Oh man you missed the pinacle of Nokias phones. The possibilities of the N900 where endless back then. Emulators, IR Blaster, High Quality Camera (for back then), all the Linux software, free Wifi everywhere (Because everybody still used WEP and the N900 would crack the password in like 20 seconds) and so much more. The transreflective screen 800x480 worked incredibly well. Low power and still very good visibility, only in bright sunlight the colors were washed out. I always wondered why they never used this technology in modern devices.

Then the N9 which lacked some features, but was so handsome and user friendly. It had an OLED but also the Clear Black technology which prevented the screen from reflecting to much sunlight, making it readable in the sun even though it had much lower brightness than todays OLEDs.

Sadly all this was killed by Elop who came from Microsoft and tried to push Windows phone, slowly downgrading the amazing hardware till Nokias phone branch was dead.

Or the N900 which even had fluid animations and scrolling which this company still seems to struggle with

Kubuntu 8.04.

It was the last release with KDE 3 and very polished for its time. Many applications from back then have vanished by now. Kopete was Magic, supporting all IM protocols (Including Yahoo video calls!), Amarok was so reliable and sleek.

Of course most things have improved since then, but I remember it fondly.

Well there is the Stop Killing Games initiative started by Ross Scott and supported by the Pirate Parties. If they succeed, companies selling games in recent years will be required to either keep supporting their game or to make it available in a way so that others can ensure its continued support.

When this is achieved the step to free older games is small.

If you live in Europe you have the chance to support the movement by vote in the upcoming elections.

And where do maintainers for the new parts of systemd come from? The larger systemd grows the more parts of it will be neglected. Also in regard to people checking commits, opening up doors for exploits like the one in xz.

Interesting. For the Nokia N900 there is Maemo Leste which also uses mainline Linux (+ a few patches they are working to mainline) and there everything works. Mind that works means in this case: Does what I want if I issue a number of console commands. However most of it by now even works via the GUI.

Keep in mind that Leste is a project by a few enthusiasts and writing drivers for undocumented hardware is a monumental task, writing GUI for a whole mobile OS is also complicated. So it is utterly astonishing, how far they got!

Sure because Error Code 0x8007057 tells you immediately how to solve the problem.

Linux error messages like error: kex_exchange_identification: client sent invalid protocol identifier "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" are completely arcane tough.

I support both systems. And Linux support is so much easier. Mostly in runs out of the box. If it runs I continues to do so and If you have an error you get a specific message like above.

With such a message you either:

• See right away how to solve the problem
• Search it online and get a specific solution for exactly you problem
• Or you can ask Experts for a solution for your specific problem.

With Windows: No systems runs out of the box, I always have to install additional software (7zip, sane browser, …) and also for anybody remotely privacy concerned have to adjust many settings (for which tools exist thankfully)

If an error occurs under Windows and I get a code like above:

• I can sometimes guess by my experience what the reason is and solve it.
• If not I search the error code and circumstances which lead to it online, then apply the 20 solutions presented one by one in hope one works
• Ask experts which ask me to run a bunch of diagnostic utilities because the error message does not tell you anything. (Yes by now I can also guess which utility could provide relevant information, but not because Windows told me)
• In a noticeable amount of cases the solution is: We can not determine the reason for the error, please reset everything (First a restart, then run this cleanup tool and if this doesn’t help just reinstall!)

I had good experiences with the Zenbook-Flip Series from Asus. Linux support is great, build quality too. It even survived a big drop with only the screen falling out, but still working. I just inserted it again. Battery life is also great which is perfect for university.

Palm rejection did not work reliable however. I just got used to disable the touchpad with a keycombo whenever I started typing longer passages of text.