Multitasking on Nokia N900 and Ubuntu's new 10.04

I recently tried to push the limits of multitasking (running more than one application) on my Nokia N900. I have not reached the limit (yet). Here are some screenshots of what I've tried:

1st desktop on N900

2nd Desktop on N900

3rd desktop on N900

Multi-tasking on N900

At this point, I am running 14 application on the N900 as well as the 4 desktops. I do not have anything on the 4th desktop, hence why I have omitted it as a screenshot. It does not appear to be slowing down the performance of the N900 down at all. Some of the applications open include:

• Maps
• Instant Messaging (IM) Chat
• Phone interface
• Contacts interface
• Sketch pad
• Photo Browser
• Media Player
• Web Browser (accessing Gmail)
• XTerm
• Calendar
• eCoach
  

After transferring some large files onto the N900, I encountered my first bug. It was in the form of corruption of the VFAT /home/user/MyDocs directory. Fortunately, there is already a documented fix for the error - being that the filesystem is "read-only". The long term fix (also documented via a link on the same page) is to convert the VFAT filesystem to ext3. Fixing the VFAT bug (using fsck) caused a second bug - a double directory listing in the N900's file browser. The fix was also documented, being to get the number of files in /home/use/MyDocs to under 32 individual files. This will be properly addressed in the next firmware release.

I've also updated my main computer to Ubuntu 10.04. It is very early so far, but there appears to be a lot of integration with social networking sites, as well as being able to access all the chat / IM protocols they use. I don't know whether this is due to demand from the current users of Ubuntu, or whether it shows that Ubuntu wants to capture a more "youthful and chatty" audience. It also appears that Ubuntu is also starting up services in the form of Ubuntu One.

Overall, it appears to be another good effort from the guys at Ubuntu to produce a usable desktop. Below is a screenshot of my desktop, while I was using GIMP to edit the pictures you see in this post:

Editing images on Ubuntu 10.04