Julian Oliver

Anyone remember these? Debian-based GNU/Linux OS developed by Nokia (Maemo), decent keyboard, nice little shell environment. Found mine in a box, cleaned & gave them a charge.

Both boot, a century later.

Looking back, the N900 would have to be my favourite handheld of the era. Nokia were truly onto something with these, a reasonably brave attempt to add a 3rd OS to the smartphone mix. A risk they took and lost.

Regardless, for some of us, the N900 was closer to the future we wanted.

May 26, 2025 at 6:03amWeb
Show threadTinDrumMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver I really wanted one of these
Show threademenelMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver i really really wish this was the path we had taken.
Show threadJulian OliverMay 26, 2025
@emenel 
Show threadHugo MillsMay 26, 2025

@emenel @JulianOliver You can get a good idea of where it was going from SailfishOS, which is built by Jolla, a company founded by a bunch of ex-Nokia people who wanted to keep the development going.

It's impressive (I ran it on an original Jolla phone, then on a Gemini, and loved it on both), but there are few officially-supported phones now, and the community ports to other hardware are the usual horrible half-working unmaintained state of most open-source mobile stuff.

Show threadwandiMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver Microsoft bought Nokia and put it out of business.
Show threadJulian OliverMay 26, 2025
@telmi Yep.
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver @telmi I had a lot of Nokia devices (as well as Windows phones) - Nokia were already starting to become enshittified before Redmond got involved - their devices *were* innovative but they sacrificed reliability for new features and innovation, and were then slow to fix bugs or provide support so lost market share in an increasingly competitive environment (and Windows phones weren't even /that/ bad, they had very good cameras and worked well in business environments with MS365)
Show threadGery Teguh PrabowoMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver can it run doom?
Show threadAMSMay 26, 2025
@geryteguhprabowoofficial @JulianOliver Yep, and quake3.
Show thread!Mediengruppe Bitnik 🌐💄May 26, 2025
@JulianOliver yeah. even having apt as a package manager on your phone! it was so cool. remember using mutt to read emails on it ;)
Show threadHugo MillsMay 26, 2025

@JulianOliver Remember them? I still have mine! Brilliant bits of kit.

Your keyboard is in a much better state than mine, though -- I've lost a lot of the surface on it.

Show threadStoneface VimesMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver yes. I never had one but they were pretty good.
Show threadBruno GirinMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver totally agree, I loved my N900!
Show threadJohn "Gozzy" GodslandMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver I recently sold my N810. I'd had it since launch and it was only sitting in a box. It charged, booted, and connected to WiFi without trouble. Astonishing engineering and product quality. Such a shame that they couldn't make the software competitive.
Show threadonionMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver the N950 was perfection, too bad they didn't do a proper consumer release of that model.
Show threadMark DixonMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver loved mine, it was a really nice device. The N9 was superior for me though because the N900 screen scratched too easily, and the battery life was appalling.
Show threadmal3abyMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver Oh yes... I had several, and used them until they basically fell apart!
Show threadAlynMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver Yup, still got my one here somewhere. I loved the integrated contact management system it used (I'm pretty sure before Android or iOS had it) so I didn't have to care which app I had a contact stored with. The fact that it's now rendered less useful by the death of 3G networks is galling - can't even use it as a mobile mastodon client unless it's paired with a hotspot. Ooh, I wonder if I can get it to play with #meshtastic ?
Show threadAMSMay 26, 2025
@alyn @JulianOliver There's an I2C bus and a serial port on the debug pads.
Show threadColm O'NeillMay 26, 2025
@alyn @JulianOliver if I'm not mistaken, the folx @postmarketOS maintain a version of PMos for the N900. I certainly remember it being mentioned as a dev device in its early days. Not sure what to say about the 3g thing, but it might breathe new life into it?
Show threadPureTryOutMay 27, 2025
@colm @alyn @JulianOliver @postmarketOS #postmarketOS won't magically make providers support 3G again but it can definitely bring it back to life if you'd like to use it PDA-style (wifi only). Otherwise I can recommend #MaemoLeste, it even ships with the original UI!
Show threadBasilMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver I was so close to getting one of these. It was concerns about the resistive touch screen that sent me elsewhere.
Show threadcibyrMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver I still miss mine. The unified messaging app was so great.
Show threadthpMay 26, 2025
@JulianOliver Decade, not century ;) Due to 32-bit time_t on these, they will (software-wise) last only until 2038 (giving them a bit less than 3 decades in total). Taking a release date of 2009 (for the N900), we‘re closer to 2038 (13 years) now than we are to 2009 (16 years).
Show threadJulian OliverMay 26, 2025
@thp looking back, 2009 was definitely over 100 years ago. But yes you have a point as regards the N900 EOL
Show threadFrederik ElwertMay 27, 2025
@JulianOliver I had the N9 (when Maemo turned into MeeGo), and I still think it was one of the best designed smartphones ever.
If they had taken the risk and lost, that would have been a fair story. But they chose to hire a Microsoft exec, replace MeeGo with Windows Phone, and then lose. There’s no way to tell whether MeeGo as a third system would have stood a chance, but it leaves a lot of space for alternative histories.
Show threadicaria36 🎶May 27, 2025
@JulianOliver I worked there. Interesting times.
Show threadJulian OliverMay 27, 2025
@icaria36 I bet!
Show threadFarooq | فاروق [Master Patata]May 28, 2025
@JulianOliver these support postmarketos
Show threadwrackJun 3, 2025
@JulianOliver Yes!