the problem i find with maemo is that with each version, they keep changing the format and makes backwards compatibilty between maemo difficult. my bet this is going to be the same for maemo 6. everything will have to be re-package.

but this is only my experience starting with the n770.

the n800/810 is what should have been the n900 and thus the n900 now should have been much better coming out of the box.

i've said it before and ill say it again.
if you are spending 500 quid on a device, if you don't do your research first you are obviously either too rich, or silly.
for me its what i had waited for and nearly perfection.
please do you research before buying any device

thats why i havent bought one. i cant afford spending 600 bucks for a new phone when my current one is fulfilling my needs at the moment. i think the next model version of the n9xx may be about the right time for me for my next upgrade.

the n900 is what i was waiting for 2 years ago, way before the iphone; which i think was a missed opportunity for nokia

I've researched the N900 really good before I bought it. I knew it was not the perfectly polished, ultra sleek, superduper phone/MID. But I want to make a difference for a platform. Maemo has the potential to kick Apple's *** real good.

We've arrived at a point in development that the hardware will not sell a phone. Of course it is important but it's not solely the Unique Selling Point.

Today and tomorrow it is all about usability and applications. If a platform has a vast amount of apps available it is more likely to sell. For example take the iPhone or Android. It has a vast amount of apps available and it is very, very easy to install these on your device.

So if Nokia and us of course wants to have a chance to be a big time player in the field we need to do our efforts to try new software, test it and do a bugreport.

My experience is very positive! This is really the first platform I see where users don't get scolded when they discover a bug and report it. I discovered a stupid bug in Windows Mobile 6.1 a year ago, and thought: 'Hey I can reproduce this error and it is absolutely due to a bad in a Microsoft .DLL, let's report it and send some logs.'. The bug destroyed the contact list. Pretty important if you ask me.

My reaction from Microsoft was: 'Dear Sir, As far as we know we are not going to fix this bug. We ask you kindly not to bother us with this kind of information.'. Well that's damn good first impression!

To get back on the subject at hand, although Nokia announced this as a Step 4 out of 5, a niche product etc. etc. this is a very stable, usable piece of hard and software. Much better then the current Windows Mobile will ever be!

ive got to admit that when i got my first winmo phone (sony xperia x1a), it did really good as a phone and as a web browser out of the box. it even got better with the xda support. i have had it for over a year and its still on par with the best phones coming out today and so no need for me to upgrade at this time.

other phones such as the winmo, android and iphone and etc... does make it easier to install apps and thus makes a good phone for the everyday user or first time smartphone buyer. the n900 is not for the everyday user but more for the power user and so many will not know what they are buying.

i believe the n900 with the support of the maemo community can and will be a good well rounded device. i definitely will be looking at n900 or its subsequent successor as for next upgrade for sometime in 2010.

I've just ditched my XPERIA X1i. The device is to slow for me, the Opera webbrowser isn't that stable, it crashes at random. The build quality of the Sony Ericsson is nice but the software isn't up to par for me. Maybe I'm just a very demanding user.

I think N900 was rushed. But I also think that is exactly how it should be. It is a device in the spirit of the open source movement. According to Eric Raymond http://www.catb.org/~esr//writings/h...r/ar01s04.html The notion of Release Early Release Often (And trust your community to help you iron out bugs) was key innovation that Linus Torvalds made.

I agree with this. As a matter of fact. The open source development model has showed some amazing results.

lol i ditched my xp1 after 3 weeks, i hated ut so much i swore never to gret a xp or wins mo phone

Perhaps they were early but most of the critial functions work well. I have no doubt that the other functions you mention will be added with software updates.

Given the choice of waiting or getting the device now but with a few missing features I vote for getting the device now.

I already don't know how I survived without this wonderful device.

It was not.

N900 is not the flagship phone of Nokia and anyone reading the announcements and interviews around the announcements knows this. It comes from the Internet Tablet lineage. N97 still gets the pole position on the Nokia.com phones list.