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Maemo vs. Android - what makes Maemo a winner?
Because many people have suggested that my prejudice against Maemo isn't backed by facts, I would like to ask people who are more intimate with Maemo to share what makes Maemo better than Android based on core functionality, development support, supported languages, interoperability between apps, the ability to change any element of the interface and the shell with another (like change the keyboard, the contact app, the camera app), syncing and cloud-computing etc. I'm open to suggestions why I should like Maemo.
Jeez... you android fanboys why all the hate on Maemo, are you guys threatened by Maemo... Just use whatever works for you, there is no need to form a religious followership over one OS and diss the other. At the end its all about you the consumer, you win when you are Manufacturer blind and you loose when you choose to be a fanboy.
As for me the N900 would join my growing list of gadgets.
As for me the N900 would join my growing list of gadgets.
I guess you might call me a Maemo hater, however I am not. I am simply a person who wishes that Nokia released a product I would want to have, because I used to be a big Nokia fan back when I had my N82, and after that it all went downhill. Today Nokia releases products that are either too expensive for what they are worth or capable, or they release anachronistic N-models with Symbian nobody wants (especially across the ocean).
If you actually read this we discussed both and listed the benefits of both, we were not saying it won't do good just that android already has a jump on it. The only one i can see thats being a fanboy right now is you.
It's interesting to see this debate, as Maemo has a very dedicated developer following, and the N900 is perfectly marketed to those power users. It's one of their N tablet devices that has a clear path of evolution and refinement. From the N710->N810->N810+WAN->N900, with ALL previous models growing in quality and userbase. To switch an OS that's largely been accepted by those who would purchase this product to a separate OS would largely negate any benefits conveyed by the devices lineage.
Both Android, and Maemo are great, and they seem to target different markets altogether.
With regards to the quality of Nokia phones, I have to disagree there as well. The N95, and N96 are widely regarded as some of the best smartphones to have ever been released*, and even with the N97's shakey launch, they've managed to move 2 million(!) units. With a steady stream of tweaks, fixes and upgrades that leave most handset manufacturers looking rather meek in the device support category.
Either way, I look forward to the success of the N900, and all of the Android based phones that I find exciting. I wish you guys a great weekend, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!
*Supporting my N95 claim
www.infosyncworld.com/smartphones/?orderby=Score&a... - Second across all smartphone scores ever collected.
http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/reviews.php?sortby=overall_rating - Third across all phone ratings period.
Both Android, and Maemo are great, and they seem to target different markets altogether.
With regards to the quality of Nokia phones, I have to disagree there as well. The N95, and N96 are widely regarded as some of the best smartphones to have ever been released*, and even with the N97's shakey launch, they've managed to move 2 million(!) units. With a steady stream of tweaks, fixes and upgrades that leave most handset manufacturers looking rather meek in the device support category.
Either way, I look forward to the success of the N900, and all of the Android based phones that I find exciting. I wish you guys a great weekend, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!
*Supporting my N95 claim
www.infosyncworld.com/smartphones/?orderby=Score&a... - Second across all smartphone scores ever collected.
http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/reviews.php?sortby=overall_rating - Third across all phone ratings period.
Well from what i have researched on Maemo, it is more of a full on linux kernel then Android. Although a big supporter of Android myself, Maemo looks to be a truely more linux based platform especially if they fully port the tablet edition to the N900. The ability to easily port an linux application makes this a much better suited platform then Android simply because the amount of linux programs is vast. Granted since space is limited on the N900 this could be seen as a hinderance since most linux programs can eat huge amounts of memory like Open Office. And as far as i can tell this has the most true browser running off of mozilla with flash support(which i could care less about). I think the biggest difference is who is behind each OS. Nokia and a vast open source community are behind Maemo while Google and its community stand behind Android. From a preformance and customability stand point Maemo is looking like the better Smart Phone since it is basically Linux powering it, while Android is a more mass marketed smart phone with bits of linux running it. It might be a hard sell for me to stick with android when it comes time to upgrade especially if the N900 runs as good as they are saying it will.
Thanks for the very thorough response. From what I read you mean:Maemo can run Linux applications with minimum needed core software changes BUT memory on mobile device is incomparably less than desktop platform and interface requires rethinking of UI paradigms. To me that means that very few Linux projects will make the transition, despite the overall friendliness.
As for application catalog growth, I stand by my opinion that Maemo will fail compared to Android if not because of features, but because of politics. In order for developers to embrace Maemo as a promising platform they need critical mass adoption. Maemo is not going to reach critical mass due to its single handset manufacturer focus. No self-respecting other manufacturer would make Maemo phones - to do so would be aiding Nokia's ecosystem. Android won manufacturers because it came from a non-manufacturer company - Google is never going to enter their business and compete with them based on hardware handset. Nokia is seen as a major competitor - the biggest manufacturer - and thus no other company would dare help them with Maemo hardware. In fact, other companies are working hard on critical Android adoption if only to scale down Nokia to a competitor they can measure up with.
As for application catalog growth, I stand by my opinion that Maemo will fail compared to Android if not because of features, but because of politics. In order for developers to embrace Maemo as a promising platform they need critical mass adoption. Maemo is not going to reach critical mass due to its single handset manufacturer focus. No self-respecting other manufacturer would make Maemo phones - to do so would be aiding Nokia's ecosystem. Android won manufacturers because it came from a non-manufacturer company - Google is never going to enter their business and compete with them based on hardware handset. Nokia is seen as a major competitor - the biggest manufacturer - and thus no other company would dare help them with Maemo hardware. In fact, other companies are working hard on critical Android adoption if only to scale down Nokia to a competitor they can measure up with.
For lack of a better word yes, although both Nokia and Google are on the open handset alliance. So while they are both competitors they are still on the same side about how phones should be more open. I agree Nokia will never let Maemo out of their handset market which could hurt them or since they are still the number one selling phone company, it might work in their favor. Google got Android right buy letting any manufacter use the OS free of charge and that will work in their favor, but i think once Nokia saturates the market with their phones that run Maemo its going to be an open sourced battle between Android and Maemo with most other smart phones trailing far behind. If or when they decide to bump up the memory or allow an external memory to be attached like SDXC then large linux apps like open office or blender might jump on board which would turn Maemo into a true portable computer.
I think Android and Maemo are in a typical Windows vs Apple OSX battle. By the time Nokia covers the whole spectrum from mid to high end handsets in their own catalogue, that won't matter at all because by that time Android would run on 100$ l0w-end smartphones, half the PMPs in the world, home appliances, etc. I might be painting too bright future for Android but based on what is happening, Archos announcing Android PMPs and Zii EGG capturing the interest of OEMs, Nokia simply will find itself cornered by everyone else If that happens, it might turn out Nokia made a mistake basing so much of their short-term future on Maemo.
Well i don't think it will hurt them to use it, but Android is posing itself to be a more wide spread spetrum of devices. 15 phones are set to launch this year with possibly 20 more next year. Not to mention the PMP's and possible netbooks although i think Chrome OS will trump the netbook category. But as an app based platform it definetly has the potential to cover a variety of gadgets with a cheap OS. But you are right by the time Maemo established a foot hold, Android will be catching up with if not passing the Iphone in sales. It will take a lot for Maemo to catch up but if they offer a wide variety of phones with it its not to far fetched. The overall problem i see still is that as you pointed out Nokia is the only one that will have rights to use Maemo, allow this could change since it is open sourced and linux based, while android could be running on toasters by next year.
Ha the KIRF models, they would use it they would just rip it off. Its funny to think about it really those chinese knock offs, even though Andriod and Maemo are free they still wouldn't and don't use them. I would imagine it has something to do with having to code the drivers for the cheap parts they use but its funny to think all those KIRF things all run the same OS just skinned differently.
Uh, Maemo is open source. Anyone can use it already. There is no need for Nokia to give permission for anything.
And anyway, most of the Maemo stack is already well know components from Linux, exactly the same as a desktop version. In fact most of it just Debian.
And anyway, most of the Maemo stack is already well know components from Linux, exactly the same as a desktop version. In fact most of it just Debian.
I got that, but the fact the drivers are still proprietary and for nokia, we may not see this on anything other then Nokia products. I know its open but when you look at a netbook esc market something like Ubuntu MID or any other linux would work better.
Are you a developer or a phone company? Android phones are more open for phone makers, but Android only runs Java applications (see usual java rant). Maemo is more open for developers, notably allowing native applications, which are being ported from Linux.
I'd imagine all Android applicaitons will run on Maemo phones by the end of 2010 because Java runs under Maemo now and the Android runtime is being ported. I'm less sure that Maemo will be opened for other phone makers or if other phone makers will close it.
I'd expect the steady state solutions will be :
- Android will run the vast majority of smartphone models, giving buyers their fashion choice, thus breaking the iPhone's fashion monopoly, and eventually growing an enormous consumer development community. Andoird phones will benefit from numerous competing suppliers, thus making them cheaper.
- Maemo will run all Android software plus higher power native professional software, like python, ruby, sql clients, spread sheets, latex, etc. I'd expect non-Android Java software will also run under Maemo, and the native VPNs, VoIP, skype, ssh, scp, gpg, etc. will all run faster under Maemo.
I'd expect many professionals and businesses will choose Maemo for specific applications unavailable under Android, like VPNs, VoIP, python, ruby, etc. while consumers choose Android for price and looks.
Android's Java runtime is sufficiently agnostic enough about mid level libraries that Nokia and Google _could_ actually unite their products, allowing Maemo native software to run on Android phones too, but who knows. :)
I'd imagine all Android applicaitons will run on Maemo phones by the end of 2010 because Java runs under Maemo now and the Android runtime is being ported. I'm less sure that Maemo will be opened for other phone makers or if other phone makers will close it.
I'd expect the steady state solutions will be :
- Android will run the vast majority of smartphone models, giving buyers their fashion choice, thus breaking the iPhone's fashion monopoly, and eventually growing an enormous consumer development community. Andoird phones will benefit from numerous competing suppliers, thus making them cheaper.
- Maemo will run all Android software plus higher power native professional software, like python, ruby, sql clients, spread sheets, latex, etc. I'd expect non-Android Java software will also run under Maemo, and the native VPNs, VoIP, skype, ssh, scp, gpg, etc. will all run faster under Maemo.
I'd expect many professionals and businesses will choose Maemo for specific applications unavailable under Android, like VPNs, VoIP, python, ruby, etc. while consumers choose Android for price and looks.
Android's Java runtime is sufficiently agnostic enough about mid level libraries that Nokia and Google _could_ actually unite their products, allowing Maemo native software to run on Android phones too, but who knows. :)
I complety agree with you, Maemo has a lot of potential because of the Linux Kernel (aka Debian) and thus it will run all kind of applications. The only thing I hope is that the number of developers increases, until now the amount of apps running in Maemo 5 are very limited.
I've been a user of Maemo since almost the beginning. I had a 770 and own a N810.
Before android was released, these tablets were the most "Google intergrated" devices out there. You were able to have voice chat through google talk for years. It's getting all your contacts for gmail, and has push mail with gmail too.
Now android's there, it's fully and greatly integrated with google. It's a great OS. It's opensource, but to me it makes little to no difference with another phone OS.
And I'm a google fan.
On the other hand, Maemo really is open. The community around it is small (due mostly to the sales of internet tablets) but very dedicated. Development is fast, great tools have been written or ported (easier to port a gtk app to maemo than android). It's very possible to change everything in the OS. It's a real linux, and you can feel it everywhere.
Now, I can tell the N900 will work very well with both Ovi and Google services, because people at Maemo also like Google.
It's new UI is impressive, far above what I've seen yet on android, even the Hero can't compete.
And the 800x480 screen makes it usable for much more than what android phones allowed us yet.
I'm a huge fan of android, I like my maemo and my N810 is right next to me. But I've really been blown out by this N900, it's gonna ROCK!!
Before android was released, these tablets were the most "Google intergrated" devices out there. You were able to have voice chat through google talk for years. It's getting all your contacts for gmail, and has push mail with gmail too.
Now android's there, it's fully and greatly integrated with google. It's a great OS. It's opensource, but to me it makes little to no difference with another phone OS.
And I'm a google fan.
On the other hand, Maemo really is open. The community around it is small (due mostly to the sales of internet tablets) but very dedicated. Development is fast, great tools have been written or ported (easier to port a gtk app to maemo than android). It's very possible to change everything in the OS. It's a real linux, and you can feel it everywhere.
Now, I can tell the N900 will work very well with both Ovi and Google services, because people at Maemo also like Google.
It's new UI is impressive, far above what I've seen yet on android, even the Hero can't compete.
And the 800x480 screen makes it usable for much more than what android phones allowed us yet.
I'm a huge fan of android, I like my maemo and my N810 is right next to me. But I've really been blown out by this N900, it's gonna ROCK!!
I agree this makes me more interested in Maemo, maybe not as a phone but as a tablet interface. I think i might buy the N810 now.
Hi Bokal, I was happy to read your post, sounds like the news I seriously was hoping to find!
Can you please post a link/give your advice how to do Nokia n900 + Google synch, reliably and easy?
I am looking forward to synch gmail, google contacts & calendar _directly_ with the phone, rather than using e.g. the crap Nokia OVI and/or PCsynch! Is that humanly possible?! ;)
I am about to buy Nokia n900, but I have a doubt about how plug&play it is with Google apps: a lot of controversy about that in several discussion forums etc.
Thanks a lot for your answer on this!!
Can you please post a link/give your advice how to do Nokia n900 + Google synch, reliably and easy?
I am looking forward to synch gmail, google contacts & calendar _directly_ with the phone, rather than using e.g. the crap Nokia OVI and/or PCsynch! Is that humanly possible?! ;)
I am about to buy Nokia n900, but I have a doubt about how plug&play it is with Google apps: a lot of controversy about that in several discussion forums etc.
Thanks a lot for your answer on this!!
Regarding Gmail push, does it do it easily right out of the box, or will I need to spend time digging into Maemo hacker forums to find some little app or hack to do it?
It comes with Nokia messaging (a huge "work in progress sticker on that one"). If you're used to s60 phones you'll know how it works. If not, just put in your e-mail address and password (yahoo,gmail,hotmail,aol and tens of thousands of isp's) and it just does the set up automatically! You may have to go into settings to define download methods but thats just a simple ui based system. No coding necessary :)
You have to set up Gmail to do IMAP, then it will do push on every GOOD IMAP capable client, including the client of the N810.
No special trick involved. You just setup your IMAP account and it works.
It's the first device I've seen doing it, since then, all my nokia phones also have this ability in their email client.
So, to answer your question, I can safely say : yes, the N900 will do push with gmail IMAP (and all good IMAP servers), and no it won't be difficult to setup.
No special trick involved. You just setup your IMAP account and it works.
It's the first device I've seen doing it, since then, all my nokia phones also have this ability in their email client.
So, to answer your question, I can safely say : yes, the N900 will do push with gmail IMAP (and all good IMAP servers), and no it won't be difficult to setup.
Hi. Newby non tech-savy question here.
Where does WebOS come into play here?
I am asking because I 've been thinking about getting a Pre, but with the speed of new devices and new platforms surfacing the last few months I am not so sure anymore.
I know it's early but assuming Palm will not mess it up like they did with PalmOs, will it stand a chance in the marked.
I really like the Pre but will hate to invest time and money in a platform that doesn't have a future.
Where does WebOS come into play here?
I am asking because I 've been thinking about getting a Pre, but with the speed of new devices and new platforms surfacing the last few months I am not so sure anymore.
I know it's early but assuming Palm will not mess it up like they did with PalmOs, will it stand a chance in the marked.
I really like the Pre but will hate to invest time and money in a platform that doesn't have a future.
Well Webos really doesn't fit into this, and only because it is palm's proprietary to palm. They might release a few phones that run it, but its still new so if it will last is still hard to say but it has potential. If you have more specific questions try the Pre discussions since there are a lot of happy users here.
My advice would be to try it out and if you like it then you stick with it. You can never be happy as a gadget nerd for as soon as something catches your eye another company/platform will announce something cooler that you have to wait six months for! Problem though is a) the pre is a cdma device so not much freedom to jump carriers and b) the 2 year contract (and c) sprint?)
As to your question of not "messing it up", Palm is almost operating like a start up. The pre has not really been a run away success but that maybe because its on sprint and all the other carriers came out immediately and said they will get it too in Jan10. Nokia on the other hand is like the Microsoft of phones. What ever the fanboi's/techies on american based websites say, they have 50% of the global smart phone market share and their dumbphone os s40 does more everyday than the rest of these so called smartphones. The point is they really are not going anywhere and as has been proven; even if they mess it up in the beginning, they will continue to improve it till people forget.
+ Mameo is 80% open sourced and even with the relatively small uptake of the previous tablets it has continued to enjoy a very loyal and robust developer community. (see mameo.org) so even if nokia are slow to fix something the community would pick up the slack!
As to your question of not "messing it up", Palm is almost operating like a start up. The pre has not really been a run away success but that maybe because its on sprint and all the other carriers came out immediately and said they will get it too in Jan10. Nokia on the other hand is like the Microsoft of phones. What ever the fanboi's/techies on american based websites say, they have 50% of the global smart phone market share and their dumbphone os s40 does more everyday than the rest of these so called smartphones. The point is they really are not going anywhere and as has been proven; even if they mess it up in the beginning, they will continue to improve it till people forget.
+ Mameo is 80% open sourced and even with the relatively small uptake of the previous tablets it has continued to enjoy a very loyal and robust developer community. (see mameo.org) so even if nokia are slow to fix something the community would pick up the slack!
The clear difference for me is, beyond the dalvik vs native apps is that you don't have to hack your N900 to get root, while I bet you every consumer android will probably find a way to stop you from circumventing that.
flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lo...
flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lo...
Well i do agree that to get root is getting harder on android devices, but honestly do you think the vast majority of people care about rooting, in fact i could see root as a bad thing if the maemo supports it out of the box and someone goes into the terminal and starts messing with stuff, its a great idea but it sounds as though they are targeting the tech community by allowing root, and i fear that once to many people mess things up because they do not know what terminal is or try something they saw on the net Nokia will pull root access. Don't get me wrong Maemo is a great OS but it is going to take a lot to catch up to the hype android has right now.
True. Android is aiming to be a consumer appliance that just happens to run on Linux. Maemo wants to be almost like a netbook replacement, or as Nokia likes to say, "A computer in your pocket."
The same people that were jailbreaking their phones are probably rooting their Android devices. That said, its nice not to have to jump through hoops so you can run something that falls outside the scope of the normal consumer application space.
The same people that were jailbreaking their phones are probably rooting their Android devices. That said, its nice not to have to jump through hoops so you can run something that falls outside the scope of the normal consumer application space.
I agree and which is why i am getting more and more tempted to buy the N900, not that i care to much about root access but more about how open it is and the ability to port applications. Plus it just looks slicker then android right now. I will have to wait and see what Cyanogen does with android now to see if i am going to stick with it.
Well with google taking a huge step back with Android i will have to say i think i am honestly going to give up my G1 for the Nokia, i love Android but Google just effectively killed it for me.
It may not be all around right but it is open and debian based and features a mozilla browser which i think is still the best browser out there. I do hope they change but the N900 is looking better everytime i look at the site and i think it will do better now then ever before with google banning cooked roms and hacks.
To some extent you don't have to choose between them. IIRC somebody has already hacked a development version of Android to run on top of Maemo, on the older N810. It can't be too long before someone does the same for the N900. Maemo will be the boot OS, but you could put a 1-click link to whatever Android loader works best on your desktop.
Since you have root access on Maemo, and fairly complete access to the hardware, I could see the potential of even multi-boot loaders for the N900 in the future. I could also see hackers working around any proprietary driver issues with reverse-engineered drivers, since the hardware base will be stable long enough for any such project to be useful. After that, hacking any OS (that provides source) to the N900 should be feasible. Even a proprietary OS with small enough resource requirements could be put in a guest VM on a host N900 OS.
To anyone claiming Maemo adoption will be limited by Nokia:
1. Maemo is really just Debian Linux compiled for ARM, with a Hildon desktop. Ubuntu is also using Hildon on their upcoming Moble OS. Porting a Linux application to Maemo requires no more obstacles than any other cross-compile with screen size restrictions (800x480 is also more pixels than a desktop VGA monitor, hence WVGA).
2. Nokia is the main financial backer of the Symbian OS, which is used by the majority of phone manufacturers, and is already on the majority of phones in the world.
3. Android and WebOS both put a VM or interpreter layer between developers and hardware, and they don't give users any kind of root access. Developers, especially fast UI and game makers, like more hardware access. Power users and developers both like root access. VM and interpreter layers are a convenience option for developers on Maemo, not a requirement. Further, emulators or matching VM environments could be created for Maemo, thereafter making porting applications to Maemo from Android or WebOS trivial. If someone created a good Objective-C compiler to target Maemo, even iPhone apps could be ported to the N900.
To me the decision is simple. Can I run Android on top of a Maemo platform? Yes! Will an Android platform allow me to run Maemo on MY hardware, without voiding the warranty? No. The choice is clear.
Since you have root access on Maemo, and fairly complete access to the hardware, I could see the potential of even multi-boot loaders for the N900 in the future. I could also see hackers working around any proprietary driver issues with reverse-engineered drivers, since the hardware base will be stable long enough for any such project to be useful. After that, hacking any OS (that provides source) to the N900 should be feasible. Even a proprietary OS with small enough resource requirements could be put in a guest VM on a host N900 OS.
To anyone claiming Maemo adoption will be limited by Nokia:
1. Maemo is really just Debian Linux compiled for ARM, with a Hildon desktop. Ubuntu is also using Hildon on their upcoming Moble OS. Porting a Linux application to Maemo requires no more obstacles than any other cross-compile with screen size restrictions (800x480 is also more pixels than a desktop VGA monitor, hence WVGA).
2. Nokia is the main financial backer of the Symbian OS, which is used by the majority of phone manufacturers, and is already on the majority of phones in the world.
3. Android and WebOS both put a VM or interpreter layer between developers and hardware, and they don't give users any kind of root access. Developers, especially fast UI and game makers, like more hardware access. Power users and developers both like root access. VM and interpreter layers are a convenience option for developers on Maemo, not a requirement. Further, emulators or matching VM environments could be created for Maemo, thereafter making porting applications to Maemo from Android or WebOS trivial. If someone created a good Objective-C compiler to target Maemo, even iPhone apps could be ported to the N900.
To me the decision is simple. Can I run Android on top of a Maemo platform? Yes! Will an Android platform allow me to run Maemo on MY hardware, without voiding the warranty? No. The choice is clear.
Bluetooth File Transfer! Don't you know you have to root Android phone and buy an application just to transfer file using Bluetooth? Lame eh?
code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1725
code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1725
For people still interested, I came across quite a through comparison b/w the two os's
cool900.blogspot.com/2009/10/comparing-freedom-on-...
cool900.blogspot.com/2009/10/comparing-freedom-on-...
I read over it and honestly i see it biased toward development. Yes i see Maemo has open architecture and everything with root access, but honestly for the average person that is not a good thing. I also see them blaming android for closing off root access which is false, it is the phone manufacturers and there is a reason for it. The average person does not know what a terminal is, and will have almost no clue how to use it. And to gain root access on any android is really no harder then running terminal commands.
Don't get me wrong, the N900 is going to be the closest thing, besides the XP phone, to a computer OS based phone but at the same time it is not going to be for everyone and adoption is going to be limited because people are not going to want it or know what it is when there will be a cheaper phone that to them does the same and has more apps sitting next to it.
It would have been a great phone a year or two ago but i think Android adoption is going to be a lot faster then Maemo to the average person which is going to leave it and WebOS fighting it out.
Don't get me wrong, the N900 is going to be the closest thing, besides the XP phone, to a computer OS based phone but at the same time it is not going to be for everyone and adoption is going to be limited because people are not going to want it or know what it is when there will be a cheaper phone that to them does the same and has more apps sitting next to it.
It would have been a great phone a year or two ago but i think Android adoption is going to be a lot faster then Maemo to the average person which is going to leave it and WebOS fighting it out.
Agree on the point that the X-Terminal will be of no use to the average consumer but keep in mind that Nokia are not targeting this to be a mass market device. They have said it from day one that this phone is step 4 of their 5 part maemo/tablet strategy and that they are working on releasing maemo 6 late 10/early 11 for that. They even heavily underplayed the announcement at Nokia world but it caught the bloggers/geeks/media's imaginations and that is why there are dozens of previews out there today.
At least in the US a device has no chance unless its backed by a carrier/telco. Nokia tight globally just hasn't been able to duplicate that in this market. (In their defense the US telco's wanted dumb RAZResque flips whilst Nokia's N73/N80/N95 etc were selling gangbusters around the world).
Android has had a lot of hype since its inception and it may one day be everything that people have expected from it. With the Droid/X10 etc and more telco's support it has a lot of momentum that will help it achieve that.
The link was a guys opinion and as such inherently bias/with tilt just like when we can agree or disagree (unless their are factual errors).
Despite what a lot of the American focused media says the market shows that nokia has a lot of momentum and good will globally. Especially in the Asian/African markets where it is the exact opposite of the US (Device/consumer freedom. Nokia owns the markets of significance etc). Just like you might thing WebOS/Maemo etc might be left fighting it out, if the n900/n9xx/maemo devices were to be released in these markets, they will be hard to beat. Maybe not because of the competitive hardware or the advanced software but definitely because of the goodwill attached with the Nokia products these people have been buying and are used to for decades.
At least in the US a device has no chance unless its backed by a carrier/telco. Nokia tight globally just hasn't been able to duplicate that in this market. (In their defense the US telco's wanted dumb RAZResque flips whilst Nokia's N73/N80/N95 etc were selling gangbusters around the world).
Android has had a lot of hype since its inception and it may one day be everything that people have expected from it. With the Droid/X10 etc and more telco's support it has a lot of momentum that will help it achieve that.
The link was a guys opinion and as such inherently bias/with tilt just like when we can agree or disagree (unless their are factual errors).
Despite what a lot of the American focused media says the market shows that nokia has a lot of momentum and good will globally. Especially in the Asian/African markets where it is the exact opposite of the US (Device/consumer freedom. Nokia owns the markets of significance etc). Just like you might thing WebOS/Maemo etc might be left fighting it out, if the n900/n9xx/maemo devices were to be released in these markets, they will be hard to beat. Maybe not because of the competitive hardware or the advanced software but definitely because of the goodwill attached with the Nokia products these people have been buying and are used to for decades.
Speaking of cheaper phone, the following article makes a speculation that Google may in the future attempt to dominate the smartphone market by subsiding the cost of the phones from manufacturers that enforce Google search and advertising platforms on the phones. This would create a second tier of subsiding the cost (the current tier is operator-based due to contract) which could possibly drive costs down by 50-100 dollars per unit.
abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disr...
abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disr...
I have seen but haven't used Android and the iPhone. I have an N900. Maemo on the N900 is really very good. The GUI is excellent and user-friendly, but for a hacker / coder, it's great to have a phone that's running an OS based on Debian GNU/Linux, with X11. There's no need to jail-break an N900, Nokia encourages people to hack it, and it's easy for the user to get root, install new packages, even upgrade the kernel and overclock. My N900 phone is capable of running just about all the same software as my Ubuntu laptop. The apps that come with it use GTK+ and QT with X11, just like my desktop Linux machines. This phone can happily run mysql, python, gcc, g++, ruby, perl, quake 3 arena (openarena), emulators for most every gaming platform, qemu, fuse / sshfs, mplayer, etc.
It's a real Linux-based pocket computer / phone, designed to appeal to programmers and also good for the average user.
People get excited that Apple and Android have a large collection of apps, but personally I am much more excited that I can run just about any open-source software that runs on Debian, including over 10,000 free-software Debian packages, and many programs I've written myself. The programs in Debian are mostly high-quality programs, not random junk. I can apt-get install a large number of packages that have been ported to Maemo, and I can build almost any other package from source, available from Debian and elsewhere. If it runs on a desktop Linux machine, chances are it will run on the N900.
I found it was easier to port my programming language "brace" (with its graphics and sound libraries) to run on my phone, than to run on openbsd, for example. Only a tiny fix was needed.
I can safely overclock my 600Mhz phone to run at 1150Mhz (using a stock maemo.org kernel package), which I believe is 15% faster than the newest Android phones.
As I say on my website sam.nipl.net/N900+.html , the Nokia N900 phone is by far the best phone / pocket computer available today. It is especially good for programmers / hackers. The only product that compares to it is the Pandora handheld, which is not a phone, but is better for gaming. The Pandora and N900 are highly compatible as they both run an open GNU/Linux-based OS and they have essentially the same CPU SoC.
I would never buy an iPhone, where they lock you in to use only C, C++, ObjC and JavaScript for development, what a sick joke. "Apple" is the opposite of "freedom". Google Android is more open, but you still have to "jail break" the phone to get root. That's stupid, why would a programmer buy a phone when he is not allowed to get root? The N900 is perfect, it can do everything I've tried to make it do with ease, and I'm very glad I chose this little beauty, compared to an iPhone or Android phone. I hope Nokia will continue to make such excellent phones and Operating Systems in future.
It's a real Linux-based pocket computer / phone, designed to appeal to programmers and also good for the average user.
People get excited that Apple and Android have a large collection of apps, but personally I am much more excited that I can run just about any open-source software that runs on Debian, including over 10,000 free-software Debian packages, and many programs I've written myself. The programs in Debian are mostly high-quality programs, not random junk. I can apt-get install a large number of packages that have been ported to Maemo, and I can build almost any other package from source, available from Debian and elsewhere. If it runs on a desktop Linux machine, chances are it will run on the N900.
I found it was easier to port my programming language "brace" (with its graphics and sound libraries) to run on my phone, than to run on openbsd, for example. Only a tiny fix was needed.
I can safely overclock my 600Mhz phone to run at 1150Mhz (using a stock maemo.org kernel package), which I believe is 15% faster than the newest Android phones.
As I say on my website sam.nipl.net/N900+.html , the Nokia N900 phone is by far the best phone / pocket computer available today. It is especially good for programmers / hackers. The only product that compares to it is the Pandora handheld, which is not a phone, but is better for gaming. The Pandora and N900 are highly compatible as they both run an open GNU/Linux-based OS and they have essentially the same CPU SoC.
I would never buy an iPhone, where they lock you in to use only C, C++, ObjC and JavaScript for development, what a sick joke. "Apple" is the opposite of "freedom". Google Android is more open, but you still have to "jail break" the phone to get root. That's stupid, why would a programmer buy a phone when he is not allowed to get root? The N900 is perfect, it can do everything I've tried to make it do with ease, and I'm very glad I chose this little beauty, compared to an iPhone or Android phone. I hope Nokia will continue to make such excellent phones and Operating Systems in future.
Well that more or less tied up my long rant, but Maemo could prove itself to being much more functional, and much more custimizable with all of its apps and native linux support, which android lacks.
Your forgetting Androids NDK which makes this matchup a dead heat.
developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html
developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.5_r1/index.html
Oh didn't forget about it, the thing with android is they do not offer as many linux framework files as Maemo appears to. Programing for Maemo sounds about as easy as programming for linux or even windows. Android albiet easy since i can do it, still reguires a lot of work to get a fully functional app that could be equivilent to a windows flash based app, which can be done in a lot less time. I could be wrong but offering almost a full linux framework sound like a big plus towards Maemo
Remember that Maemo its not a phone, its a mobile OS, hardware independant, so you can't say right now that has better hardware, because as has been sayd before Android soon will be able to work on even more powerfull hardware soon... Anyways i would love to get a phone with any of them... :-D
Isn't this a dead point anyway since Maemo is more or less dead in favor of Meego I believe. Nokia will always have a tough time getting so called superphones in the market because they insist on certain tech which may or may not have benefits.
I am well aware of the difference between an OS and its hardware. I was just pointing out that the N900 was better then competing several Android phones 8 months ago. A point I thought (correctly) that most people would understand.
Now Maemo is dead and Android is running wild with the Evo 4G, Droid incredible, and Galaxy S.
Now Maemo is dead and Android is running wild with the Evo 4G, Droid incredible, and Galaxy S.
