Just about everything I've ever read about Maemo over the years has mentioned that it is just for geeks, or gadget enthusiasts, or something similar. This has come from the press, the maemo community, and even Nokia itself. My question is what is it that makes this OS unsuitable for regular users.

I stumbled upon the N800 about 3 years ago now. I'd never heard of it before, but I was looking for a device to read PDFs on the train ride home, and I was amazed to find out how limited most of the options were. The Kindle you had to convert PDFs before you could read them, the iPod Touch only worked if you emailed them to yourself AND you had to be online to read them (at least at the time).

When I read about the N800 it sounded good, but I was still a bit nervous to get one since most of what I read suggested it "wasn't ready for prime time, and I didn't know anything about linux. Users here and other places talked about having xTerminal installed by default, being able to get root by a simple command, being able to SSH into a server, and how this was "real" linux, etc...I either didn't know what most of that meant, or didn't care, so it was hard to see the benefit.

When I did get it I was somewhat relieved to find that it was pretty easy to use...but didn't spend much time other than that thinking about the OS or UI, to me it worked in a fairly intuitive way and was unobtrusive. It wasn't until I had opportunity to use some iOS and Android devices and couldn't figure out how to do certain things (and then found out a lot of what I, a semi-normal user, wanted to do wasn't even possible). To name just a few of the "normal user" things that are easy to do on the N800 that the competition doesn't seem to do well.

* I have folders for applications that can be organized however I like
* I can really multitask
* I can choose whether to close an application or minimize it (and these actually mean different things).
* I have a status bar of currently running programs
* A file manager comes built in, and programs have complete access to it. So I can open a file by going to it in the file manager or through an individual application.
* Networked drives automatically appear in the file manager, so transferring a file from the network is as easy as drag and drop to one of the 2 full SDHC cards installed (in addition to the built in memory)
* I can install programs directly from a market via the application monitor, but I can also install from any other source. (I can also uninstall any program just as easily from the same place)
* I never have to hook it up to a computer for anything (well I did for one OS upgrade, but that OS upgrade allowed for wireless updating of the OS from that point forward).
* I can hook it up to a computer if I want and use as a mass storage device

The only things I can recall as being complicated have been exclusive to community developed applications. It took me a bit to figure out how to install Tear and I've never really figured out how to use Maemo Mapper without GPS inputs...but even I know that doesn't have anything to do with the OS...and other applications like Canola2 are as easy as can be.

So what have I missed, what is so hard to figure out about Maemo that Nokia never wanted to even try to sell it to anyone?

The reason is you need a bit of knowledge to get the "goodies" out off the N900.

There are a lot of tools that make this phone great but to get them to work is just plain annoying, hard and difficult if you're a normal-user who doesn't have the knowledge, time and maybe interest in learning the ways of using the terminal or other code stuff it becomes a big task to do something simple if you compare this to the other OS systems.

To get something easy to install you goto the store but yea.
The store is not really worth mention due content.

Unfortunately the apps on here are somewhat dull especially if u get the pre-installed game Bounce.
It has set a bar for the games to come and we all thought. Man if we can already get a game like this, Imagine what we can get when the game-developers are giving ago.

To bad this hardly happend except for Angry Birds and erhm.. the well delayed Jurassic Roller coaster.
This is only the "game" part.

If you look at example; social media we really don't got a good client for Twitter and Facebook.
Yes they work, but they also miss a lot of features if you compare them to other phones.
You're best bet is to actually use the mobile phone website.
I even had an older Windows Mobile phone who had a better app for twitter and believe me. That phone was baaaaaaaaaad.*

Take those two together and you get some disappointment.
Why you may say, this because you got a phone that can be so epic.
But you also need epic skills to actually get there.
Since the majority of phone users want something thats fast, easy and cool looking the N900 just doesn't cut it.


* For the people who care, the phone was an HTC TYTN II (Kaiser)

Because those at the top at Nokia are afraid of trying something unproven.

Apple was pumping most of their R&D expenditures into the iPhone,
not knowing if it would sell at all.

Those who take risks get rewarded, Nokia rather plays it safe.

lets face it, maemo is for the brave. look at the iphone or android. you want an app, you download it and away you go. A lot of maemo apps dont work like that. You have to be prepared to get under the ribs of the thing and tweak it to make it work well.

On top of that there are very few "playful" apps available for maemo. Most of them are for system tweaks.

The following 'caricature' is my take on why the n900 is viewed as 'just for enthusiasts':

One of the tools essential to the user is the ability to flash your device. At best this can be tricky, and I have flashed my Nokia tablets I would guess hundreds of times over the years. I am enthusiastic about mine, but this is not something most users would enjoy doing.

All my experience is with the N800, so maybe the N900 is different...but I certainly don't have the knowledge and skills to do what you talked about...but on the N800 it hasn't really seemed necessary. I've understood that my device can probably do a lot more than what I've used it for...and I like that it has these possibilities, but in the day to day stuff that I care about it really doesn't matter.

As far as the number of apps go, sure there isn't a whole lot...but that seems like a chicken and egg kind of problem. Who wants to develop for a device that is only aimed at a small population of geeks? But the lack of apps shouldn't be a critical blow to a system just launching, after all it wasn't like the iPhone or Android launched with an ecosystem of apps already in place. If Nokia sold a whole bunch of Maemo devices the apps would certainly have come.

But the apps that exist are good and are easy to install from the application manager cover a fair amount of the basics. A pretty good eBook reader, a PDF reader, Canola2, some decent games, and a whole lot of other things I'm not thinking of. MicroB was totally fine at first as a browser, but is slow with more modern websites so I ended up installing Tear after reading about it here.

I have only flashed my N900 2-3 times in 12 months of ownership. I also have good personal hygiene. I feel inferior. What can I do to raise my hacker status.

You absolutely right.

Nokia did their business around wireless communications. They did it very well and grew into a big company.

But time changes and market is saturated with handsets. To be on top they need to invent something - Steve Jobs did in similar case iPhone (Apple was just computer manufacturer that time) then iPad etc. But they just was driven into smartphone market and that territory is not good for RF handset manufacturer - it requires a software development skill and it competes with computer vendors.

If Nokia did a good move - conquer mobile video communication market or mobile TV or something else then they could be transited into new market and keep their top place. But they didn't risk to do it ... and that is an exactly reason, why Nokia considers Maemo/MeeGo as a stepson - they just don't believe in it. They just invest in Symbian ignoring that it may be only a temporary solution with limited outcome (just remember that it is a software market, not hardware, and Symbian can't compete with giants)

So, MS-Nokia alliance seems very logical from that point of view - get an access to resources of very big software manufacturer, Linux is not seen as a serious solution from their point of view.

It is a very common among top managers, just reminder - two years ago nobody consider Linux-based/open source based phone system seriously at all and even Google was forced to manufacture his own phone (Nexus1) to prove manufactures it. Google stopped selling it as fast as it confirmed that anybody get a lesson. Now anybody knows where is the future... just in one year... but it is too late for Nokia.

Because it was never marketed. Only the people in the "know" knew about Maemo.

It was an enthusiasts or hobby OS due to the sheer lack of push.