I'm an IT graduate and used my n810 to do my C coding as assignments(some basic ones and all CLIs) but have never wrote any applications for tablet though. I did try using jalimo to write programs before in tablet as I only had java knowledge but never got anywhere maybe I was lazy or I was not satisfied with the comments on using jalimo in the tablet but now I know C, I'm going thru all the n900 developer guides and have also successfully installed scratchbox and maemo sdk in my computer. BTW, I started learning more about linux only after I got my n810 and yeah I'm also a big fan of maemo.

I always liked maemo and the this community but never needed just a table, so I was hoping that someday a maemo device with phone functions will be released. And that day is here
I'm not a stranger to coding but the last line I wrote was like 15 years ago so now I'm just a fan looking for extreme usability, monster multitasking and total freedom.
Now I have a thrill feel about maemo phones like a teenager who wants to discover everything about his girlfriend )

As GeneralAntilles and timsamoff said, you start out as a fan, and if you hang around long enough, and are helpful enough to people coming in behind you, you end up on the council.

My biggest fear about this community is that, as new people join, we're going to lose some of that great spirit of, "Hey, here's what I've just learned, you should try it too!"

A good example of this great spirit is JayOnThaBeat. He joined us a few months ago while he was waiting for his N810 to arrive, joking around in the off-topic and speculation threads, but once he got his hands on his N810, he began asking lots of questions, then turning around and sharing stuff that he had learned. This is a great recent example: Using VNC Viewer Over an SSH Tunnel (Step-By-Step)

Stuff like that gives me the warm fuzzies and makes me think that, despite all the stupid flame wars and trash talk lately, we're going to be OK.

@qole

I don't think we'd lose that spirit. Even on popular devices like the iPhone, a community like ours exist.

I am an IT expert but with the N810 I am just a fan. My programming dates back to the punch card days. However I have supervised programmers rather than programming for decades so I can work my way through an IBM360 machine language dump easier than I can understand the source code for a Linux app.

That's not to say I wouldn't like to learn if anyone has any ideas about where to start.

Bought the N810 because I like tinkering with devices, and wanted something that would not bore me. Loved Maemo, loved the device, loved this community, was a big fan. But yeah, after hanging out for so long, you just learn things, and most people here like to help others as much as possible. I like helping noobs out, and like it even more when people help me (because I am also a noob). I don't think you need to know programing or stuff to be helpful or a "pro." I know a little (anyone remember pysnes?), but its more of a sense of curiousness and helping that matter.

I'm mainly a user, while occasionally tinering with shell script or modifying some python code.
But... Twenty-five years ago, I was coding in machine language because assembler wasn't available for my machine and basic wasn't enough and thirty years ago I was struggling with a 50-memory-cells programmable calculator.
When I retire - twenty-four years from now() - I want to go back to coding in the machine language of *whatever*

In the meantime I'm a self-defined Pocketable Machines Cavalier, and my weapons are my almighty Maemo tablet, my trusted Symbian phone,and my usb swords and microcables.

I'm *just* a fan.

As an aspiring software developer (currently in the last of three years in university) I do have the intentions to learn how to develop for this platform. I knew the course last year in python would pay off sooner or later! ;-)

Got some basic Linux-knowledge as I've been running a web/db/mail-server on various distros the last.. 10? years, so I know my way around a CLI decent enough. :-)

Since I first saw the preview it was love from first sight (as long as you dont show this post for my gf ) and I knew this was the smartphone for me. Finally a worthy replacer for my trusty N95-1

Hopefully I'll have time to play around more with the SDK soon, and learn myself and others how to make this platform cater to our needs as geeks...

Wow! So my feelings that this is a developer dominated site are totally off base. I think our readers are more advanced than most, but this is surprising.

I think the difference between Maemo and other software communities is the passion that develops behind the system when someone has a chance to experience Maemo. In this regard, even regular users become enamored with both the underlying technology and the people within the community. Then, what we're left with is a bunch of amazingly talented users who go out of there way to help make Maemo better (or try to anyway).

From what I've seen in other communities (and I've been both a member and admin for quite a lot of them over the years), a divide between users and developers never really goes away. People either come to (a) develop software (or supply patches and/or mods) or (b) to get help (but not necessarily stick around).

The Maemo Community has found itself with a bunch of users who want to learn more -- and some who have even become developers by sticking around long enough.

Pretty crazy. And cool.

Tim