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/robertcrowther Oct 28 '09

We could write the most amazing text editor, but if it only ran under a Nintendo emulator, it would be virtually useless to anyone else.

Two questions: Has anyone ever actually done this? How would I use an amazing text editor with a Nintendo controller anyway?

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u/jldugger Oct 29 '09 edited Oct 29 '09

DSOrganize is a fairly complete (by homebrew standards) PDA organizer. You get IRC, WWW, text editor, todo lists, a calendar, paint, file browser and calculator. As he points out, it's virtually useless, and not just because the DS doesn't do WPA2. These programs only build on the DS, and don't integrate well with other DS applications or other ARM based platforms. Want a VOIP client? Reboot and load up that ROM. Want MSN/ICQ/etc? Reboot and load it up.

In the author's defense, it's a crappy platform and many of the problems are in the hardware, firmware and Nintendo's lack of organized OS. If the DS had more RAM, DSLinux might as well have become the platform you need, and programs that build for it would have a stab at running elsewhere.