Nitdroid has been revived, and is running very nicely on the N8x0s. Still some issues to sort, but DJ_Steve has done a sterling job so far.

What I cannot understand is all these people with N900s who want to chuck Android on it - seems strange to me - why do they not buy an Android device? The Droid/milestone seems to be reasonably close to the N900 interms of form factor

I'll have to check out the NITdroid refresh then...

Perhaps the reason android port for iPhone is better (is it?) than that on the N900 is because iPhone users are stuck with a restricted OS on nice hardware, while N900 users have a unrestricted OS on nice hardware. So for hackers, it would be nice to get a less restricted OS installed.

Bleh that didn't come out right. Perhaps you still see my point.

If I wanted android I would use an android phone. I hear they're nice.Though it would be nice to be able to smoothly run android on N900 just to piss android people off.

No, I don't see your point.

If Maemo is so unrestricted, then they should be able to code down to the metal, basically. No restrictions in the way. No hacks necessary.

Instead, Maemo is a developers paradise for only a very select few. The ones on the platform are downright awesome. But stuff like this, seems to not have the community to back it, or better yet... it's not really as big of a challenge as it would be on the more restricted iPhone and nobody has really taken themselves to task for something of this nature and have it running truly full-speed.

Now to me, that's just plain *** backwards. No restrictions in the way would be like a sports car and a 20 mile stretch of straightway paved road. What it "might" denote is just that the N900 hasn't quite yet seduced the right people. Or presents the right challenge.

Or more than likely, given the current state of lack of updates for the apps that are there - no Skype update, no Gizmo (Google owns them now) update, no... well, besides the PR updates and DialCentral, really no updates of the apps so far - the N900 is looking like a dead end in its current iteration.

So the devs might be waiting on the MeeGo dust to settle before they go forward.

And think of it this way. Android on the iPhone is an improvement if you were to ask me. Can't say the same for the N900. Would be an improvement (at fullspeed) on the N810.

I think it's great to see Android running on the iphone, Im looking forward to a time when we'll genuinely be able to have whatever OS we want running on the hardware we choose. So more power to the developers and I hope they'll develop it further. What they learn can only help others with porting Android onto other devices.

DJ_Steve is doing a great job porting Android onto Maemo, and it would be unfair to question the pace of the port as it's one guy who doesn't even have a n900 yet. He deserves a lot of kudos for what he has achieved so far. The difference is there are thousands more of talented developers like Steve developing with the Iphone, with a development and coding environment which is better laid out and understood than on Maemo, so developments will come a lot quicker on that platform. That's the advantage of numbers.

The main reason to port Android to Maemo would be the app scene. You would have access to a decent library of apps. Makes the N900 a lot more attractive, even for mainstream users.

- I was already familiar with and impressed with Maemo 4 and it's existing environment, and thought that would be a personal advantage instead of jumping the Android bandwagon. (It wasn't as big an advantage as I had thought, since I had to leave several applications behind and the rest were ported at different speeds and mostly reside in -devel.)

- I was already familiar and impressed with this community, the frontier mentality here, and I thought I would love to have a maemo phone because of that. (As it happens, I was kind of at fault there too. I hadn't expected that many tablet owners and forum core members became bitter about the N900 being a phone, or that people would be asked in semi-hateful ways to do better research, read the specs + go buy an Iphone every time they pointed out an unexpected weakness. It's still a marvelous place, but not as uniquely positive as I initially thought it was.)

- So I bought the N900, in December 2009. And I'm on a contract. I will keep paying for it until November 2010. I have a N900. I don't buy phones when I don't need (or at least have an excuse) to buy phones.

- Selling it would be at a loss and I can't afford to cover the loss to get another.

- The N900 is in some areas the best device on the market, in others in the very top. Yes, in some areas it's among the weakest phones, too, but getting another phone would mean pros AND cons. Why would I want to pay for a new set of cons?

- Adding Android to the N900 would be free. And it could add a new set of features that the N900 is capable of but has not yet managed to gain through Maemo.

- The Android market is growing VERY fast right now. Ovi isn't, yet. Access to Android apps far outweighs having access to Maemo apps - but the N900 should be capable of BOTH.

- I don't like the Droid/Milestone design. It seems unbalanced for me and that kind of hurts a little inside whenever I look at it. Like bad Feng Shui.

So, all in all...

I don't see that your suggestion to get an Android phone gives me much value that a good Android port would not give me, while at the same time keeping the N900 functionality. I have installed Easy Debian and that is completely a +/+ situation for me. I would probably loved having Easy Android.

Hopefully, now you can understand better why (one among other) people don't think your suggestion to use more money is the ultimate solution.

Even if we get a super-fast near-perfect port I still don't think you'll be getting the Android Market.

IIRC that is only available to purchased phones with Android as it's a closed source Google app - just ask cyanogen.

I agree, to me there's no incentive to port Android to the N900, because Maemo is better (well if you're a noob or a "passive consumer" type, Android might fit your needs a little better). Now Android on an iPhone is a MAJOR improvement, so there's lots of incentive to port Android to it.

I disagree. Having the collection of Android apps on my N900 would be quite nice. Not practical of course, since to play a game I would have to restart, but nice to have that option. If someday Andrroid on the N900 is improved to the point that you can install app, I will use it solely for its apps and games. I wish more devs would develop for the N900, but Android might be the next best thing.

I love ports and I really like the emulators. The apps are just as good as on any other OS IMO and I do not miss apps so much. It's games that I miss. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the ports and stuff, and there are some very nice ports like OpenArena or Supertux or tuxrace..but what about new games? Games like Iron Man 2 or NFS 6 (or whatever number they're on now..). Android gets new games, so to sum up I disagree. Having Android on the N900 would be useful.

If the OS is able to install apps and games, run them of course, and make calls (I do not want to be offline just to play a game), and maybe have a working browser with Wi-Fi, I would use it as an 'emulator'.