n900 is for smart ppl... unlike dumbasses like linus torvalds ...

... pity its the "dumb" ppl who have the money and are in charge then...

They showed full-blown Microsoft Windows running on ARM at the CES last month.

Irrelevant, the software people use isn't open source, so it doesn't run on arm.
Even if MS would take upon themselves to do something about it, a windows system includes much LESS software than a typical linux distro does.

Windows *might* be possible on arm by 2020, that is, if they manage to hire some good coders first.

I don't think the "meego product" that Ollila is going to have phone capability, not that it couldn't, just given MS normal business practices given the extent of the deal compaired to other handset makers they probably have a no compete clause for Windows phone products. Eg no new high end phone devices that could compete in the same market as the WP device. This would not effect symbian devices as they have been relegated to mid-range.

Also I don't think maemo 5 pre pr 1.3 could compete with other smartphone OS's with general users without heavy investment. Hey I played with some n900's and loved it, but that's the geek me, could my mom or wife use it without heavy frustration nope. The UI/UX was not refined enough for your average user. I don't know with pr 1.3 if that changed those aspects enough as I have not used it, nor have I seen anything in regards to maemo 6. What I have seen in videos etc for meego it looks like it solved that issue.

How so? You said Windows doesn't run on ARM, it apparently does.

You were wrong. Irrelevant or not, you were quite wrong on that part at least. And Windows Phone 7 runs on ARM.

Not when they recompile everything that's using the x86 ISA to use the ARM ISA.

It runs now. 2011. And if good coders were a prerequisite, then surprised that Nokia didn't put more on MeeGo to get it finished.

I still don't see why anyone but a die hard nokia fan would buy a symbian device given that it is to be abandoned. Any developers nokia had are probably pissed as nokia had a plan backed it for 18+ months the last time just over 2 months ago then bam nokia yanks the rug out from under them without any warning.

Now from a general user end, why would I buy a nokia windows phone? Given that they just discontinued a long standing platform of theirs and still borned another, how do I know they won't do it again in the future? I mean what if I get a windows phone a year from now and 18 months later nokia abandons MS how will my phone get updates? It's not like ms rolls it's updates straight to the users, it goes to the device manufacturers, they update things on their end test it, roll it up and either send it to the users or to the carriers for distribution. Is this a risk an informed average user would want to make? I doubt it.

Windows phone 7 isn't windows, it's windows CE, BIG difference. it doesn't run software that you run on your home PC.
A lot of people have used variants of it since the 90's and it's always been a total dissapointment, not because of the available 3rd party software (there's plenty) but because it's basically always been a buggy POS that needs to be reinstalled more often than the PC versions of windows.
I'm pretty sure they could with some work run even windows 7 on arm, but, it still wouldn't be useful, since EVERYTHING for it is compiled for intel.

The marriage between intel+microsoft isn't going to end any time soon.

I reiterate, the only technically sane OS, useful on ARM atm, is Linux.
Nothing else is even close.

Don't make me link to that damn video again. It shows Windows 7, you know the desktop variety, recompiled to run on ARM.

Windows Phone 7 also runs on ARM.

You quite simply don't know what you're talking about. Years? They compiled that and said so in months. Better programmers... ok. No comment there.

But still... dude. You seriously haven't shown me that you know what you're talking about. Watch that boring video, watch MS show off Windows 7, talk about Windows 8 going ARM, and pay attention to how they're going to do it - and think about why.

Agreed but I will leave it as *nix based OS's are the only useful sane choices for ARM atm. Which is why outside of WP all ARM OS's coming out in the next year are. iOS=bsd, android=Linux, maemo/meego= Linux, WebOS=Linux, Blackberry QNX=unix, WP7=WinCE???WTF???