5 ms·

I suspect the answer is some combination of (a) getting device drivers to work on highly specialized hardware in spite of extreme memory/CPU constraints; (b) de

by sethg 15y ago

I suspect the answer is some combination of (a) getting device drivers to work on highly specialized hardware in spite of extreme memory/CPU constraints; (b) developing a user interface (and the widget toolkit for developers to use, etc.) that doesn’t suck. When my company was acquired by Nokia we had a choice of company-issued phones, and of course most of the geeks picked N900s (which ran Maemo, a Meego predecessor). After a few weeks using the N900 I was like “well, as a handheld Linux computer, it’s OK, but as a phone... meh.”

windsurfer 15y ago
I have been using an N900 for almost a year, and I think it's a great "phone". Excellent voice quality, great microphone, easy to call people, and the best reception I've had with any device. It works well with all my hands-free stuff, and it works very well as a "phone". What complaints do you have?
- zem 15y ago
  for one, a very, very annoying bug where, when you get a phone call, the phone app can take long enough to swap in that the caller gives up.
  - windsurfer 15y ago
    Ah, I forgot about that! I originally fixed that by installing a modified hildon desktop, but that's been incorporated in the community SSU: http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU EDIT: I also had to force the phone-ui to landscape mode so it wouldn't jump around on me.
    - zem 15y ago
      yeah, been meaning to move to the community ssu when i get a free weekend.
- Gravityloss 15y ago
  Posting this on an n900... Very low battery life, bad touch screen, sluggish ui. Why on earth did they cripple the default shell? The keyboard is pretty nice. When someone is calling you, the answer and decline button jump around in the screen, and I always hit the wrong one. This is because of the orientation sensor and the slow ui rearrange. Most browsing frustrations go away when you start using Opera as the browser. Most of the bugs in the builtin apps could have been fixed relatively easily, but I guess they restarted with a different ui paradigm after N900. Never used android or iphone so don't know how bad they are.
  - windsurfer 15y ago
    The battery life is certainly an issue, but I find the UI just as fast as the equivalent Android. I also love the touchscreen because of the stylus. You can prevent the orientation sensor from making things jump by forcing either portrait or landscape mode in the phone-ui application. Most of those bugs in the apps have been fixed in the Community SSU: http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU

by sethg 15y ago

windsurfer 15y ago

I have been using an N900 for almost a year, and I think it's a great "phone". Excellent voice quality, great microphone, easy to call people, and the best reception I've had with any device. It works well with all my hands-free stuff, and it works very well as a "phone". What complaints do you have?

zem 15y ago
for one, a very, very annoying bug where, when you get a phone call, the phone app can take long enough to swap in that the caller gives up.
- windsurfer 15y ago
  Ah, I forgot about that! I originally fixed that by installing a modified hildon desktop, but that's been incorporated in the community SSU: http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU EDIT: I also had to force the phone-ui to landscape mode so it wouldn't jump around on me.
  - zem 15y ago
    yeah, been meaning to move to the community ssu when i get a free weekend.
Gravityloss 15y ago
Posting this on an n900... Very low battery life, bad touch screen, sluggish ui. Why on earth did they cripple the default shell? The keyboard is pretty nice. When someone is calling you, the answer and decline button jump around in the screen, and I always hit the wrong one. This is because of the orientation sensor and the slow ui rearrange. Most browsing frustrations go away when you start using Opera as the browser. Most of the bugs in the builtin apps could have been fixed relatively easily, but I guess they restarted with a different ui paradigm after N900. Never used android or iphone so don't know how bad they are.
- windsurfer 15y ago
  The battery life is certainly an issue, but I find the UI just as fast as the equivalent Android. I also love the touchscreen because of the stylus. You can prevent the orientation sensor from making things jump by forcing either portrait or landscape mode in the phone-ui application. Most of those bugs in the apps have been fixed in the Community SSU: http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU http://wiki.maemo.org/Community_SSU