I use a 22" hd display paired with an acer spire revo(nvidia ION nettop) atached to the screen as a main pc and a xbox 360 for gaming needs.

I also use a hp wireless printer so my devices can print there

i used to use a netbook until i got my n900 which is now my primary mobile internet device. I recently got a motorola defy for my mountain bike.

Even if my n900 has a game gripper, I also use gamepark consoles for gaming,

I have a dream too

No matter what computer you have any more -- we have a bunch of them. We have mobile phones, book readers, laptops, desktops, and other things, such as gps devices.

Once upon a time, people asked themselves what kind of computer to get, PC, Mac or Linux. Or maybe dual-boot. That is no longer the right question.

And they get to conclusion. Everybody needs something that suits him. Is not about device really if you reverse this question. But is all about the content you wont to get on your device.

That's why cross-platform technologies pushing boundaries forward. No longer matter what you have. Content suppose to be available on your
or TV sets, the way you like most without telling you how to hold it . without forcing you to use only one solution. Others saying if something is for everything is for nothing really.

people wont to have a choice and there is no technology or idea available from centuries that suits everybody perfectly.

This is why I'm working on Flaemo, to make your content customizable and available whatever you going to use. (with IShit exception because of company ecosystem protectionism) but I don't really care about people that choosing it, showing me only bud sheep behavior. Yes, there are a lot of people that prefer to being told what they need, instead make their own decision. But those more creative will always looking for something else and that's how humanity developing over the ages. Same type of people has tendency to complain but because their nature.

So, what device? Is up to your preferences really. Make sure the content you going to see using them will be available, configurable, customizable, search-able, and suits you.

I haven't used a desktop since 1999. The stay-home "big" machine is a 12" Alienware running Arch/Win7, followed by a 10" Acer for travel. N900 fills in the gaps. And there are a lot of gaps.

N900, waterproof
USB mouse, waterproof
USB keyboard, large enough to type comfortably, with flat keys, foldable, waterproof, not flexible
LCD screen, large, for watching movies (connect to N900 through TV-out?)
E-paper screen, black-and-white, flexible, rollable, foldable, for reading without wasting energy
Solar charger and hand crank charger (not to mention wall charger and USB cable)
USB/{wired LAN} connector in order to connect N900 to wired LAN
Optical 8x zoom, just in case
And camera shutter can be replaced with fish-eye lens

This all fits into a laptop bag (except for LCD screen) in such a way that you don't have to take it out for airport screening
I'd love to see expandable RAM; I agree.

About the idea of super-computer: is it feasible to have large cube in backpack which would include multiple core 10GHz CPU, 10GB RAM, 1TB memory (for you library of favorite movies/books; for your lifelong collection of photographs; for all the documents you have written; etc) and ssh into it through USB cable which is inside the backpack's strap when your N900 doesn't have enough processing power for a task (like encryption cracking; I can't imagine anything else). Something like Mac mini, just a processing power cube with lots of memory. And it will have to be flash memory, not hard drive, because it will be used on the go.

A dream

I need an optimised Linux for N900. No gnome folders. No co-existence of Qt and GTK and Python and Perl and XUL. No /cd-rom folders. I vote in favor of Minix-like minimalistic XUL-based OS, which cannot run any binaries, where applications are written in XUL and interface is uniform, where window manager is in XUL, too, and ultimately hackable by XUL extensions. No segmentation faults. Instead of X Terminal - Javascript workspace. The shell isn't hidden - it's absent. The low-level drivers are in plugins (like Flash) and are the only binary components (except for the bootloader, but it doesn't count).

With the Electrolysis, and Minix-like structure, problem with one hardware component doesn't make the whole OS crash. It just restarts the plugin.

Gecko OS. Closing the top-level XUL is equal to shutdown. With Javascript, you can ask it to reboot into another XUL (equivalent of current command fennec --chrome=).
Of course, it would be possible to make the bootloader show choices on startup: what XUL application you want to run now, the main one (with window manager and multi-tasking) or a smaller one (camera, browser, text editor, book reader, movie player, video editor, email, calendar).

And the OS would be one-user at the core: no root, no limited users. Though, there still might be the profiles, like in Firefox, with separate extensions/applications, separate history, etc. But from all these profiles, you see the same file-system, without /home/user and /home/root.

Not trying to offend by any means, but why?

My "desktop" has 6TB RAID 5 storage, so I guess I already crossed the line from desktop to server? Can't really replace that with a portable device. Network attached storage never impresses me either, home networks are too slow for that, and it's more expensive too. Another good thing about desktops is that any individual part can be upgraded, so it's always cost effective to own one. So, my 21 month old laptop is about ready to get tossed, but my desktop? Never!
Even if I were to have unlimited budget, and be able to ignore the slower performance, I'm just going to take that laptop and hook it up to a full size keyboard, mouse, lcd screen, big speakers, usb hub with another 3-4 devices... Sure, I could connect it to my TV and home theater, but with all those cords its gonna need a desk and office chair... Surely you don't want me to throw out all those things as well??

Well... I would really like to have something like your "desktop" in a portable device. Definitions of "portable" vary, so having it in backpack as 5kg of weight isn't that bad.

But being able to take "the brick" out of pocket and lookup the star catalogue, or translate a word, or calculate/plot in Octave, and all this without cloud, on the go, is just too attractive.

Yes, I agree, the smallish keyboard of a laptop is a joke, and many laptops/notebooks have too small screen for normal work and too large screen for using them on-the-go.

But having a huge, heavy, noisy desktop isn't ideal either. The good thing about "portable" is that it means power-conserving, and usually without dust-attracting ventilators. It's one of the reasons I think N900 is better than any laptop. N900 was supposed from the beginning to live without power cord; any time spent charging is a minus, discomfort for the user.

And yes, I would like to know how N900 can be upgraded to higher RAM, faster CPU, better camera. Not immediately, but just in case...

I think that huge heavy desktop is safer though, even if I had the option of carrying that around with me, I still need a backup of all that data at home. I think the future is faster internet with unlimited bandwidth, maybe if everyone unlocks their wireless networks that is good enough. Then we can just stream whatever we need to the portable device, and perhaps software can even run remotely so the processing won't kill our battery.

I think if we have to tolerate having 1 device, then it would be the Motorola Atrix 4G with the media dock and netbook converter.

The best (or most comfortable) alternative, for personal computing, would be to own 2 devices with multiple functions (like 2 different swiss knives).

1) A phone with extended capabilities.
So obviously a smartphone, and something more advanced like the Samsung EPIC 4G or the Motorola Defy (for it resistance to nature). Or something with extreme function and portability ... something like this:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...585#post754585

2) A modern computer for the "big boy" things. A ultraportable or your average notebook fills this corner. A suitable netbook and tablet are also viable, but for the extreme function and portability ... something like this would suffice:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...372#post921372

Having the two concepts would be more than enough for me, and they would make owning multiple devices (dumbphone, tablet, notebook, gaming rig etc etc) obsolete.

Please, n900 has such a poor collection of softwares. It is laughable if you think you dont need more than that.