@ christ

Posts like yours above make me want to look for the 'block all posts by this user' button. I am already doing it mentally. Please keep it a little more reasonable or you risk that people will stop reading anything that you print.

Epi

Both apps that really need portrait, already support them:
ebook reader (FBReader)
shopping lists (Shopper)

Of course, I am not against making it bog simple for these two apps to do this. From what I can see in the code, it is a bit of a trick to get it done in maemo 4.

I guess a lot of us would breath easier if we were to have an official statement from Nokia saying that they also consider portrait mode important and are working to support it.

Call me cynic, but from what I have seen so far, not gonna happen. At least, not soon.

*sighs*

They've said that Maemo 6 will be a lot more portrait friendly.

One of the reasons I will not buy the N900 right now. Waiting on Harmattan.

Indeed it has, and I don't think anyone is arguing that more universal portrait support, when it comes, will be a negative development for Maemo. However, Fremantle won't bring it, at least initially, as that would have delayed its release by (a probably roughly estimated) six to twelve months.

That further delay would have left maemo.org something like a ghost town, and killed any momentum Nokia has built with the tablets.

On the other hand, it's clear Nokia has heard the demand for better portrait support here and elsewhere. They've dropped strong hints that Harmattan is the place for that, but they've also hinted that they'll be investigating what can be done to add better support to Fremantle down the line, through SSUs.

Certainly not. I only mentioned I'd done it as someone, possibly you, stated it wasn't feasible.

I apologize, but I'm unfamiliar with the term, and none of the top Google hits make sense in context.

I've never seen, much less used, an N97. In fact, the only Symbian devices I've ever seen (beyond Internet photos) were in the Nokia store in Heathrow. I should have stopped to look at one, but, well, I've never been interested in phones.

I apologize for offending you. I had thought that "Don't buy what doesn't suit your needs" was a fairly innocuous statement, but I clearly need to rethink that.

You've presented yourself here as a pillar of the Symbian community, a well respected voice of knowledge there, and one who, through his insightful and well researched articles, provides valued recommendations to the Symbian user base. I've no reason to doubt any of that, so I've accepted you at face value.

You've also said you know the Symbian users, and they will not accept Maemo 5, as is, without universal portrait support. I have no reason to doubt your knowledge, so I accept this too.

It was with these givens in mind that I made my, I'm sorry to say, offensive statement. For now at least, Fremantle does not have what Symbian users need. However, as you say, they take portrait support such for granted that they might never think to question its existence in another OS. You're in a position to educate them on the issue and explain that, for those who need more portrait support than Fremantle brings, sticking with Symbian may be the wisest choice, at least for the time being.

There's no time left for Nokia to make fundamental changes to Maemo 5 now, and the delay required for inserting such would be too large to be beneficial. So while we can attempt to assist the Maemo developers and mangers by proposing select, priority pieces for possible, future "portraitization", having Symbian users (or others) show up simply decrying Maemo 5 for its lack of portrait support isn't productive. Please note I'm not denying that universal portrait support would help Maemo 5 and the N900 succeed in the marketplace. I'm sure it would. I'm simply pointing out what is, and how we can move forward productively.

What I was trying to say in my limited English is, we (who are those we anyway ? No Nokia folks in this particular subthread) are listening to people's needs, but are you, Symbian users listening ? Do you realize what Maemo brings to the table, how does it work both as an OS and a community ? Maemo is able and willing to change in it's own pace, but are you, Symbian folks able to change and adapt or do you just see a technically improved Symbian alternative in it and want the same features, same philosophy (and same limitations) you had, just in a shiny, modern package ? 'Cause that would be a shame, as Maemo is so much more.

Ok, anyone who owned a Nokia N-Gage, raise your hand!

If you did, you shouldn't have any problems with the N900 at all (atleast i won't really, had a N-Gage 1,5yrs)

The whole idea of migrating from Symbian to Maemo is to, at least, preserve the same features and to forget about its limitations.

Maemo, being feature-wise identical to Symbian would be a no-brainer decision because it wouldn't have said limitations, however, losing features makes that decision harder.

Either Symbian addresses its limitations, or Maemo adds the features it lacks. If Symbian does it first (and they are working on it), then Maemo won't gain new users from this platform and will have to look for them elsewhere.

The reverse, of course, can also happen and that would be more desirable for Maemo's future.

Automatic Screen Rotation, afaik.