Someone help convince me to keep my N900 and not sell it. - Page 2 - maemo.org

gmuslera | # 11 | 2011-01-20, 02:32 | Report

My advice would be (if you have cash available) is to first buy what you think is your best alternative, and try to use it for a week or more, and see if you miss the N900 or some of its functionality or not. If you do, sell the alternative, else do it with the N900.

The initial reason i had to buy the N900 was about its potential, and time showed me that i was right. Now is a far better device than it was then. And could keep improving. But your milleage may vary.

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coderedcomputing | # 12 | 2011-01-20, 02:56 | Report

talk.maemo.org has been one sticking point as to why I've kept the phone as long as I have, it has great users and useful folks...and as always the less helpful but amusing "sell it cheap!" -style folks.

@gerbick - good points, no sense in hopping on some 2.2 droid when 2.4 might be amazing/fail, as well as Meego.

@mattbutsko - the lack of support from Nokia has been slowly wearing me down. I thought...no worries, a fw update here and there, it's ok, we'll be fine with support from the community, but @%^$ you'd think there would be something. Just a working sync/backup like Ovi Suite could have been. Just...frustrating.

I don't plan to just toss the N900 cheaply out to the winds, hell it took me a year lurking around on here before I decided I was going to buy the one I have now. It just feels like I've gotten to a point where I "just want it to work" and that just doesn't happen until I've tweaked, edit some files, apt-get upgrade, find working protocols, read the board for an hour or three...then maybe it will work. -_-

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Wikiwide | # 13 | 2011-01-20, 02:56 | Report

Quick reply...
You are several months late. If you took part in this competition
http://extendfirefox.com/mobile-cup/enter.php
you might have won an Android phone.
Near me was lucky (yes, I envy him; I wasn't that lucky)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/mobile/addon/near-me/
It won one challenge (N900) and then another (and can get either N900 or Android, whatever he likes)

RenaldoTT | # 14 | 2011-01-20, 03:03 | Report

I can't convince you dude, I just know, I love my device and will only upgrade if I (me, myself alone) finds something better. Just sold my iPhone today for $1200TTD

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anwar71839 | # 15 | 2011-01-20, 03:43 | Report

Originally Posted by coderedcomputing View Post

I'm just getting fed up.

I'm a *nix guy, so this phone/NIT is not some bizzare OS and I can work my way around easily enough, but I've just hit a wall. Here's where I am right now...

I ran around with multiboot and NITDroid 0.0.8 (installed on the eMMC) which I enjoyed, mostly for the Kindle app, but I got bored with switching to a new OS, and after 3 weeks of booting into Maemo I decided to ditch NITDroid and just go back to bone stock.

Reflashing was easy, even doing so on my XP 64 desktop (currently have my Win7/Ubuntu laptop in pieces), but it annoyed me. Not having a simple command to boot the phone and do a master reset just seems like something someone forgot. I took it as a project and got it done, but it just bugged me. Like many other folks I tired to give Nokia the benefit of the doubt and loaded Ovi Suite so I could sync/backup and try that software, but alas, trying to restore just my contacts caused the newly flashed phone to fall flat on it's face. The poor thing was unable to even get past the desktop, so another reflash, and yep, getting more annoyed.

I had all my info backed up elsewhere, and almost all my contacts are based off Facebook/IM/Gmail and other chat programs, so meh I'll get them back and I can copy back over my music/videos/pics. I've gotten only about 30% of my apps reinstalled, and hit another wall. The current broken Extras AIM protocols 1.0 that has halted me from using AIM in the phone without loading Pidgin. (Yes I have tried removing debs, editing account-plugin-salut.postinst to no avail) This keeps my buddy list from merging into my contacts and I keep thinking to myself, why am I going through all this *JUST* to use AIM, one of the bigger IM clients in the US?! One would think this phone would have it setup by default... but no, we instead have to rely on one programmer who has done a great job on getting it setup, but once something breaks, we just sit and wait, try hacking around to get things working, etc etc.... it just... bugs me.

So... sorry for the long and tinged with mad/anger bit, but I'm just looking at this phone and thinking, why am I doing this?
I wanted a device that can make calls (check).
I wanted a device to play my mp3's without DRM-noise (check, with adding the protocols..annoying).
I wanted a device to ping, ssh, RDP into servers while working on them (check, with added downloads).
I wanted to be able to contact people via IM clients/email without using multiple programs (check, until just now).

It seems, the things I wanted this device to do, are all possible, and I've learned how to make them occur, but I have to make it happen. It's just like working on any of my linux boxes in general, but it is just...becoming very maddening. Seeing the other options out there being used by co-workers, JB IPhone, Android, even a Winbleh phone... I start to wonder if tossing this N900 until a newer device comes out from Nokia. Though sadly, I just feel like it will be all the same noise, all over again.

So folks, help me out here. I'd hate to go through all the relearning again, but good grief I am getting so sick of this device.

Dude, sorry for your frustations, but it is too late to complain. Nokia, in particular, doesnt care much about maemo anyways

epitaph | # 16 | 2011-01-20, 07:02 | Report

Originally Posted by 9000 View Post

If you're a *nix guy you should be able to get a lot of stuffs working in N900, the stuffs that don't have fancy UI and absent from other phone. That's where the real fun is.

You might disagree with me, but N900 is not the kind of phone that preloaded with full set of well-cooked fancy applications off the shelf. Seriously and without any offensive meaning, from what you just described, I believe you should get an Android phone. I'd recommend HTC Desire Z, its look resembles a N900, with a robust hardware keyboard. (though I feel it running slower than N900, maybe I'm mistaken.)

And if you are going to sell it real cheap, tell me.

I would recommend Google Nexus One or Nexus S over Desire Z and Nokia N900 because Nexus is from Google and such should get better Android support. Also Nexus has bigger screen Nexus S 4" inches.

Last edited by epitaph; 2011-01-20 at 07:29.

Frappacino | # 17 | 2011-01-20, 07:23 | Report

if you need convincing - sell it

n900 is not for the half hearted

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9000 | # 18 | 2011-01-20, 07:25 | Report

Originally Posted by epitaph View Post

I would recommend Google Nexus One or Nexus S over Desire Z and Nokia N900 because Nexus is from Google and such should get better Android support.

Agree with you that we could get better Android support from Google's phones, but I could live with delayed OS update for a better Android phone.

stickymick | # 19 | 2011-01-20, 08:24 | Report

Well, I'm not a developer, I know squit about programming in nix and N900.
But if someone offered me a swap-out for an iPhone 4 or android phone I'd flatly refuse. I'm enjoying getting my hands dirty with the N900.
As gmuslera says above “Buy your new phone first and put the N900 away”. See how long you can last.

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ysss | # 20 | 2011-01-20, 08:46 | Report

My take on this issue is that most users here want a pocketable Linux device more than a 'smartphone'. They want something they can tag around in their pocket and hack around/dev with, than to do 'smartphone-y' stuffs like a proper PIM using advanced phone functions and such.

We're talking about completely different paradigms.

A full blown *nix without a good amount of modifications to adapt it for a pocketable's requirement can be painful to use, as many of us have found. Nokia/maemo is still not yet 'there' on this iteration.

Personally I think a smartphone interface is REQUIRED for pocketable device which you use on the go. Unless you sit down all day in front of the device, which you might better off doing in front of a real machine anyway.

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