Well see OS software wouldnt be add-on software now would it and would go into the /usr partition. But we arent talking about that we are talking about software people have written. Regardless of if it comes from a repository or someone ftps a deb and installs it.

Extras disabled by default:

- "Extras needs to proof itself"
- Not for sales start but candidate for the first maintenance release (but we can't share dates)
- Another factor to be taken into account is Ovi support (announced in the Summit to come "before the end of the year") and whether maemo.org developers can have their software distributed there (working on it but it's legally complex since Ovi doesn't accept individuals/hobbyists as for today (working on it).

In the meantime as you know we are trying to do our best helping to have QA process in places and many great apps in Extras.

The fact that Maemo Select puts top maemo.org apps next to well known commercial brands can be seen in the other way: a channel to get Extras visible and enabled anyway.

And also there is our assumption that Maemo 5 users will install more apps via recognized webs, using the "Application Manager" more in the strictu sensu of a tool to manage installed software and updates, less as a discovery tool (since it's a bit limited for that compared to full fledged web pages with user ratings, comments, etc.

If you want to discuss further about this please do it in the related bug report or a new thread since it departs from the topic of this one.

What about this?

http://www.my-symbian.com/other/preview_n900.php?page=4

Section: "What's not"

storage memory for installable applications limited to ridiculous 256 MB, all the remaining gigabytes available for documents and data files only (final units will ship with additional 2 GB storage space for 3rd party software installation; it is just being worked on)

Is this true and nobody knows of this?

Yes, that's exactly the discussion here - how to efficiently use those 2GB.

The bold print is a little misleading though, since the 2gb is not additional storage, but displaced from the 32gb. Will that memory be fast and reliable enough for operations and high repetition of writes to that memory?

That will be one of the main questions by users: "Where is the 32GB, I only have 28GB" (since format and other things consume part of it already).

Still, 28ish built-in gigs is better than Droid's zero

Am I being dim, or couldn't I pretty much solve all these issues with a correctly formatted SD card and liberal usage of 'ln -s'?

Will this issue be relevant in Maemo 6 ?

Are we sticking with /opt or are they fixing it some other way ?

What about using aufs?

Partition let's say 2Gb of the 32 gigs available. The procedure to install software would be this:
1. Decide to install software Not so obvious
2. Decide to install on the 2Gb partition
3. Apt installs it
a. remounts / as ro
b. mounts external partition as aufs on /
c. installs software
d. cleans some stuff (temp files-moves them on actual root)
e. remounts / as rw and mounts external partition as ro
f. flags software "installed on aufs"
4. Enjoy new software

admiral0

Considering potential open files, that constant (re)mounting might get less fun real quick

You could also make / always ro and use that 2 gigs for everything... or you could do a tricky thing (i don't know if you can even do it)

split some partitions and mount in aufs some vital directories as /usr and /opt. Of course it means that when you upgrade you have to split upgrade of packages in realroot with one in aufs root.

This one shouldn't be so painful and risky as usually things in /usr are accessed in ro.