- i don't mean to come off w/an entirely vindictive tone... but it really irks me when a 'tech journalist' consistently posits ignorant prose that totally ignores the real issues regarding a product, industry or issue...

(there was a Mac-oriented journalist that tendered the same diatribes - Seymour, IIRC... AFAIR he died several years ago...)

I'm not sure I follow here. The repository concept is most certainly not a Nokia one, it's actually a Linux one (particularly Debian), and it's hardly 'STUPID'.

This is probably true, but doesn't make for a very healthy platform if the only people you are appealing to are linux users though - for it to work well for nokia they need a much wider audience.

I have had the same argument a mac user many times - it just means people call you a fanboi who are only concerned about fashion.

Again, for 99.9% of the people who are likely to buy a handheld device and give nokia a chunk of their money, that isn't something that is easy.

Didn't seem an unbalance review to me. I am not referring to any other reviews that the person has done, as I don't know what they were (or how it would be relevant to this review).

Yes, if you are a linux user, recompiling things and getting stuff to work is great, but if you are a user, you have other things to do and other reason to own a handheld machine. If all you want is a hobby platform then great, but otherwise, applications you can download and install with no hassle are a must.

I love my nokia IT, but unless they just wanted a mobile web browser on the move there are only a few people that I would recommend one to if they weren't technical.

Someone spoke as if recompiling apps was a typical thing an N8xx user has to do. I've never had to recompile anything, and I have lots and lots of programs working, more than I can keep up with, or need to.

One of my biggest complaint would the the Nokia as gatekeeper issue. There is just enough closed source material that it's virtually impossible for someone to come along and make a 3rd party firmware. Either you need to have your software cannibalize the official firmware for the bits you need or have it unofficially distributed by Nokia like the 2007HE.

Hi, Linux_Author or someone who sees no compatibility issues with OS2008, could you please get Peekaboo working for OS2008? Even if you only get the VLC video streaming working, without the GUI, I would very much appreciate it. I would really like to have Internet video streaming from the tablet's camera working again.

Linux_author, you are unfair.

You blast me unfairly because you have PREJUDICE against me because of my Linux reviews back in the 2002-2005 era. Yes, my reviews back then were harsh, but I take none of my words back. Linux back then was not ready for the desktop, and I did write as objectively as I could. I write my reviews from the Joe User's point of view, even if I myself I am a developer. Since Linux got better, my reviews got more positive. Read my ubuntu reviews of 1-2 years ago for example, and you will see that they are nothing as harsh as my mandrake reviews of 2003.

So, stop this prejudice bitterness you have against me that has its roots to YEARS AGO, and simply read the review of what it really is.

And btw, I am very technical and I am a developer myself, so stop spreading misinformation about me. But this does not mean that my reviews are from the developers point of view, because the consumer is what it ultimately matters. That's how we review at OSNews, because these who our readers are.

As for compatibility. YES, it has been broken. By saying it wasn't so, you are LYING. The fact that someone can sit his *** down to recompile or re-port an app is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. All it matters is a READY PACKAGE TO INSTALL. From the moment older packages don't work anymore, that's compatibility problem right there, and this is what indeed hurts Nokia. And I can't shut up about it, because then I would be a miserable lier to my readers. But as you very well know, I am not afraid to write down the truth. Which is why I have made so many enemies over the years (and equal number of fans btw, there doesn't seem to be in between, you either like me or you hate me).

I've been a Linux user since 1999 btw, but this doesn't make me an instant fanatic who will be positive to anything and everyone just because of that. If something is wrong or broken, it will be mentioned to my reviews. That's how it works, that's how it should work. So next time you put the words "journalist" in quotes, please think twice. The fact that your pet platform is criticized should be a good thing, because it's way to make it better. Wanting writers to only write "good" things about your pet platform (in other words, lie) is not a good thing, because it will lead to new users getting disappointed by it.

I can only ask you of being more objective to the way you criticize me. I know my reviews are to the best of my ability. Besides, the N810 got a 8/10. How much more positive do you want me to get? But as you both you and I know, it's not the review that bothered you, but your prejudice of 6 years ago against me. And honestly, that's not fair.

As far as the personal blasting of the author is concerned: Eugenia did try to work around/through the weaknesses of the device before posting the article. I know this as I was on the other side of some conversations/Google searches on it. While I am not "the authority" on Internet Tablets, at least she reached out and tried to find solutions before calling something broken.

As far as the review itself is concerned, here's my take on it.

Thanks for dropping in, Eugenia. Welcome aboard! Your article didn't make it clear whether you have a N8x0, or just had one for the review... Should we expect to see more of you around here?

FWIW, I read some of your reviews suggesting Linux was not ready for the desktop, and I found them highly annoying. Nothing specific to your reviews that I remember, just the whole "ready for the desktop" thing has never seemed important to me. And I get annoyed when people go on and on about things that seem unimportant.

This review seemed fair to me; one point of clarification, though:
You won't get to see it until next time you reflash, of course, but OS2008 included the ability to back up the list of packages installed via package manager, so when you install OS2009 (or reflash OS2008) the restore will get your apps. And the next version is slated to have updating w/o reflashing. Upgrading to any later versions will be done (as I understand it) through package manager.

Regarding the main topic flaring up here, I take a middle-of-the-road position on compatibility breaking. (Anyone really like the x86 architecture? Anyone?) Sometimes compatibility breaking is necessary; old APIs have to die at some point, and any old apps that depend on them should be statically linked or reworked to new versions. But it seems that multiple versions of system libraries are a big help, just like on PCs. If old libraries from the last OS or two were available (not installed by default, but could be installed to satisfy dependencies), that would ease a lot of the "upgrading shock" to the new OS before apps are ported. The installation of extra libraries might pose something of a geek barrier, but that's not entirely bad; it encourages recompiling apps for the new versions to reduce newb queries.

And I agree with your price conclusion; I'm not prepared to say that price is unreasonable (they are selling them, after all) but it's not a price I can justify, so I bought an N800 (a week before the N810 was officially announced). I might have waited a month or so if the N810 could have been expected to sell for $300, but it was plainly going to cost more than that.

>Upgrading to any later versions will be done (as I understand it) through package manager.

This is good to hear. But it's something that should have already been done, as we are in the third major iteration of the OS. I don't want just my apps to be backed up, I want everything to be exactly as it was before, after the upgrade reboot. My applets' positions, my preferences for the third party apps etc.

>Anyone really like the x86 architecture?

I do. I also like how Windows XP is well equipped to run older Windows apps and even DOS apps which are important for some old businesses. I dislike Linux's carelessness of breaking APIs and ABIs all too often and sometimes for no good reason, and I also dislike Mac OS X's ease too (OSX is not very compatible with itself either, at least 20%-30% of apps fail when upgrade to a new major version, especially drivers -- my husband is forced to stay on 10.3.9 because of his 3 large printers and 3 film scanners that don't work well or at all on newer versions of OSX). Vista on the other hand has problems with compatibility too, which is why I am still on XP and I am not going to move away from it (I use XP for my Creative Commons videography editing). I use Linux and OSX too for my other work.

>Sometimes compatibility breaking is necessary;

I don't fundamentally disagree with this. What I dislike is that we have had three different iterations of the software that all was package/API incompatible with the other ones. And all of that in LESS than 3 years!!! That's just too much to bare as a user, or as a developer. When the N800 came out with OS2007, the software should have been good enough to be declared API "stable" and from then on to work on keeping compatibility, for at least a few more years. Thank God that Nokia at least supported OS2008 on the N800, cause otherwise I would be much more unhappy about it.

>"ready for the desktop" thing has never seemed important to me

Unfortunately for you and me, it is of importance to our readers. While OSNews is comprised mostly with Linux users and fans, they mostly browse with XP!!! Which means that at least one important application for them at home (or in their line of work) doesn't exist on Linux and so they have to reboot back to XP (for me, that's a good video editor that's as good as After Effects or Sony Vegas). So suddenly, this becomes a "ready for the desktop" issue and it has a specific meaning. Different meaning for different people, but a meaning that does exist.