After using quite a few handsets, I've found the N900 wins for unix administration by quite a good distance. It has: - a well thought out physical keyboard, - a *very* well thought out touch optimized X Terminal, with toggles between swipe to scroll and swipe to select text for copy/paste, as well as gpm support for midnight commander clicks, etc. - openssh client (and openssh server only an apt-get command away) Its worth mentioning that it ships with these things *out of the box*
The VNCviewer app (thank Aaron Levinson and Detlef Schmicker) is by far the best and fastest i've used on a mobile, and the included fine point stylus/restrictive touch screen is to be desired with remote admin work, for pixel accuracy. Same goes for the rdesktop app - a joy to use. Hardware keyboard is definitely ftw in these cases!
N900 comes with busybox (bash available in repos), is based on debian. In the standard repositories are a good selection of the utilities you're already used to using for unix administration.
The browser is firefox based, very fast, and very well thought out (and includes flash). Alternate browsers available are Firefox Mobile, Opera as well as a few others. You wont get stuck with a strange router web interface failing to render properly; being firefox based, everything renders exactly like it does on a desktop PC. (including the desktop version of google docs, maps, streetview etc; no "mobile / lite" versions needed)
If you're not happy with the selection in the standard repos, apt-get install easy-debian-chroot. Then you have a full debian chroot and can run close on any linux package you wish, just like a full linux desktop (and not limited to console only; N900 runs a standard xorg and gtk/qt etc libraries). nmap anyone? screen? irssi? audacity? wireshark? kismet? tcpdump? All work beautifully.
Make no mistake, this device is a unix administration powerhouse in your pocket. Nothing comes remotely close even now, over a year after release.
Incidentally, it also holds it's own in other "smartphone" areas.. multitasking, multimedia, camera, skype video, podcasting etc. Oh and just for balance, it's weak point is lack of RAM. load a few large apps up and it starts swapping badly.
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This is a no-brainer for me.
After using quite a few handsets, I've found the N900 wins for unix administration by quite a good distance.
It has:
- a well thought out physical keyboard,
- a *very* well thought out touch optimized X Terminal, with toggles between swipe to scroll and swipe to select text for copy/paste, as well as gpm support for midnight commander clicks, etc.
- openssh client (and openssh server only an apt-get command away)
Its worth mentioning that it ships with these things *out of the box*
The VNCviewer app (thank Aaron Levinson and Detlef Schmicker) is by far the best and fastest i've used on a mobile, and the included fine point stylus/restrictive touch screen is to be desired with remote admin work, for pixel accuracy. Same goes for the rdesktop app - a joy to use. Hardware keyboard is definitely ftw in these cases!
N900 comes with busybox (bash available in repos), is based on debian. In the standard repositories are a good selection of the utilities you're already used to using for unix administration.
The browser is firefox based, very fast, and very well thought out (and includes flash). Alternate browsers available are Firefox Mobile, Opera as well as a few others. You wont get stuck with a strange router web interface failing to render properly; being firefox based, everything renders exactly like it does on a desktop PC. (including the desktop version of google docs, maps, streetview etc; no "mobile / lite" versions needed)
If you're not happy with the selection in the standard repos, apt-get install easy-debian-chroot. Then you have a full debian chroot and can run close on any linux package you wish, just like a full linux desktop (and not limited to console only; N900 runs a standard xorg and gtk/qt etc libraries). nmap anyone? screen? irssi? audacity? wireshark? kismet? tcpdump? All work beautifully.
Make no mistake, this device is a unix administration powerhouse in your pocket. Nothing comes remotely close even now, over a year after release.
Incidentally, it also holds it's own in other "smartphone" areas.. multitasking, multimedia, camera, skype video, podcasting etc. Oh and just for balance, it's weak point is lack of RAM. load a few large apps up and it starts swapping badly.