Comparing the Freedoms Offered By Maemo and Android

An anonymous reader writes "Maemo 5 and Android have received a lot of publicity lately, despite the former not even shipping yet. Both have become famous partly for using the Linux kernel, but now that we have a choice, how do we pick one? Is the issue as mundane as choosing your favorite desktop distribution, or is there a more significant difference? This article compares the two from an end user and developer perspective, emphasizing root access and ease of sharing code."

Comments

Re:Kind of an interesting metric.

[KillerBob]

Right now I am torn between the Samsung Moment and the HTC Hero I just hope that we see them get 1.6 and 2.0 updates very soon.

FWIW, I've got an HTC Dream and am quite happy with it. And one of the main reasons I'm so happy with it is because it's got a fold-out QWERTY keyboard. I couldn't imagine trying to type out text messages or e-mails using an on-screen touch keyboard. Nowhere near efficient enough.

On the other hand, between the two you've listed, I'd go for the Samsung. Built-in 3.5mm jack is what sells me, but having a d-pad instead of the trackball is also a major plus. My biggest annoyance with the HTC phone is that it uses a single mini-USB connector for everything... charger, headphones/hands free, etc. It doesn't actually have any other input/output ports besides the single mini-USB. That means I can't charge the phone while listening to music on the headphones, or I can't transfer files to/from the computer while listening to music. On the plus side, at least, it does charge directly from the USB on a computer, meaning I don't need to bring the wall wart with me to work in order to charge it. :)