Wolke, your 100% correct ... yah .. zealot..lol. Are we all already zealot by the way.

But to answer your question. If I'm honest it comes down to a few factors. 1) Technology is changing at a rapid pace, so tomorrow could bring an unknown product that fits my needs. 2) Sending money oversee to an unknown group is tuff (although the neo group help by being part of the community and being open about progress) 3) Justifying putting money into this great project or other more pressing expenses.

With all that said, I already have debates in my head countering .

1) It's unlikely that anyone will come out with a device that has both a Wacom type pen and a keyboard that will work with other open OS (the Note does cut it)

2)This is towards the end of the fund raising, so with many people already having sent money in, getting refunded and all info been post publicly, I would tend to trust neo900 group with my money.

3) I already have the money, just would love to see open Maemo running on it , with I understand should be a problem and all.

You asked, but thank for the little push.

x

heh, i see where youre coming from. its a lot of trust to place, and its a big decision; my point is just if youre GOING to trust them anyway, why not just trust them now?

as for that, there is no reason to suppose that freEmantle wont be an option. it is now generally thought to be feasible, and there are a LOT of people who care deeply about it AND have the technical ability to do something about it => ergo its basically a done deal.

also, sorry for being pushy! i just want a neo900 soooooo baaaad, and some silly part of me feels like everyone else should want one just as badly. im going to stop now

@wolke..zealot...naw.
excited ..yes.
Sure there are alot of devices out there..cheaper too...and yup the tech landscape is changing all the time...always has... incrementally...safely... and purely for the sake of the manufacturers.
Sure the note 4 seems cool...
1, 2, and 3 did too...
and if the desire is to run the latest that everyone else is...
you need the latest.
Hence planned obsolescence.
In a couple years (at best) you'll need the latest again.
As well ...closed chunks mean you can do less...
The neo is essentially the antithesis of that.
You may not be able to do alot of stuff that other devices can.
But when looking at the quasi-closed nature of the nit series and maemo...and how long and far the community has taken it...and still supports even ancient n770's still ...and how much one can do even on a n900 that other devices STILL (yet) cannot do.
Now...redesign the n900...a little more powerful (sure it doesn't seem like much in compare to an octocore) with next to no closed bits and (god willing) Freemantle.... likewise open. And the ability to run just about whatever you set your mind and heart to... that can run on that board.
....well...... the possibilities are wide open then aren't they?
And the lifespan increased.
I still use my n900 as my daily.
For that matter I still use my n800's and n810's daily too...(few more years and it'll be a decade for them...)
So imagine an unfettered device with equally unchained and unfettered operating systems...and the potential increased device lifespan as a consequence.
Meaning you don't need to buy another smartphone in a couple of years (more like at least 5 to 10 years if the n8x0's and n900 are example enough). And as well ...competition-wise...you will most certainly have something that few (if any at all) devices will be able to compete with.

So ya wolke...
you? a zealot?...
naw...
night-before-can't-wait-to-unwrap-the-christmas-presents-excited....may be more apt. I'm sure...
since I'm suffering from the same malady.

as for "waiting to donate" let me give a (almost) completely made-up example:
We're considering which NFC chip to use for Neo900. The NXP stuff (PN544) is basically fine but lacks lots of needed documentation that's not freely available. Now when I ask NXP to disclose that docs to me, what do you think has higher chances to receive a positive answer:
"estimated number of devices to build containing the chip you want docs for: 250"
or
"estimated number of devices to build containing the chip you want docs for: 800"
Maybe we even had to already buy the chips to get the docs we need. So we would do it. Currently we would probably buy 400 chips, based on number of donations which we count as "preorders".
Every donor takes the risk that this project might fail and no fine shiny product emerges at the end of R&D at all (though the developers themselves [=Neo900 group] are highly eager to have such device for their own daily phone. And shown that they can actually accomplish the task of building such device, since they done before), or the product is not as shiny as it been planned to be, and every donor supports the project by donation as early as possible of as much as they feel they can spare and "risk", to make it more likely to succeed and achieve a great result. For example we might not be able to get 1GB of RAM when the number of donations/preorders is too low for MOQ of that chip. Those donations are what makes the whole project happen, since we don't want to go for commercial venture capital (aka "investors", with only commercial interests of ROI) that then dictates which mainstream requirements the final product must satisfy, to maximize the win margin. The Neo900 fundraising is unique in that it offers "payback" of donations >=100EUR since we think it's only fair that those who supported the project early shall get a product as result of such support for a total expense not higher than, or -ideally- even cheaper than, what a late customer whould have to pay. As added benefit all our supporters / donors participate in the development and it's them and their wishes we design the device for. We will consider their wishes more important for the design than the wishes some non-donor utters. In that sense it's actually a community project, though the business parts (incl final responsibility and decisions) are clearly non-community but commercial.

BR
jOERG

How much would the NFC chip cost in those examples (if they're close enough to being accurate) ?

NFC is not quite something I'm interested in...

Several of our users are very much interested in NFC, though. The cost is too low to consider offering a version where the chip isn't assembled (i.e. probably in the 1 digit range, worst case 10 bucks)
/j

Welcoming Juho onboard FPTF team. N900/N9 first hand experience as PA responsible. Our chances to sort audio just increased by factor100
what a happy day! \o/

@Joerg.. couple of questions:-
1: what eMMC size do you envisage for neo900. Seen talk of 64GB. Would be great.
2: will neo900 support 128GB SD card? My n900`s do.

1: yes, correct, we like to get fast 64GB eMMC, or even 128GB if available and affordable. Fallback is original 32GB if all else fails. Luckily 'all' eMMC have same footprint and signal specs, so we're free to choose a chip last minute - you know they get faster and cheaper every other week. ;-)
2: will support same uSD cards that N900 does.

/j