what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

Just my incomplete list. I use n900/maemo every day and believe it's more useful than Jolla/Sailfish. Its main disability is weak hardware.

* Run desktop apps like pidgin.
Sailfish can run desktop Transmission with qt frontend.
Maemo is able to run Pidgin. I want to run pidgin, even though it's not optimized for mobile use. I would like to have possibility to feel the power of fully fledged operating system.

I run pyobd on maemo.
I check my car with pyobd. I cannot do it with Sailfish.

I write GTK apps, compile them in scratchbox, and they work on maemo, without hildonization. Just work.

* Take RAW pictures.

There are only two native cameras for sailfish. I have no idea if Sailfish API allows to take RAW images.

FCamera application is just great on maemo. I still use it, and get much better results than Sailfish/AlienDalvik/Instagram.

* Know the name of radio track.
Sailwave description states that because of some qt bug they cannot implement it yet. So I listen internet radio and have no idea which song is broadcasted, so I can find it later.

* has more useful apps which are very hard to port to sailfish because they are not qt.

* has SIP out of the box.

* has Mappero, I did not find comparable program for Sailfish.

* resistive screen
This one most of you won't agree with but I really prefer resistive screen and stylus. I want to run MyPaint. Yes.

* connect to WPA enterprise out of the box.
My maemo's connect to our company's wpa enterprise spots but I had to manually edit files on Sailfish as root.

* external bluetooth keyboard cannot be used with non qwerty layouts. I use dvorak or programmer's dvorak for Latin, and I also use Armenian typewriter layout. It's not possible with Sailfish yet.

I certainly don't remember many other points and may add later.

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

You can crack WEP WiFi encryption and also can use tools like Yamas to monitor your own WiFi

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

Bear in mind that N900 has an outdated h/w and no official support, actually the only reason why we still use it, is this community. Similar things apply to N9, unfortunately, and no updates either.

Sailfish is not that mature yet as N900 or N9. Jolla is not as big as Nokia and I think they need our support to make this platform as good as Maemo/Meego.

the s/w apps you mention can be ported to sailfish, however there is a significant difference, N900, and N9 used native drivers for h/w, while Jolla does not, this makes it more difficult to port some apps, e.g. wifi dirver?

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

Here are a few more reasons off the top of my head:

• Native X11 drivers.
• X11 forwarding makes it easy to display and interact with applications on my desktop and vice versa.
• The work going on to upstream kernel patches. You can already boot the latest upstream kernels without needing any additional patches (Note: I've only tested Debian with latest kernels).
• The above point makes it very easy to run a full server/desktop Linux distro.
• It's easy to get hold of a spare battery.
• It doesn't use systemd.
• The community effort to provide a completely free implementation of Fremantle.
• The primary development framework is free software.
• No restricted policy regarding GPLv3 packages.
• Multitasking that doesn't ever suspend processes automatically.

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

That's a plus? Eh.

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

Each to their own :-)

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

I got that, but I don't see how the exclusion of systemd is a plus overall.

Not trying to start something (if anything, the flamewar's died down and any technical debate on the topic's pointless). Just curious.

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

I'm not a systemd hater per se. After all, the problems it aims to solve are real problems worth solving. I just can't agree with their strategy on how they've gone about solving those problems. There are plenty of reasons why I'm not interested in systemd (see my sig for just a few of them) but I suppose the main problem I have with it is how everything is tightly coupled together. It's either their way or you can bugger off. For decades reliable systems have been built on the idea that components should be loosely coupled together (this is part of what Unix philosophy is all about). This idea still runs true today, just look at Amazon's recommendations for building a cloud infrastructure or look at how the architecture of a modern web browser has changed to become more secure and reliable. systemd throws this idea out of the window. They currently plan to make systemd a hard dependency on udev and I just cannot agree with that stance.

Perhaps an integrated solution like systemd is the best way forward for those that want to see Linux compete with Windows for greater desktop market share but "the year of Linux on the desktop" is not something that interests me. I'd rather see Linux become more like Plan 9 than go in the opposite direction in order to become a Windows replacement.

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

Well said. Let Linux-with-systemd become a monopolist Enterprise Solution fighting against Windows Enterprise, and Linux-without-systemd remain a diverse mix of enthusiasts and freedom-proponents.

I am also curious about polypaudio in Fremantle, and possibility of pushing it out.

And, about Fremantle/Hurd... (or would it be Fremantle/Mach?)

Best wishes.

Re: what n900/maemo can do and sailfish can't
 

That's a pretty bad list! I didn't know jolla was that bad.. :/