Well I was looking for a solution to change my default search engine from google to something else and remove the single sign on for Ovi by nokia add on/ext. After a very long search for answers I notice what seemed to be a deliberate lack of answers.

for example this thread; http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...s/55907?#55907
in which someone seemingly avoids directly answering problems 1 and problems 7, my exact problems.

So after searching for where it "might" be in xterm and failing, I pop open a browser window and type in about:config I am then greeted by a I can void my warranty message. Having recently read a thread in which it was mentioned something about flashing n900 could void warranties I was completely duped. I was almost ready to sling the n900 across the room.

I've been searching for a long time and I'm tired so very tired, it feels as if something is being avoided intentionally. In that thread it talks of nokia obtaining your user names and passwords to your email account. They have a unremovable add on, this led me to read through the privacy policy and it seems quite invasive.

It seems as if the n900 is on a leash, we buy it but we can only use it according to the "rules" and that doesn't seem too open or unlocked to me. If I wanted a leash I would have bought a droid

forgive me if I'm in anyway incoherent I've been up all night

Well, at least N900 is most open device you can actually buy. Surely it can be better and more open. And yes, Nokia is annoying with overzealous pushing of their services. But can you just show any better option? iPhone is completely closed. Android is designed with restrictions in mind and generally you're restricted to non-standard JVM environment. OpenMoko is good but it's hardware is 2 generations older than it should be: GPRS even without EDGE is an epic fail for sure for communicator class device! So, any better choice for reedom lowers, geeks and those who want to have a real computer in their phone?

Also.. pull open Firefox on a desktop Linux or Windows and go to about:config. Right from my windows desktop at work:

Right... like I'm going to void the warranty of my company laptop by changing firefox settings. It's a long standing "joke" in firefox that is meant to make users aware they could break firefox... not their computer. As is described in the next paragraph on that page:

So no... changing crap in about:config is not goin to void your Nokia devices warranty in any way. I can see how that is confusing on a device like this, however... the default Nokia browser should probably be recompiled with a more friendly about:config message.

Consider to report the 'joke' as a bug as I think there might be some people who won't be happy about that

About reporting it as a bug... or about having your browser say it'll void your warranty?

I think the about:config warning even comes up in Firefox by default when you first run it as a warning that you can mess things up kind of easily and break the browser.

Things are way more open on N900 than most every other device out there, but there are still many key parts that are closed which totally sucks. The browser is very open though. You can grab the full source code to it if you want and do whatever you like with it.

You are right though about the browser. It's not a place to enter a URL, it's a google search. I don't see how to disable it either. I checked about:config and didn't see anything (could have missed it) and didn't see a plugin/extension for it either.

Perhaps it's due for a rebuild with those things disabled.

Ah, I should also point out that Mer is getting ready real-soon-now for N900 (well "soon" being unknown of course). Then you can use a "completely" independent distro which doesn't have to have any of the OVI crap or things like that.

http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer

Will it include support for the phone stuff? I might just have to try and load Mer on the N900 when I get one..

Yes, it will include support for fone stuff, but that part will be closed, unfortunately. Long term, the fone free software solution will be ofono:
http://ofono.org/

To disable the OVI stuff:

Go: options, add-ons, extensions, tap ovi, disable