Thanks a lot for your ffedback! hey and waht about Noko? :) CU Sylvain (aka GarthPS)
2010/7/8 Nicola Mfb <[email protected]> > On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 10:12 PM, Michal Brzozowski <[email protected]> > wrote: > > [...] > > > I'd like to hear how the N900 compares to the FR in hackability. Like > > replacing pieces of software, like keyboard, window manager, etc. I > > wasn't able to find much information about this. It seems there is > > only one distribution that fully works on the N900, which is quite > > worrying. > > Hi Michal, > > I have an n900 too since last November, here my (hoping agnostic) review: > > Hardware: > > Great, overclockable to 1Ghz (seems without problems), battery life of > several days *without* suspend, 3d accelerated graphics, 32 GB eMMC (+ > slot for SD expansion), 256 MB flash, 256 MB ram, nice screen > resolution of 800x480, good TS (even with finger only), FM receiver > and *transmitter*, proximity sensor, IR transmitter, accelerometer, > 5Mb zeiss rear camera, front camera, *superb* audio quality and "3.5G" > module, wifi, bt, video output, stereo speaker, etc. > > End User Experience: > > Not comparable to the freerunner one. Maemo has a lot of defects but > using it you feel immediately it has a common layout, defined api and > gui guidelines. This may appear as a limit, but from the End User > experience is very nice! > All apps (nokia, community or thirdy part) follow this principles, are > integrated with the DE and with the middleware quite nice. > > The phone application is based on telepathy, so due to its > multiprotocol nature supports gsm voice calls, skype, voip, and so on. > The same for sms and chat integrated in the "conversation" app. There > are a lot of plugins (google, msn, etc.) to extend it. > > The DE has a nice 4 pages home, you switch by dragging them, on every > page you may add shortcuts to applications, contacts (that shows the > picture and the IM online status, so it's easy and natural using a > skype/voip call instead of gsm one and save money!), web bookmarks and > widgets that make the user able to highly customize the desktop. > Finally there are pluggable "status" area and power button menu. > Task switching is performed with a very nice composite dashboard where > you see thumbnails of current running apps (that are updated in > realtime). > All that is full finger friendly and there is a stylo inside the n900 > when you need, (actually I use it only for precise web browsing > without the need of zooming in/out). > The virtual keyboard is full integrated with customized input methods > of gtk and qt (I do not know about other toolkits), so when you tap on > a text field you'll have a qwerty (not transparent) portrait keyboard > showing the current editing text. > If you open/close the HW keyboard the virtual one will hide/show. > > As you may guess peoples does not feel the necessity to change the WM > or the VK because you loose the high number of pluggable widgets in > the home, the status area and the toolkit interaction with the > keyboard. > > The package management system is apt, there is an integrated GUI that > will show only a specific section of the available apps, so the end > user will see only good sense applications with descriptions and icons > (of course the power user may use xterm or ssh to see the full > contents of the repositories). The status area will signal with a > blinking square where an update is available, so you may be uptodate > with a couple of finger taps. > > The network manager works very well and handles wifi and 3g connections. > > Just a concrete user experience (a my tipical day): > > I have a voip public telephony (like skypein) account (eutelia) and > skype configured, a 5euro/month 3GB umts data option on my sim, wifi > networking at home and at work, google contacts synchronization and 3 > email account configured. My network manager is configured to "always > on". > > The alarm wakes up me every morning (and works reliably), then I put > the device online, automagically it connects to my home wifi network, > signs up to skype and eutelia, check for emails, does the first sync > with google, updates the weather and the rss and the "personal ip > address" widgets on the desktop. > > When going to work, as my home wifi is not more reachable the n900 > automagically start a 3g connection. I may check the sent/received > statistics with another widgets that updates informations in real time > on the desktop to be sure I'm not reaching the 3G/month limit, and > anyway in the settings manager I may set to be advised every time x MB > of traffic was generated. > > While using my car I start the mediaplayer and the FM transmitter > (with another desktop widget), put the device near the car stereo and > listen for some music or use sygic voice assisted gps navigation where > going to unknown places. > > When I arrive in the office it automagically stops it and connects to > work wifi and so on until I put it offline in the night. > > Every x minutes it continues to update widgets, and signal incoming > email, IM messages, alarms, phone calls (of course ;)) and so on. > > Every with this intensive usage my battery may survive to more then a > day, note that it never suspends, and this is a big feature as I can > always open an ssh connection. > > If I need to transfer files at high rate I simply put the usb cable > and it shows a popup dialog asking you for "PC Suite mode" (usb > cdc-ether networking) or "Mass Storage" that exports the data > partition of the eMMC like a normal pen drive at usb 2.0 speed. > > Browsing experience is very nice, real time zooming with side keys or > tap gestures to help finger usage, and has flash support. > > Using it as a modem is very easy, I just plug the usb cable and the > network manager connects to the 3g network (there is also dun support, > but I do not have bt on my laptop). > You may use it as a router too and share the connection with free > applications or manually with nat iptables/ipforwarding over usb or > wifi in ad-hoc mode. > > Developer experience: > > Very easy, you have at least 3 ways: > > * scratchbox, a chrooted debian like environment with x86 and arm > support, qemu previewer, etc. to build an app you select the "arm" > target, apt-get install your *-dev packages, and go with configure, > make, etc. with debian tools is trivial to create .deb packages. I was > able to cross compile, package, deploy and run asterisk in few minutes > and use it with the phone application without any problem. > > * madde (I do not know it much) > > * Nokia Qt SDK, with automatic cross compilation, deploy and run, on > dev box, qt simulator, and the real device over ssh. I configured > public keys, and due to my "always on" profile, I simply open > qt-creator, write some code, hit "control+r" and see the app running > on my n900 without doing other things! > > API changes are *rare*, only very few low-level packages suffers after > a firmware upgrade. > > Python lovers are welcome, and application load time is not critical. > > Software and repositories: > > The OS is debian derived, many peoples complains it's not full debian, > anyway a phone or tablet is different from a normal desktop linux box, > software has to be patched to provide a good user experience and > integrate with the system. For example here apps request internet > connection with the icd deamon and its libraries, and uses maemo api > to access contacts etc. > So the "forked" debian is not critical for me, on the freerunner the > 99% of users uses patched or scratch-written software in many cases > adapted at least for FSO, debian users access the entire repository > but a lot of apps are not suitable for the tiny display, while OE > derived distro does not provide a big number of upstream packages. > Geek users that know how to patch or tweak an upstream application are > for sure able to run it over maemo ;) > > About repositories you have nokia official ones, third part and > "extras" (community), the last is subdivided in: > > * extras-devel > * extras-testing > * extras > > Typically the developer submit sources to the autobuilder without the > need of contact maintainers, after that there is a QA and vote mech to > "promote" the package to testing and finally to extras (default > enabled). > > The user may choose to enable or not testing/devel repository to stay > with unstable/testing or stable packages. > > Available packages are good quality, and some of them enhances maemo a > lot, for example FMMS. > > In addition there is the "garage" where you'll find a lot of more > experimental apps (and above all some debian upstream repackaged for > maemo). > > Stability: > > If you stay with extras only, and enable devel/testing only when > needed (and know what you are doing), the system is quite stable, no > calls/sms losed, the maximum uptime for me was ~30 days, I had to > reboot becouse trying to take a shot with the camera resulted in > "Operation error". With the older firmware I had to reboot at least 1 > time for week, but I installed a lot of experimental application > without much care, so I'm not sure if the actual stability of my n900 > is due to PR 1.2 or my care ;) > > Hacking experience: > > Maemo has some userland closed sources components (of course kernel is > free) that prevents you to run a 100% free linux distro, I was able to > run debian on the external SD card without adding those components but > you'll be not able to use the phone or charge the battery. > > Things is going to be different with meego, here only BME (battery > management) and SGX (3d acceleration libraries) are closed, and rumors > seems to confirm that at least BME may be opened. All the other is > openend (wip), for example the closed modem control will be integrated > in ofono, the pulse audio routing path is now free, etc. > > So I'm quite sure that in very few time peoples may port that to FSO, > the only critical step may be the BME that has to be replaced in some > way (if it will not be freed). > > IMO the n900 is a good hackable device and a perfect candidate for a > new reference platform for FSO (I remember an old thread to cofund and > donate an n900 to Mickey). > And would be very nice to write an FSO plugin for the qt-mobility > framework in order to run thousand of maemo/meego applications on > debian or SHR! > > If your hacking needs is compatible with maemo meego/harmattan and > full meego, you may prefer do not install a new linux distro, but > install "easydebian" with a couple of finger tap, and run a chrooted > environment in Xephyr with your preferred WM, I was able to launch > openoffice in that way on my n900. Of course you may always use > debootstrap and tweak all yourself. > Actually I have maemo on the internal flash, meego and debian + > neophysis specific apps on an external sd, I can decide which of them > run with bootmenu that is activated taking the hw keyboard out when > powering up the device (but uses always the same flash in kernel), and > I'm waiting for git pushes of the modem control part and audio routing > to see if neophysis may run nice on the n900. When I want to try a new > kernel I use the flasher util that has a nice one shot kernel load > option. > The bootloader is closed, but meego devs are working to fix kexec > problems, when done the bootmenu will be able run every linux distro > with the preferred kernel without the need of an usb cable ;) > > It seems all good, but of course there are some bad things: > > * Nokia seems to support its devices only for some months with a > couple of firmwares upgrades and then abadone them > > * Nokia maemo project management was quite closed, community is not > much involved in inside decisions (but this seems be happened in the > openmoko age too), it seems meego is a different story with the > influence of Intel and the Linux Foundation that have a different > story, but before trusting them they have to demonstate their openess > with facts! > > * software is not always complete, and at least the maemo platform > laks for high press community needs (free gps navigation with ovi maps > and flash 10), that should be addressed with meego or meego/harmattan > but... > > * it's not sure if meego/harmattan will be available for the n900 > > * it's not sure if meego will be official available for the n900, for > sure it's the arm reference platform > > * feelings is much better with freerunner, OE, debian, gentoo, FSO, > etc. and the hard community effort against the multinational payed > employeers ;) > > * the above mentioned organizations are really open to external > contributions! > > Hoping this will help! > > regards > > Niko > > _______________________________________________ > Openmoko community mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community >
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