Looks like the possibility to write an app with native code is something they just added to WP8.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...v=vs.105).aspx

Similar story here but I've not left d community. Still love my n900. I was using a N9 n d screen got smashed. So I went back to my n900 which was still adequate. I didnt get lumia cos of all d bad things I had heard on maemo.org.... then one day I got my hands on a lumia 520 n was shocked at how fast it was for a low end windows phone n how much better it was than my n900. I knew then there was no turning back... I now use a lumia 925 and very very satisfied. I just wish maemo.org guys would not knock WP so much. Its not perfect but I think its very adequate. Now planning on getting lumia 1520. That looks fantastic.

Android OS on d other hand just sucks resources... I have a galaxy note 10.1 and I am contonually running out of ram

The N900 is still d greatest phone ever made. I used to surprise my friends all d time with d things it could do. Now I only use it for cutetube and when I feel like doing SSH. My touchscreen is now all scratched up

The specs are not set in stone but it's limited what components are used due to keeping the device backwards compatible.

I understand your POV but the point of the Neo900 is to have a more up to date N900, without having to start again.

Remember the N900 is 4 years old now and can still hold it own.

I don't think I could put up without Fremantle for long. I am sure there are others that agree.

The WP is a not a bad alternative it may be one of the best alt at this moment.
Personaly I do rather have a modern day swiss knife that has tcpdump, yamas, that can monitoring a pseudo device in wireshark and can create a admin passwd for example.
By having multitask and a HW keyboard on a cellular would be in my opion the only way to make people productive on a device they' re forced to use nowdays so let's look forward to the Neo900.
I do advice John's Phone to a doubter.
Thanks

I was actually shocked how horrible nd locked down windows phone is, but thats just my experience as i like to mess with my devices, so i prefer operating systems like maemo or android, but if i ever have to choose a dumb and locked down phone, it will definetly be a iphone. IMHO iOS is a MUCH better alternative than windows phone.

I can run NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib and astropy on my N900. When I'm in my office or at home, I can redirect the n900's display to my workstation's display (getting the full screen resolution, by redirecting X11 via ssh). I can mount my N900's file system on my workstation via sshfs. When an Android/iOS/WP phone can do all that, I'll start taking one of those platforms seriously. I know Debian or Ubuntu can be installed on an Android device. I've tried several of the methods of doing that on a rooted Nexus 4 that I have. None of the methods I've found result in a usable linux chroot environment that coexists smoothly with Android. If you want a full-fledged workstation in your pocket, as far as I know the N900 is still the best choice. It's slow, but it's irreplaceable.

Definitely irreplaceable.

Surprisingly so. I'm actually quite amazed at how smooth and fast it is on the 520's hardware. I've used new-ish Androids with similar configurations (dualcore 512ram) and they've all felt much less snappy.

Considering who's making the OS it's surprising how well it works. I've used portable operating systems from Microsoft in the past (I have a pocketPC that runs WinCE and a Samsung i840 that runs WinMobile) and they've always felt like Microsoft didn't entirely know what they were doing. CE is a massively cut-down version that feels like Windows with just one leg and no arms, and WinMo actually kinda-sorta works but it's a usability mess with an unclear interface.

Not so WP8; the interface works, the software works and since I started using it the whole thing has been - and believe you me, I'm fully aware of how ludicrous this sounds - rock-stable. Seriously, I have yet to see one crash or unexplained slowdown.

The system does have a number of flaws: for instance, it's closed-down to annoying levels (you want a file manager? Nope - there's no way to access the internal filesystem) and subjected to abundant corporate stupidity (installing MapQuest, which is apparently supposed to be unavailable in Europe for reasons unknown to me, required setting the phone's region to the United States and adding an American proxy to the wifi settings).

I still think Android is a better system for phones from low-midrange upwards, because they have enough power and resources to make it work well despite its natively inefficient nature, and once smoothness is achieved Android's main problem goes away and its many advantages utterly crush the competition.

However, for cheap low-end phone hardware I've no doubt that WP is the smoothest, fastest system currently available. Whether that also makes it better for you depends on how much compromise you're willing to tolerate over its closed nature. Me, I'm doing moderately well - but I do get the occasional moment where I want to scream at Microsoft for not giving me anywhere close to the control I'd like over the phone.

Multitasking actually seems to work fairly well. It's not quite as intuitive as it is on a desktop machine or Linux portable, but I haven't had the sort of headaches Android likes to give you in low-RAM environments.

Is there any point in ever upgrading to a 925, considering how well WP8 runs under the 520's hardware? It doesn't seem to need the additional power. Did you feel any difference between the two?

Truth be told, WP is the sort of system you'd give to your mom. It does its job, yes, but that's all it does - there's no way to convince/coerce it into doing anything else. Compare with Android, which can be bludgeoned, hacked and subverted into doing all sorts of unplanned things - if you have the patience and willpower.

I'm also annoyed at the impossibility of using a hardware bluetooth keyboard, as there's no support for external HID devices in WP8. Having a physical 'board would remove one of my biggest gripes with WinPhone - the lack of alternative input methods.

No Android device truly gives its best without a tweaked custom ROM. I've seen horrible clunkers that became very pleasant to use after a reflash.

I disagree. I've used it on a friend's phone, and I consider it the worst of the big three systems currently available. It feels like a mobile OS reimagined by Fisher-Price. Besides, iPhones are far too expensive.

I agree that WP devices, even the lowest-end 520 are pretty slick with the UI, and pretty solid to use.

The problem is that you simply cannot DO things with them due to the device being locked down!

If slick UI and stability are your main requirements, why not get a N9 or Jolla instead, where you have the possibility of making the device behave like you want, not like BillG likes it to behave?

Examples of some problems with WP; you cannot change look/feel/font/anything to be better readable, for example, you have no end of trouble getting any media in it, calendar alerts send always email to you, and it happens long past the event has occurred... (why do I want an email of the event for gossakes anyway?)

It feel that it is truly unbelievable how mixed and different experiences people give on this. At my workplace we are now being all forced to the Lumia world. And exactly for instability issues there has actually risen an "aftermarket" for old E and N series phones here.

Don't know if it is somehow related to corporate security level usage, but I can't make more than two or three days at best without having to willfully reboot or get the phone totally frozen. And this is the same for most of us in my work place. If you dare to use the phone for something else than calling and email, you are bound to in trouble. And we are no small or somehow specialized company with it's own computer/security system/servers, but big multinational company that has nothing to do with IT-business. Also our operator that delivers the phones and care is the biggest one in Finland.

My phone has already been (its is less than 5 months old 820) to care because it started to malfunction badly (screen and software. For example using camera would make the screen unreadable). I also tried to take it there earlier because I noticed that I couldn't access our company intranet with computer to which I was using the Lumia as a hotspot. Answer from the Tech guys: "Yes, we can't let Lumia phones in because they are so unstable with their connections and security is not working well enough"

But then again, my dad has the same phone and he totally agrees with you and everyone who says that it is stable and fast and good to use. He likes it because he feels that it is as easy and fast as Nokia 6110 that he used to own so many years ago. And also he tells to you that with this phone he can get to internet

I think that Lumias and their user experience has been designed really really extremely with average Joe Phoneuser in mind