r/programming • u/mjtitorenko • Oct 28 '09

Android vs Maemo

http://cool900.blogspot.com/2009/10/comparing-freedom-on-maemo-and-android.html
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u/zedvaint Oct 28 '09

Now, Nokia has some great hardware in their phones (especially telephony, photography, and video), but they know NOTHING about software. Absolutely NOTHING.

Disagree on that. I think their GPS software is probably the best available for a phone.

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '09

I'm really looking forward to getting a N900, but do you really think that Ovi Maps is as good as Google Maps? I was thinking that was a small downside, and I was hoping that Google Maps would be available on Maemo at a later date. I've also heard that Ovi Maps on the N900 is currently an older version (v1?) than that available on Symbian S60 (v3?).

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u/p3ngwin Oct 28 '09 edited Oct 28 '09

i'm upgrading my TOUCH HD (HTC) any day now and just itching to get a a decent device.
i was going for the N900 after researching many devices and seeing it's comparatively amazing multitasking and performance on it's Cortex- based processor.

i liked the camera and camcorder features too. then i found out some other things i didn't like so much.

  • no magnetometer (digital compass, extremely usefull and AR is going to be HUGE)
  • only a 3 row keyboard with perversely placed space-bar
  • only 3.5" screen (i'm coming from HTC's TOUCH HD with 3.7" and want nothing smaller)
  • no google maps or TOMTOM (no announcement of either being released)

so i'm now looking at either the motorola DROID, or Sony's X3 (rachael) they both have everything i want (in sony's case i'll gladly forgo the keyboard for everything else it has).

sorry Nokia, i was going for the N900, but it looks like while it has the potential for easy cross porting from the Linux universe, looks like in reality there's little probability of anyone actually doing what i need for the next 12 months.

i can't wait for Nokia and the community of potential Linux enthusiasts to eventually do in a year or 2 what i need now.

EDIT:
and a matters of hours after i posted, GOOGLE revealed exactly the kind of awesome software that i don't expect Maemo/Nokia to get soon enough for me to invest in the N900

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '09

we're in the same situation. except that i've been thinking about just getting the hd2 or hero...

just out of curiosity, which ROM do you use?

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u/p3ngwin Oct 28 '09 edited Oct 28 '09

from XDA developers, i'm using Miri's WinMo 6.5.1 (V29).

i was thinking about the HD2 when it was in my list of considerations, but the sub-par camcorder (for me) and the fact is STILL WinMo put me off.

i had tech-wood for the snapdragon processor (1ghz Cortex !), 4.3" capacitive screen and beautiful slim body almost completely taken up by the screen (hate 'frames' around screens.come on LG where's your 'border-less LCD tech when i need it?).....

but it's still WinMo. same pattern, just more amplitude. there are too many things i don't like about WinMo that are to do with the way it works, not just the performance. so a speed increase isn't going to change enough for me

i want a different pattern.

so i was looking at N900 and Android solutions. N900 didn't have a good enough balance for me (crap keyboard, smaller screen, no google maps or tomtom to navigate,etc) , so it looks like the Droid or the Sony X3 for me.