[maemo-users] Maemo different from GNU/Linux?

[From: Nicolau Werneck]

You can install stuff like GIMP, emacs and desktop window managers on
it, but the thing is: you won't. A hand-held machine is just too
different from a desktop, you will most probably not _want_ the same
applications.

But if you happen to need to use GNU coreutils instead of busybox, for
example, or bash, or whatever, you can install them. So if you need it
to be a totally desktop-like system, you can make it.

They do have very important similarities with little work required:
you can use the terminal, you can SSH into it, you install packages
using apt (Debian), there is a python interpreter, and even ipython...

When I bought my N800 I thought I was going to use it just like a
desktop, but with time I learned the "maemo-directed" applications are
really better. But again, maybe it's just because I don't have a
keyboard. I use mutt in the desktop, for example, but I am happy with
Maemo's e-mail reader. I would like to try a N810 to see if I would
switch to mutt in it also.

Last note: the media players made specifically for Maemo are great,
and I bet they are better to use than desktop applications ported to
it. Canola, for example... After using these applciations for a while
you will start wanting the opposite: having the hand-held applciations
on your desktop instead of the "GNU/Linux" desktop ones in the tablet. ;)

  ++nicolau


On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 06:25:49PM +0100, Marcel wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm seriously planning to buy an N900 and I'm following this list for
> some time now. Someone here said some time ago that Maemo's userland is
> quite different from the typical GNU/Linux one. Having experienced the
> Neo Freerunner as "just like the Linux next door", I'd like to know what
> exactly is different from a typical (Could someone define that? :) )
> Linux environment. Except the closed phone stack, of course... (It is,
> isn't it?)
> 
> --
> Marcel
> 
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-users mailing list
> maemo-users at maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users

-- 
Nicolau Werneck <nwerneck at gmail.com>          1AAB 4050 1999 BDFF 4862
http://www.lti.pcs.usp.br/~nwerneck           4A33 D2B5 648B 4789 0327
Linux user #460716

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