Kshitij Sobti

Discuss on thinkdigit forum

Posted on 10-08-2010

Comment on article

Tweet

Nokia N900 might not be as powerful as a desktop, laptop or even a Netbook, but there is little you can’t do on it. There is no limit to the kind of cool stuff you can do with the N900.  While a lot of the cool stuff you can do on an N900 is limited by the fact that it is, after all, a portable handheld computer with the configuration of a decade-old computer. You could use the N900 to encode HD content, it would be cool, but a few months to encode a couple of minutes of video is probably not acceptable performance. There are other limitations imposed by the fact that it is an ARM chipset, and there are still quite a few applications which aren’t available for it.

• MeeGo 1.1 released - dual-boot for Nokia N900 and beta SDK...
• Nokia N9, the fusion tablet phone, is showed off in a introductory...
• MWC rumours - Nokia N9 packing Intel Atom chip, HTC making...

Adding repositories to boost your software choices

Like any Linux distro, Maemo on N900 includes a package manager for downloading, installing, updating and removing applications, and as with most Linux distros, you can add repositories to your package manager in order to broaden your choice of software.

For those unfamiliar with repositories, they are collections of applications and libraries which Linux package managers can access, and use as a source of software to install. Most distributions come with some repositories pre-installed.

While you can add applications to Linux without going through the repository, by simply downloading the rpm / deb package, by adding a repository to your package manager you can then install applications with much greater ease from a GUI or command line. Same is the case with Maemo.

The simplest way to install some popular repositories is to go to http://repository.maemo.org/ in the Maemo browser where you will find simple to use install links which will automatically import the repository into your catalogue. In the repositories page, you can install any of the repositories marked for ‘Fremantle’.  This will include the Extras, Extras Testing, and Extras Development repositories.

Occasionally you will find repositories on other websites, such as this one. To install these repositories on your phone, you need to do the following:

1. Go to Application Manager
2. Click on the menu
3. Click on Application catalogs
4. Click on New
5. Enter the details provided for the repository

Once you have these repositories added and enabled, your Application Manager catalog will see a noticeable increase.

Many projects have their own repositories for their applications, and some of these might be available  for the N900 – such as the KDE PIM, KOffice, and KDE Shell.

Install DosBox on your N900

DosBox is a popular MSDOS emulator which is available for multiple platforms, now including the N900. DosBox allows you to run legacy DOS applications on modern computer which often fail to run such applications. It is obvious than DOS programs will not run on operating systems such as Linux, Windows and Unix, however even recent versions of Windows (Windows XP and later) only have limited support. In fact 64 bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are completely incapable of running DOS applications which, are 16-bit.

You might wonder, what might exactly be the point of emulating a system which, was outdated 10 years ago on your modern device? Well, there a great many brilliant applications which were created during the DOS days, and will run only on DOS even now. For example many amazing games which came out that time are available only for the DOS platform.
You can even install Windows 3.1 on your N900 using DosBox!

Remote control your PC from your N900

If you aren't familiar with the concept of VNC applications / desktop sharing, then you have been missing out. With fast internet connections, or over a LAN it is quite possible to remotely control another computer from your own. All you need to do is install an applications such as RealVNC, TightVNC or the many others out there, and you will be able to not only view but also control what it going on on another computer. Such software transmit whatever is being displayed on a computer monitor in real time, and transmit back any mouse movements and keystrokes so that you are in essence controlling the remote computer instead of your own.

To use the N900 to control your computer, you will need to install one of the many VNC applications out there, and run a VNC server on your own comp. You can then connect to your computers IP address and control it given you have the vncviewer software installed on your N900.

The uses on this are endless. Once you have remote control of your computer, you can pretty much do on it whatever you would otherwise, however connecting to a high-resolution computer and viewing it on a small screen is not a particularly great experience. Especially so if you are doing so over slow connection.  This works best over a WiFi connection, and for controlling other devices on the same WiFi  Network.

Another option if you don't really need a GUI to control your remote computers, is to use SSH. With SSH you have remote command line access to another computer, and can use CLI commands to control  whatever you want. This is as expected much faster than using a VNC connection, as it relies only on sending text. Installing openSSH will allow you to gain access to any computer running an ssh server. Linux distros usually have this in the repository, and for Windows there are a few options, including running Cygwin with openSSH.

This article continues on the next page.