86 still existed, .NET wasn't born, big corporations such as IBM, SUN, HP, SGI, Novell weren't much interested yet... and so on. If you experienced this you know the Linux desktop (on which Maemo 5 is partly based on; GNOME Mobile) has matured so much ever since.

If you compare from another platform then thats your reference point. Just learn to respect every platform as a unique entity instead of comparing to your reference point the whole time. And, if you do compare, at least acknowledge the bias of doing so.

Like I said earlier, I started with RH 6.2 on a mail server. Changed over to desktop Linux full-time with Mandrake 8.0. Those were the days...

I remember the Zaurus...big heavy sucker...never owned one though.

You said a mouthful there! It's a different world now. I'm still kinda hardcore though - never use Gnome, don't have anything KDE installed at all. I still use a very basic custom Fluxbox desktop, Midnight Commander, Mutt for email, etc. Old school.

Ok, I admit it - I can't stand M$. None too fond of Apple either. So now everyone here will know where I stand when they read my weak-minded comments.

This is a really cool thread, it is interesting learning people's backgrounds and how they got here. After the 1st leak of the N900 when I then learned about Maemo and the great community behind it I was even more excited the N900. Can't wait for the N900 and what the community will do with it!
My first post from May

I'm a fan. It's been a blast from the begining

I'm a user/(fan?) too. While I do know a little programming from my tinkering back in high school I do not have the profieceny of a programmer (though given enough time and access to wikis,books, online sources) I could probably figure my way around.

I do use Linux as my main operating system though (Windows Vista was.. meh. Though Windows 7 is the next best operating system since XP to me). I just try to spend my time answernig questions like I do on the Ubuntu forums since I don't actively help with coding (Though I do submit bug issues).

Long time listener, first time caller...I'm a fan! And yet to anyone I tell about my NIT, I'm an "expert". Been around PCs since the DOS days, have installed a few Linux distros over the years but don't work nor have Linux on my main personal machine. I'm not afraid of the CLI (I actually enjoy and use a lot of commands within the Windoze "shell") but don't know nearly enough Linux to do much on my own so I piece together what I need with my friend Google. I tend to find my answers for Maemo here but do poke around the internet for general Linux info or to see how the info provided here relates to the OS on the whole. I've played with various scripts, html, JS and VB off and on-some for personal reasons, some for work.

I'm a wannabe programmer, yet I probably don't even have enough experience to be a wannabe. I do enough tech work at my job that I know I could get into it/grasp it, but easily get sidetracked by other interests and thus don't dedicate enough time. But Qt has piqued my interest further, and I know it's not a first language to learn, so I'll likely just tinker around with it and fail but enjoy the learning experience.

I don't ask many questions, don't have many problems with my NIT, and know how to use Search when small items crop up that I can't get past on my own.

I never posted to the "new members" thread, do more shaking my head at some of the drama than anything, (flashbacks to ancient Yahoo chats haunt me in some threads) and cancel most of my posts rather than get drawn in. I can't wait for the first maemo.org boyfriend/girlfriend relationship and then breakup to occur. Then again, there are a few on here that make me think they're jilted ex-lovers trying to get back at one another. (I jest)

I almost scrapped this post too.