Really? IMO it doesn't seem like that. Maemo compatibility is key aspect of this project, but only because of lack of manpower to properly support new OS entirely by community (and besides of OS alone think also of kernel - power management being the primary key). Stock Maemo 5 won't support Neo900 by default, it will need some adaptations, so any upgrades are being considered as long as it's reasonable to expect proper, stable support to came from community in some reasonable time frame.

I think that's a great way to ensure that mistakes from Openmoko project won't be repeated here.

I'm using my Neo Freerunner as my daily phone. Sure, it had those problems you mentioned, but those are fixable. My GTA02 lasts few days on battery now (which is quite weared off after those 5 years) and works pretty stable. The only thing that annoys me is really poor GPRS speed and graphics performance, which is better than it was at the launch, but is still quite unacceptable. Luckily, those issues aren't really important in light of freedom gains one gets from such device. I can live with them and I wouldn't replace this lovely device with anything less open.

Thank god for Openmoko and still living community it has spawned. I can think of OpenPhoenux platforms as proper alternative when dumping Android for some security reasons like that.

It's easy to tell someone "get me sane userland", but it's harder to actually do it. Maemo 5 port idea is there to provide stable, rock solid functionality since day one - to not repeat Openmoko fate. Of course it's an open platform, so you can use whatever you want with it, just like with PC. Standard armhf compilation of Debian GNU/Linux with freesmartphone.org stack should work pretty well on Neo900. There's also OpenEmbedded-based SHR, and nothing stops anyone from installing Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS, Android, Mer with Plasma Active or anything else.

And by the way, I think it's not really fair to expect high-end specs from very small, independent, almost community-based project. It's already a great success that projects like GTA04 exist at all and didn't end up as a vaporware. There are around 300 GTA04s in existence - that's hardly profitable, but yet Golden Delicious Computers wants to continue the OpenPhoenux project. I, as an Openmoko passionate, who still uses Neo Freerunner as main, daily phone, am very grateful to them and I'm looking forward for getting my Neo900.

No, it's not. http://secure-testing-master.debian.net/

"free unlike Qt"

Are you from the past?

Actually, this is the case when earlier disclosure helps security, because when more people are aware of this problem, more people will take action to prevent it from happening (like setting higher quality setting as default).

Is *that* newsworthy? I remember app that did exactly the sam, for Maemo on Nokia N900 - few years ago...

1/2 of the population is above average? Since when an average is equal to a median?

I think there was Gentoo for Openmoko Neo Freerunner at some point. Never tried it though.

...and Openmoko phones (and recently OpenPhoenux), which can run OpenEmbedded, Debian, Slackware, OpenWrt, Android and many many more. Some of those distros are even usable as a phone. Heck, you can even use Emacs as phone interface!

Then do it.

GTA04 is as far as you can get without funding development of your own device.

If you're interested in open hardware platform, go for GTA04 - http://gta04.org/

Ubuntu for phones project never aimed to create open hardware phone.

You miss the point. If you have password to the file, you can strip it with no effort. Even some popular PDF readers can save copy of the file without password, there's no need for additional software.

All of the people who give MIT access to their email already gave it to Google, because that tool from MIT supports only GMail accounts at the moment.