Yes, but it wont include a web browser, PIM functionality or any neat scrolly bits.

My point is, I think a lot of the people expressing interest here don't quite understand what the Pandora actually represents.

It WILL have a PSX emulator from what I've watched.

It'll be interesting what will Sony have to say about that...

What would stop someone from porting Debian or Android to it?

It depends on whether the driver source code is freely available. I'm quite sure something like Angstrom could be made to run on it, but that's not much use if you can't use wifi/bt/powervr/etc.

Nothing, of course, Ångstrom, Debian, and Ubuntu should install fairly easily (as can be seen with the Beagle Board hardware). The issue is that this isn't just like flashing a new version of Maemo. There'll be a fair amount of work involved (partitioning SD cards, setting up the bootloader, getting the correct kernel compiled, either installing x distro somehow or expanding a tarball onto a particular partition). None of these things sound like stuff somebody like Karel would be very interested in (he's been quite insistent on his non-technicality in the past), and I doubt many of the other people understand quite what's involved, either.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'll likely be getting myself a Pandora alongside the N900 (despite the sad fact that all and I'll be doing all sorts of stupid hacky stuff with it, but that's me. Not everybody has the time or interest to play around like that.

In summary, those looking for a very consumer-friendly package should look elsewhere.

Well, for the PowerVR at least, the Beagle (which runs an identical OMAP3530) is getting drivers around November, so there shouldn't be any issues with using those for other distributions.

At least for Android that should be the lack of sources (at least for now

This sounds suspiciously familiar.
Why does it seem like nobody has any drivers *now* for any of the hardware (omap 2 or 3)?

Seriously, its like a running joke - networking needs to be done and Ti/ImgTech need to get their act together and release something.

I thought *I* was bad for holding back on releases, but I'm a n00b and still learning, whats their excuse?

Familiar how? We haven't ever been promised drivers. The OMAP3530 will be getting them. Besides, lots of people have drivers for both OMAP2 and OMAP3. As I recall, all the OMAP2 S60 phones ship with them.

Blame Imagination Technologies for being a piece of ****. TI's only to blame for using their stuff.

lol Besonn I need to learn to watch what I type. Software wise as long as it boots upon release it will be fine for me. The community for them is very large. besides take a look at some of the videos of the mk0 in action there is quite a lot that will run so far. I am a big arcade game fan so it is looking good to me. The wiki also says the the ps1 emulator (psx4pandora i think is what they called it) runs at more than full speed. Also another big reason of mine to get it is the pandora's 4000mah battery kicks the nits where it hurts.

At the expense of size, of course.

One could make a 10000mAh battery, but where would that get you, really, except huge?