Seriously, I'm impressed. After nearly a month with the N900 (reviewing for Brighthand), I have to say that I'm impressed with the N900 and the Maemo 5 platform. I do stand by my initial impressions in that its not enough to move me from my N97, but Nokia's got a heck of a good start.

I don't think I would feel this way if I've not participated in this community. That aspect of the N900 and Maemo 5 has been missed in a lot of reviews. And understanding the device means to also understand the Maemo 5 community (here and beyond). Nokia is trying to swing the ship hard, and I sympathize.

I do think that from a hardware perspective that the N900 is on point. And I mean not just for right now, it should be fine for the next year - easily. The software is a sticky point, and its here where Nokia and this community need to come to some target and push like crazy towards it.

If its a mobile computer, then push the edge of innovation. Use gestures, AR, TV-Out, NFC, services, etc. to literally change computing. But, I think that with Maemo that Nokia/this community needs to get rid of a lot of the legacy thoughts. I don't mean run towards the Apple or Google paradigms, but to figure out strengths, and allow the platform and devices to evangelize that ability. Moving past that means moving past computing norms and while smoothing out the issues with the norms.

When that happens, convincing people that the N900 and other Maemo devices are computing idealized will be easy. Impressing folks comes naturally to Nokia and many folks within Maemo.

*@qole: you were partly right here, I feel similar, just not yet moved.