I know that the topic title sounds a good like a ridiculous question, but please follow my line of thinking...

Many folks here are developers who like the idea of control. Those who aren't developers are here because we like the idea of a platform that's just as much people-driven as much as it is company/profit-driven. And these are good things as we all tend to get a good bit of what we want.

But, these wants come at a cost, and usually that's hardware that becomes outdated, or software that's not as developer-friendly as it was when we purchased it. For whatever reasons, the aging of our devices doesn't make them better, it actually makes them worse.

We see this right now in respect to the commentary/complaints about Maemo/MeeGo and what that means for N900 users. Now, I'm not going to propose that I know anything of Nokia's plans, but at least their market posturing as said something pretty significant to me...

...we are getting to the point that something about the constant turnover of our mobile devices is going to become less the norm and more the "scarlet letter" of mobile use. Yes, there's going to be the constant creating and making of new devices and software features to go with them, but I think that we are getting to a point where mobiles need to mature a bit. And I think Nokia sees this to some degree and Maemo/MeeGo is to foster that (somehow).

So, beyond that argument, what then does the idea of a mobile that lives an extra long time look like? What does it mean for the hardware to be far enough ahead that it could take a few major OS releases without an issue? What does it mean for software platforms to get to the point where if you stick with it long enough that you essentially *learn* how to develop for it and pull more value from it. A lot like a car or early PC platforms, they get to a point that when you've owned them for a while that you don't need something new because its matured along with you. What if mobile gets to that point? What does it look like?

What does that look like here? Are folks ready for the kind of hardware that morphs into different form factors, charges kinetically, can take whatever OS platforms you want to throw at it, and still remains profitable to the manufacturer? Is that something that Maemo/MeeGo enables? Or, is the idea of mobile longevity something that is beyond our consumer behavior and lifestyles?

AFAIK, technically, that is decided in the design phase of the device conception.

we can see a PC as a long live device because the architecture is heavly backward compatible at the cost of hardware ineficience.

raw power hides that, in a pc that solves the problem

but a mobile device will succumb to new generation hardware because are not enough powerful, its a matter of time

then MER will bring hope to those dessesperated hearts, but we are not talking about that

What else is a matter of time is that, like PCs, mobile devices too will reach the point that ten year old devices are adequate to serve the needs of 95% of all users and they become commodity products as well.

Here's my take, formed mostly before the early March statement on how the N900 hardware will be one of the first things to run MeeGo at least in development, not necessarily as a release:

http://www.farbot.com/node/4542

That MeeGo post, however, gives me hope for the n900's longevity. That's important for me when considering whether I should jump to it or to another platform.

I have a n800 right now that I use mostly for listening to podcasts (panucci, gpodder), keeping todo lists (gpe todo), taking notes (leafnote), reading small reference PDFs, and email (claws-mail).