Hi,

Apologies for the newbie questions as I don't have a N770 but am considering an N800. Also I don't know linux, but
I'd like to learn more unix and shell scripting and think these ITs are a great portable solution- vi, grep, loops, sed, awk, perl etc
Before I purchase:
Does the N800 come with gnu core and text utils? or it is just the subset of commands found in busybox? How easy is it to open a cli terminal?
Is it just a matter of installing a xterm or xterminal then I can play at the command line dinking around with text files or is there something more involved like gaining root, setting paths and what not?
In my naviete I thinking I just open a terminal, set $PATH to the busybox exes, configure .bashrc in some /usr/bin or /bin then I can monkey around in vi, sed and other awk'ward goodness hopefully in one of those mounted SD volumes of the new N800?
Any sources of info or URLs are much obliged.
Thanks
tony

Well, the truth is, if you very want to get into linux, then this may not be the right unit for you. UI wise, it's quite similar to 770, but it's not a full blown linux distro like SUSE/Ubuntu/Fedora Core, getting more features like geting CLI or gain root require some or lots of tweaking. Some of the apps for 770 will work on N800, but not a guarantee. It also mean that if you don't find what you are looking for, there probably isn't a HOWTO for it yet anywhere, the unit is simply brand new. Probaly will take another 6-12 month for it to get catch up. For doing day to day stuff, you will be on GUI most of the time. Learning curve is a bit high for non-linux user. On the other hand, you seem like you already know what you will be getting yourself into, then that may not be a bad idea. But still definitely not a linux learning tool.

The default shell is busybox, so a fairly basic shell. You need to install xterm, but that is quite easy. Just add the repositories at http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationRepositories .

for the 770 there was a package for bash avaiable, but i have not seen that yet for the n800. i expect it will be made soon.

The n800 may not be the bestt thing to learn on as all documentation is striped out. there are no man pages.

Thanks for the replies.
Would it be safe to say once xterm is installed I could mkdir and store files anywhere in RAM or SD Card? Also can I drop in the executables from say gnu textutilsl and they will work or do I have to package and compile the sources to Maemo specific binaries? I run cygwin-like ports of gnu tools off a usb drive on a desktop computer to learn more about the shell but I'd like to dispense with the desktop and have this experience on a portable tablet. I basically just want a portable shell but dont' want to get a pepperpad. The ideal would be if I can install perl, zsh and all the gnu utils on a N800 or find packages in the catalog. I think the Nokia Internet Tablets would be a great way to evangelize Linux and open source, but I guess the market wants media playing and web services devices.