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mike1 is offline mike1
2011-02-25 , 01:13
Posts: 17 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Feb 2011
#1
Hi All,

I consider buying a N900 but am hesitating. The device is now about 1.5y old + there are rumours on the successor (N950?) being released later this year.

The N900 is interesting due to its support for .deb packages and the HW keyboard. I'm not much interested in store applications and similar peripheral options but am looking for a .deb compatible pocket-pc.

Would appreciate if forum members can help with the following questions:

1. It seems there is a usb host-mode application under development (described in the FAQ). How solid is it? will it allow to plug-in any usb keyboard or similar devices?.

2. The N900 seems to only offer composite video out (RCA) so it cannot be directly plugged into a computer screen. External HW converters do RCA->VGA/HDMI but are not cheap & bulky(+require an extra power cable) which hampers beauty of the N900 portability. Is there a nifty workaround to connect the N900 to a computer screen (VGA/HDMI) ideally w/o such converters?.

3. Lastly, given my intended usage should I get an N900 now or wait for the N950 (or whatever it'll be called)?. Again, I am mainly looking for a .deb compatible pocket-pc and expect to use a keyboard extensively (so HW keyboard is important). My main concern is that the N900 HW might be getting outdated.

Sorry for the barrage of questions & thanks in advance.
 
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Aranel is offline Aranel
2011-02-25 , 01:31
Posts: 301 | Thanked: 227 times | Joined on Nov 2009 @ Turkey
#2
1) It does allow you to use lots of different devices (keyboard,mouse,flash drive etc) but not "any" device because of compatibility/lack of driver issues. My experience was good enough, I tried and managed to use a keyboard and a flash drive, ymmv.

2) Sorry, I don't have any idea.

3) It's true that N900 HW is getting outdated, it's good enough for today (cortex a8 600mhz -oc'able to 1ghz- with 256mb ram (700~ nand swap) but I think it won't be a good alternative in a year. N900 is still a very good device (both hw and sw) but I would wait for a newer device if I could (mostly sw-wise, because of the coming MeeGo and odds of a painful die for Maemo. hw-wise, I think It's reasonable to expect 1ghz arm something cpu (a9?) and 512mb of ram, multitouch capacitive screen and maybe other "goods" too. (better camera? gyroscope?)

But since you said you really care about .deb support, don't forget that MeeGo will support .rpm instead. As for the topics you asked about: Yes, you can install debian packages (caveat: they should be compiled as ARMEL and optified) and yes, It's HW-keyboard is VERY good
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Last edited by Aranel; 2011-02-25 at 01:34.
 
stlpaul is offline stlpaul
2011-02-25 , 01:48
Posts: 1,141 | Thanked: 781 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ Magical Unicorn Land
#3
well N950 (or whatever) should still use .deb since it's not exactly MeeGo but Harmattan, and who knows if we ever see an actual MeeGo phone from Nokia. I would guess maybe a tablet if anything... N950 won't have HW keyboard, depending which rumor you believe.
 
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luiscesjr is offline luiscesjr
2011-02-25 , 02:52
Posts: 292 | Thanked: 348 times | Joined on Aug 2010 @ Rio de Janeiro
#4
@mike1, you can wait for N950, but will it ever arrive?
N9 is past, nothing more than crazy rumors.
Eighter way you will risk yourself, get an old phone ( as you said,
1 and a half year ), or wait for a ghost.
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rm42 is offline rm42
2011-02-25 , 03:31
Posts: 963 | Thanked: 626 times | Joined on Sep 2009 @ Connecticut, USA
#5
Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
Hi All,

I consider buying a N900 but am hesitating. The device is now about 1.5y old + there are rumours on the successor (N950?) being released later this year.
I know what you mean. I am considering buying a second one just to ensure that I at least have one for the next few years. But I do wonder if I should wait a little longer. The one I have is still working OK, although I do have signs that the USB port may be starting to fail. I do have a three year warranty on it, but I fear that there may not be any more available to replace mine when it finally fails. If I (and that means me and only me) did not have one already I have no doubt that I would buy one now regardless.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
The N900 is interesting due to its support for .deb packages and the HW keyboard. I'm not much interested in store applications and similar peripheral options but am looking for a .deb compatible pocket-pc.
Are you a developer that is already familiar with deb packaging? That I can understand what you mean. If you are just a user, the fact that it uses deb packages should make very little difference in your evaluation. Don't think that you are going to be able to just grab random deb packages from the web and be able to install them on the N900.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
Would appreciate if forum members can help with the following questions:

1. It seems there is a usb host-mode application under development (described in the FAQ). How solid is it? will it allow to plug-in any usb keyboard or similar devices?.
Frankly I don't know. At first I thought this would be important, but I have come to realize that I do not need this feature. YMMV.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
2. The N900 seems to only offer composite video out (RCA) so it cannot be directly plugged into a computer screen. External HW converters do RCA->VGA/HDMI but are not cheap & bulky(+require an extra power cable) which hampers beauty of the N900 portability. Is there a nifty workaround to connect the N900 to a computer screen (VGA/HDMI) ideally w/o such converters?.
Sure, it would be nice to have HD/HDMI out. The video out is usable in a pinch. I rarely use it. If what you are interested is accessing it from your computer, you'll be happy to know that you can use VNC for that, bot server and client.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
3. Lastly, given my intended usage should I get an N900 now or wait for the N950 (or whatever it'll be called)?. Again, I am mainly looking for a .deb compatible pocket-pc and expect to use a keyboard extensively (so HW keyboard is important). My main concern is that the N900 HW might be getting outdated.

Sorry for the barrage of questions & thanks in advance.
I frankly do not understand what your usage is going to be. This is how I use mine:

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=751695&postcount=9
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mike1 is offline mike1
2011-02-25 , 03:45
Posts: 17 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Feb 2011
#6
thanks all for replying.
rm42: which .deb packages work on the n900? is there a dedicated repository or some other way to know this in advance?. Wouldn't everything compiled for ARMEL work on the N900?.

I'm not concerned with HD so much but more with VGA. being able to plug it into a monitor (requires a VGA/DVI digital signal) is useful.
 
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rm42 is offline rm42
2011-02-25 , 04:15
Posts: 963 | Thanked: 626 times | Joined on Sep 2009 @ Connecticut, USA
#7
Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
thanks all for replying.
rm42: which .deb packages work on the n900? is there a dedicated repository or some other way to know this in advance?. Wouldn't everything compiled for ARMEL work on the N900?.
There are three basic repositories available for the N900. You just have to enable them in the app manager. They are:
extras
extras-testing
extras-devel

There are a few other repositories that can be added, but you'll get to them when you need them. You can also use something called EasyDebian and EasyUbuntu, etc., that allows you to run armel versions of Linux and their respective programs. (Follow the links on my post above.) Those have their respective repositories as well.

You can even run Android on your N900. Although I have to say that I have not been inclined to do so. But if you are interested search for Nitroid.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
I'm not concerned with HD so much but more with VGA. being able to plug it into a monitor (requires a VGA/DVI digital signal) is useful.
Yeah, VNC is the way to do that, not the video out port. The N900 runs full blown XWindows after all.
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mike1 is offline mike1
2011-02-25 , 04:36
Posts: 17 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Feb 2011
#8
rm42: thanks for rep. information.

As I understand, VNC requires another PC. The scenario I'm talking about is a display not connected to a PC.
 
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ste-phan is offline ste-phan
2011-02-25 , 04:43
Posts: 1,197 | Thanked: 2,710 times | Joined on Jan 2010 @ Hanoi
#9
Assuming you know very well why you want this Linux open OS and nothing else:
If you have the budget for an N950 eventually I suggest you buy an N900 now at a cheap price to bridge the time till N950 is mature and dropped in price due to failure and lack of Nokia support. (1 year later, who knows)

Advantage is that the fun starts immediately and you own both devices for a correct price.
 
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woody14619 is offline woody14619
2011-02-25 , 06:24
Posts: 1,455 | Thanked: 3,309 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ Rochester, NY
#10
Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
The N900 is interesting due to its support for .deb packages
Based on how you're saying this, I think one thing should be made very clear. The N900 uses and ARM processor, not an Intel or AMD processor. You will NOT be able to use .deb packages from a standard PC Linux system on this device. While it is a pocket computer, it is NOT a pocket "PC". The .deb file format is a container, like .tar or .zip, and does not imply architecture. (Well, it does have that info inside of it... but it's not a universal runtime format.)


That said, if you're ok with that:

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
1. It seems there is a usb host-mode application
There is... It's pretty solid these days, and can run most low-power devices. Keyboards and mice often work, as do most flash devices. The limit is mainly the power output (200mA). If you can carry a small powered hub, it's usable as a mini-desktop system.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
2. The N900 seems to only offer composite video out (RCA)
In short, no. There are RCA to * adapters, but frankly, you're not going to be happy with most solutions, since they're going to require some form of powering. For mobile use, your best bet is the RCA hookup. It's low-res, but it's not that bad really. There are also a couple of USB vga adapters that work (scan the host mode thread for pics of that). But that also requires a hub.

Originally Posted by mike1 View Post
3. Lastly, given my intended usage should I get an N900 now or wait for the N950 (or whatever it'll be called)?
I think you need to figure out what you're trying to do with it. If you're trying to use it for a simple display system (power point presentations, etc), there are apps for doing that pretty well. It's a nice, fast, flexible, stable base system that you can tweak into a really cool tool if you take some time to do it. But if you want to do power computing on it, or are expecting PC-like applications, this is not your device. Nor is the N950 frankly, as last I looked it also is not Intel based.

As for N900 vs N950, the N900 is older, but its available now. The N950 may be available before the end of this year, or it may slip (the N900 did, like 4 times), or it may never appear at all. Bird in the hand...
 
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