@9000 - I like my N900, this thread is speculation as to why others "hate" it.

@everyone - Thanks for the advice on the answering issue. That actually brings up another reason some have "hate" for the N900. It seems some of the issues people have with the N900 can be individual device specific. What I mean is that, it seems like two people can have nearly identical setups, and only one will have an issue. On the other hand, the N900 is so customizable, it's completely possible to have a unique setup. This makes bug tracking very difficult.

I'm on PR1.3, overclocked to 805 (with a slight undervolt), using modified hildon-desktop for 6 desktops (mostly shortcuts, not widgets). Probably around 100 or so apps installed, no contact managers. But even from stock, I've always had the occasional issues with answering calls. And yes, I even flashed both 1.3 and the emmc for a fresh "from scratch" start. I believe I've tried most of the fixes, and yes even when locked to one orientation, it still wanted to flip occasionally. Having it locked to one annoyed me, so I don't. I'm not important enough that a missed call will cause doom in my life, so I shrug and move on, one of the little quirks that makes it all the more lovable and annoying at the same time.

I've said it before, but I think Nokia rushed out Maemo 5 (making more like step 2.5 or 3 of 5, not 4 of 5. I see quite a few things where I wonder what they were thinking, or if the even used the N900 at all before deciding things should be a certain way (not talking about MMS or portrait mode, or Flash). None are deal-breakers, just minor annoyances. Instead of leaving support there and building on it, they quickly moved on to MeeGo. Yes we knew harmattan was moving to QT, but I think a lot of folks expected better support than we got.

As to expectations, as ysss points out, based on prior brand history, the company contributes in a significant fashion to customer expectations. Customers are hard to come by and easy to lose.

So, I'm just saying I can understand some hate, it's not that hard to do if you look at the N900 from a regular point of view and not the advanced linux power user point of view.

Personally, I think it's great, but has so much wasted potential, if only......