[harry8]

Every time one of these comes up I shed tears for the nokia n900 and maemo which was a linux, fully-functional smartphone that worked great.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N900

Imagine if they'd just kept it around and upgraded it in hardware and software gently as a low-ish priority. It was already fantastic. Given security updates it's still better than any droid and less icky than any apple phone.

[Multicomp]

I'm currently prepping a Fxtec Pro1 that will become a daily driver once Lineage OS is stable on it (thanks TDM for your hard work - once I find a book on how to mod android ROMs I'm gonna join ya).

It turns out that I really wanted this N900 instead, I just didn't know it and at the time was too young to know about it.

There was some sort of attempted revival product called the Neo900 but it looks like it is dead / not updated any more. [1]

In the meantime, I will definitely order a PinePhone once they are in general availability and not pre-orders (sorry but Fxtec burned me so bad to get the Pro1 that I've learned my lesson RE: mobile device pre-orders), and I definitely will if Pine produces a physical keyboard for the PinePhone.

[1] https://my.neo900.org/

[ocdtrekkie]

I'm really intrigued by the Fxtec hardware, but I won't buy a phone that ships with Android. I'd buy in a heartbeat if they supported a Linux SKU of the thing.

Definitely interested in adding Pine's take on keyboards to my PinePhone.

[aerique]

I don't know what you mean with "SKU" but SailfishOS seems to run on it: https://community.fxtec.com/topic/2467-community-build32120u...

( https://community.fxtec.com/topic/2955-community-buildsailfi... )

[ocdtrekkie]

I mean sell me a product that doesn't ship with Android on it. I don't have the money to burn on expensive hardware that I then have to figure out how to flash with a probably unsupported OS to get to work.

[ryantgtg]

I actually threw out my G2 yesterday (battery was missing, and it had been sitting in my drawer for... 10 years?), and it made me sad. Every day I pine for a sweet slider keyboard.

So, this Fxtec Pro1 is super intriguing! I'm sorta stuck on iOS right now because my entire family uses it I would screw up their Messages game if I was on a different platform.

Also, people have PostmarketOS running on the N900. Sure, it's an ancient device, but that still cool.

[boring_twenties]

Not quite the same thing, but you can try Maemo Leste on the PinePhone: https://leste.maemo.org/PinePhone

[pjmlp]

You can do the same for OpenMoko and every Linux based failed attempt to go at it.

The fact is that the market doesn't care, and even Android's case, it is more of an implementation detail than anything else.

Tomorrow ART and ChromeOS can eventually be running on Zircon and no regular consumer would notice the difference.

[jacobush]

AFAIK the N900 sold great in Germany without any ads. It would have been the third place of smartphones IMHO, especially considering Android was not totally dominant in the public yet then.

I think it could have been sort of the "Thinkpad" of smartphones, used by professionals and geeks.

[pjmlp]

Did it?

Other than some units on display across Saturn and Media Markt stores, I never actually have met anyone using them.

I was using Symbian Belle at the time and that was a deciding factor just buying an Android handset, as time came for a new device.

[jacobush]

My memory may be rosy - anyway, it's seems it's unclear how well it sold.

Better than Nokia expected, which may not be a high bar though.

https://www.slashgear.com/nokia-n900-has-sold-well-in-excess...

Anyway, Microsoft was not interested in Linux on cell phones.