5 ms·

Maemo was the 2nd-worst piece of crap anyone ever ran on a phone (just losing out to OpenMoko). It was a disaster. At the time it was competing against BlackB

Maemo was the 2nd-worst piece of crap anyone ever ran on a phone (just losing out to OpenMoko). It was a disaster. At the time it was competing against BlackBerry OS, that ran rings around it. Edit: and by the time Maemo was actually running on a _phone_ it was head-to-head against iOS and WebOS. I think you could actually make a good case for WebOS being the greatest ever, but compared to those two Maemo was awful.

walterbell 10y ago
What specific concerns did you have with Maemo? Both the N900 and N9 combined "real Linux" with a handful of mass-market apps like Skype and maps, with the N900 having both a hardware keyboard and touchscreen.
- honkhonkpants 10y ago
  The UI was a joke designed by "year of the Linux desktop" believers. I mean just look at it: http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/reviews/11886-image/screenshot002.jpg http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/reviews/11886-image/scree... Can't touch anything, touch targets are all too small, so you are forced to use the stylus. Visually it looks like the love child of BeOS and KDE. can't tell from a static screenshot but everything was unbelievably slow.
  - htns 10y ago
    I think that's from a n800 or n810, which had no phone functionality and were based on gtk+ rather than Qt/QML. n900 calendar was totally different.
    - honkhonkpants 10y ago
      Yes, that appears to be from the N8xx. The N800 was contemporaneous with the iPhone so I don't feel this is an unfair comparison. It shows how Nokia had the notion of touchscreen UIs completely wrong.
      - htns 10y ago
        I still insist it's an unfair comparison because the linux tablets were a minor sideshow to the symbian phones. Then of course it's a fair comparison in that symbian wasn't great either, but at least they didn't just minimally repurpose a desktop UI.
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    Expected something awful. That looks decent.
- rodgerd 10y ago
  Did you ever try syncing contacts with a Maemo? Because if you think going into redpill mode and configuring a command line sync so you can get your address book syncing with anything represents anything than a steam mound of UX shit, you are either actually insane, or so out of touch with what any normal human might think of as a reasonable experience that you might as well be. Maemo was shit compared to a Palm Pilot.
  - Nullabillity 10y ago
    Bluetooth contact import worked fine, and Skype synced fine as well, which was what mattered for me at least. On the other hand, having an ACTUAL Linux command line with ACTUAL root and an ACTUAL keyboard was worth gold, and still sorely missed today.
    - ommunist 10y ago
      It is not missed if you consider your device a terminal to your real Linux server and use Prompt on iOS as an example.
      - Nullabillity 10y ago
        Sounds wonderful reat if you enjoy GPRS latency and typing code with soft keyboards. I'd also assume that working with local peripherals work great with that setup?
        ommunist 10y ago
        Saved my bacon couple of times. Definitely not for regular job, but a very good thing to have for just in case situations.
      - adrianratnapala 10y ago
        The chief feature I miss on Android is the ability to user rsync to syncrhonise its content with my PC in a reasonable way. I can rsync to the phone -- but none of the apps are allowed to read the directory thus synced. Maybe IOs is more forgiving. But how would a terminal emulator help?
pessimizer 10y ago
You're insane. Maemo was fantastic, and completely blew everything away that was out at the time the N900 was released. iOS was awful at the time, and in its nth generation of being awful. WebOS wasn't bad at all, but I'm not seeing the vast difference between it and Maemo that you see (with no explanation), and I was running both.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >Maemo was fantastic, and completely blew everything away that was out at the time the N900 was released. N900 was released in 2009. iOS was leaps and bounds better even at 2007 in the original iPhone introduction. Heck, even Android was better than Maemo in 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emvUBpEkbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emvUBpEkbU
  - honkhonkpants 10y ago
    I lost it when he launched Midnight Commander.
  - Nullabillity 10y ago
    > iOS was leaps and bounds better even at 2007 in the original iPhone introduction. Well, that pretty much disqualifies any further point.
  - nodamage 10y ago
    I'm sorry but anyone that thinks this is a good UI obviously has zero understanding of user interface design.
  - staticelf 10y ago
    Just shows how important user interface is..

walterbell 10y ago

What specific concerns did you have with Maemo? Both the N900 and N9 combined "real Linux" with a handful of mass-market apps like Skype and maps, with the N900 having both a hardware keyboard and touchscreen.

honkhonkpants 10y ago
The UI was a joke designed by "year of the Linux desktop" believers. I mean just look at it: http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/reviews/11886-image/screenshot002.jpg http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/reviews/11886-image/scree... Can't touch anything, touch targets are all too small, so you are forced to use the stylus. Visually it looks like the love child of BeOS and KDE. can't tell from a static screenshot but everything was unbelievably slow.
- htns 10y ago
  I think that's from a n800 or n810, which had no phone functionality and were based on gtk+ rather than Qt/QML. n900 calendar was totally different.
  - honkhonkpants 10y ago
    Yes, that appears to be from the N8xx. The N800 was contemporaneous with the iPhone so I don't feel this is an unfair comparison. It shows how Nokia had the notion of touchscreen UIs completely wrong.
    - htns 10y ago
      I still insist it's an unfair comparison because the linux tablets were a minor sideshow to the symbian phones. Then of course it's a fair comparison in that symbian wasn't great either, but at least they didn't just minimally repurpose a desktop UI.
- reitanqild 10y ago
  Expected something awful. That looks decent.
rodgerd 10y ago
Did you ever try syncing contacts with a Maemo? Because if you think going into redpill mode and configuring a command line sync so you can get your address book syncing with anything represents anything than a steam mound of UX shit, you are either actually insane, or so out of touch with what any normal human might think of as a reasonable experience that you might as well be. Maemo was shit compared to a Palm Pilot.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  Bluetooth contact import worked fine, and Skype synced fine as well, which was what mattered for me at least. On the other hand, having an ACTUAL Linux command line with ACTUAL root and an ACTUAL keyboard was worth gold, and still sorely missed today.
  - ommunist 10y ago
    It is not missed if you consider your device a terminal to your real Linux server and use Prompt on iOS as an example.
    - Nullabillity 10y ago
      Sounds wonderful reat if you enjoy GPRS latency and typing code with soft keyboards. I'd also assume that working with local peripherals work great with that setup?
      - ommunist 10y ago
        Saved my bacon couple of times. Definitely not for regular job, but a very good thing to have for just in case situations.
    - adrianratnapala 10y ago
      The chief feature I miss on Android is the ability to user rsync to syncrhonise its content with my PC in a reasonable way. I can rsync to the phone -- but none of the apps are allowed to read the directory thus synced. Maybe IOs is more forgiving. But how would a terminal emulator help?

pessimizer 10y ago

You're insane. Maemo was fantastic, and completely blew everything away that was out at the time the N900 was released. iOS was awful at the time, and in its nth generation of being awful. WebOS wasn't bad at all, but I'm not seeing the vast difference between it and Maemo that you see (with no explanation), and I was running both.

coldtea 10y ago
>Maemo was fantastic, and completely blew everything away that was out at the time the N900 was released. N900 was released in 2009. iOS was leaps and bounds better even at 2007 in the original iPhone introduction. Heck, even Android was better than Maemo in 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emvUBpEkbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emvUBpEkbU
- honkhonkpants 10y ago
  I lost it when he launched Midnight Commander.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  > iOS was leaps and bounds better even at 2007 in the original iPhone introduction. Well, that pretty much disqualifies any further point.
- nodamage 10y ago
  I'm sorry but anyone that thinks this is a good UI obviously has zero understanding of user interface design.
- staticelf 10y ago
  Just shows how important user interface is..