Have you tried Maemo? With Maemo, I can just launch an xterm and ssh to my heart's content. For that matter, I can also set up an SSH server and ssh into the device. I'm guessing Meego probably has the same support.

In my experience, it's the closest experience to have a full Linux box that I can stick in my pocket.

Maemo is brilliant, except it's a dead end in favor of Meego, whose future is uncertain.

What's wrong with a dead end? Isn't SSH a dead end, since we haven't seen any major modifications ina while? Maemo still has SSH, it's still linux, and it's still debian. There are community projects to update software and fix bugs.

> What's wrong with a dead end?

No new phones, obviously.

SSH is in active development. It isn't a dead end at all. While Maemo/Meemo will be going the way of the dodo probably.

Yeah, I can do all of that with my Pre 2 as well, and I had been doing it on my Pre for a while.

Heck, with xterm on my Pre 2, I can run a Debian or Ubuntu ARM rootfs and actually have a full Linux experience in my pocket.

I didn't know webOS could do that. Maybe webOS could replace my Maemo N900. I have a Debian chroot on my N900 (with OpenOffice, GIMP & Apache) but don't use it that much.

Other Linuxy things that I use my N900 for that I'd like to know if webOS could do: - vnc server - all the usual ssh port tunnelling / forwarding stuff - bash - cron - git - curl / wget / nmap - software repositories (Maemo uses apt) - python / ruby / php

(Not trying to say mine's better than yours, I'd just like to know if webOS might be for me as my N900 is getting old)

Yes, you can do a lot of those things, but over homebrew. You can install ipkg-opt, which will give you access to the nslu2-linux optware packages. It's no apt, but you can still use it to install packages. From the optware packages, you can install python/ruby/php, install a vnc server (although I think there are some homebrew apps for that), install git, cron, and a lot of the standard programs you would expect in a standard linux installation.

I'm not sure on ssh port tunneling/forwarding, but curl/wget come installed on webOS.

WebOS is looking really good. Can anyone point me to an architecture diagram along the lines of [1]? The best one I could find was [2], which doesnmt give many details.

[1] http://www.99bits.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/meego-archi...

[2] http://www.palminfocenter.com/images/webos-architecture-dev....

Tunneling has worked like a champ for me. With a linux box at home and a linux phone in my pocket, corporate blockers are a thing of the past and all of my work is only ever an ssh away. =]

Is there any way to connect a display/keyboard/mouse (the input devices perhaps over bluetooth) so it can even be a desktop?

Bluetooth keyboards work on webOS 2.0 and later. The webOS emulator runs as x86 virtual machine and uses your keyboard and mouse from the host PC. Some people have boot that image directly on PC hardware with varying degrees of success.

You can't connect a display or mouse. You can connect a keyboard over bluetooth, but I haven't tried it in a rootfs.

Connectbot is pretty excellent for Android, I'd have to add.

I agree, and it's open source too. In fact I am currently working on getting it to work well with the full keyboard on my new Android tablet/netbook.

Can you exclude your private ssh key from being synced with google?

Why do you think the private ssh key would be sync'd with Google in first place?

There's no background sync of your Android phone's contents to Google, just things like Contacts and Email (which are optional)

When I setup an Android phone I am asked if I want to sink my configuration and data with Google, and that this information includes things like wifi psks.

Are ssh keys stored in an area that is separate from what Google syncs?

As I understand it, it's up to each app to decide what exactly it will back up. After a quick glance at the code, it seems to me that it backs up preferences, host keys, and public/private keys.

Okay, so that's a big red flag for me. Google can't have my private keys, so I can't use it. Thanks.

Of course, you could download the source, comment out the lines that do that, and use the app. Or just don't enable the 'backup to Google' option.

Yep, I could do, but that's too much work.

I want backup to Google, for everything apart from that.

Is Prompt already the best thing on your iPad? If not, I'd be curious to know how it stacks up. (Prompt costs US$5 for an iPad/iPhone version. Nobody get the vapors.)

I've used Prompt on both the iPad and iPhone and have zero complaints. It's an excellent app and worth every penny.

I use prompt allmost everyday. Its THE best ssh app I have tried on a smartphone. I dont know webos/maemo, but in my time on palmos, symbian, windows mobile, android and ios I have not met a ssh app this good.

Webos/maemo have the same ssh client (and xterm) you have on a desktop linux.

I see where you are going with this, but as a 'middle-adopter', I might wait until I can just install ubuntu on my phone.