That'll take some time for mplayer, AFAIK there is no native Hildon gui for mplayer yet (the console-only version is available already in extras-devel)
For gstreamer, i think it's more likely a licensing issue, as that's only a backend for the media player, there is no need for a gui (it's like a codec pack for windows)

Absolutely I've been running linux almost exclusively at home, and doing linux admin as a job, for a fair while now, and I'm taking a very cautious approach - admittedly I've little to no experience with debian-based systems, though.

Personally, I'd love to see a "rough guide to N900 for the non-linux-impaired". That would be fascinating reading for me, to know where Maemo 5 differs from desktop linux in what you can and can't do. I suspect I wouldn't be the only one

Thanks, BTW, for the OP's review. I agree with all positive points, except 1) - the responsiveness of the screen. All my previous ts use has been with a stylus, and I'm finding it hard transitioning to finger-based control. I've never used a capacitive device either, so can't comment on that.

On the negative points, I also would vote for EQ., and more flexible sorting - no comment on the rest, as (in about a day's use!) I've yet to encounter them. The SMS one (2) sounds odd.

On the negative side, I'd also add a couple of things (or, as it turns out, really one thing ...)

In the browser, I definitely need the zoom on most sites.. though the screen-res is great, my eyes struggle to resolve the tiny tiny letters .. but I find that on a lot of sites, zooming in means a lot of horizontal scrolling because the text becomes wider than the screen once zoomed (also, going to the next page means you have to zoom again - not that this is really troublesome with the volume-control zooming method)

Because of this, I'd probably prefer an option to just increase the font size used to display text instead. It could be done by making the browser "re-flow" the text, I guess, but being able to use ctrl-plus and ctrl-minus to do a "font-size zoom" as on desktop firefox would be a big asset in my use of the browser.

Also, being able to set a minimum font size would be a Good Thing.

But thinking about it more, these are part of what seems to be a generic lack of available config options...

Another example would be the Xterm application. Is there somewhere I can configure it to be white on black? Not only is this easier on the eyes, it might conceivably save battery for people who spend a lot of time in the application

Again, setting system fonts and font sizes would be a nice thing to have, for similar reasons.

... I'm sure there's other examples. For a device this featureful, the settings page is really quite sparse..

Maybe these config options are there and I just haven't found them? (Quite likely some are, I suppose, as I've only had the thing a day..) But if not, I think adding more user-configurable goodness would be very cost-effective in terms of developer time against user satisfaction.

I absolutely love the device, in case anyone should think otherwise, but in these early days, it's perhaps worth focusing a bit on potential improvements

Absolutely, I have mine - green-on-black. Click on the 'Xterm' title bar and go to 'fonts' menu button. You can config bg and fg colors there.

You know, I would swear I tried that! Thanks!

Edit: Now. How do you add pipe to the handy list of additional keys at the bottom, and how do you toggle the display of that list?

Further Edit: Ok, I'm officially stupid. I just now noticed the drop-down on the title bar of the browser which allows options to be set and goes a fair way to address my browser-related whinge, above!

See this thread for customisation tips.

UPDATE:

Great news everyone! I would like to inform you that I have been able to successfully play all movies that were giving me troubles before! I did not need any extra codecs or mplayer or any of that. ALL I had to do was move the files to the SD card and play them from there instead of loading them on to the device memory. Try that and see if it works for you!

-TheInternet

That makes no sense at all, but if it does work, something is utterly broken!

I know. Thats what I am thinking. But it worked for me. I tested this method twice and got the same results. Please try it and let me know if it has worked for you!

EDIT: For the record, im using a 16GB microSD card.

That's .. Odd. :-o But good to know. Dammit, now I might have to get a MicroSD card as well. Gah.

Hello,

Is the microSD card generic ie can I just buy any 16GB microSD card and it will just work, if so what make did you buy?

thx