Although neither of your claims are strictly totally true, I agree you've got a point that Nokia should take notice of.

• The N900 recently got a much needed - if fairly minor - OS upgrade so that demonstrates that it can and does get upgraded. Much remains to be done though...
  
• I hear that some of the early Android devices (the G1 for example) can no longer get upgraded to the latest versions of the OS (correct me if I'm wrong)
  
• The time will come (probably this year) when 1st gen iPhones can no longer be upgraded to the latest version of Apple's OS.

This illustrates the point nicely: other vendors typically support their hardware with the latest version of their OS for at least 18 month after their introduction. After that point, one might argue that the hardware becomes obsolescent and supporting dated devices has a clear cost for the manufacturer. 18 months also happens to be the typical network contract length these days so this value proposition makes sense from a mainstream consumer's perspective.

With the N900, Nokia's refusal to spell out clearly what will happen with Maemo 6 with it due under a year into the N900's life is a genuine issue for prospective buyers such as yourself.

I suspect this will hamper the device's sales potential, its attractiveness for ISVs (who are expected to produce these much needed apps) and eventually Nokia's credibility and possibly its future.

Shame because like many here, I like the device (I bought one after all) and would really like to see Maemo succeed as an open alternative to those constrained "smart phone" OS...

I'm working on the principle that by the time the maemo 6 device arrives (December 2010? January 2011?) my poor n900 will be quite worn out. I make him work extremely hard, and he'll be ready for the 'rest' that comes with being my secondary device. Added to which, by then maybe I'll know enough and have grown up enough to be brave about command lines, Xterminal etc. Heck, I might even know how to write a line of code by then!

There are two questions to ask: will this device do what I want right now (along with 'does my current device do what I want, so I can avoid changing). Secondly, will I break my heart at having a device that does a high proportion of what I want just because there's something Newer out there.

I bought an n95. One of the first in the county - it arrived on the first day of release. A while later, Nokia added 8gb memory, (did they add more arm?) and generally improved the hardware. But my old, first generation n95 still did what I wanted, so I didn't fret.

The questions you need to ask are partly about the device (what will it do) but also about yourself (what do I want, feel, and care about). If having the newest, shiniest thing on the market matters, even installing maemo6 on an n900 won't cut it as the next device with have wizzier hardware. In the end, you need to answer your own questions.

Title says it all.

I know that the N900 is basically a piece of land crawling with bugs, but it's a piece of land where you really wanna be

also the Harmattan is going to get MeeGo and N900 might not.

What do you guys think? and is there any news about the Harmattan concerning release date, etc?

I hate making choices.

I'll make the choice simple for you. Wait till the year end; then buy the second meego device which should be a refined one. else, windows phone 7 may be a choice!

When in doubt, don't..

I do actually, I wanted to edit my post but I'm not sure how.

I get the feeling that you're answering your own question.

Well I ordered mine today and I can't wait to get it.

Haha. I don't see that many bugs with my piece of N900. It feels like it's more coz maemo community makes it more visible to the public than other phones imo. Oh, yes, it definitely is a great piece of land btw.

My advice. Buy it if you like what it can do now and if you want/need one right now.
If not, wait weeks, months, years until something better comes out.

Oh. Here's something I wrote on a different forum today which might be interesting.

Maemo5 OS on the N900 is one special OS.
- Can play nearly all video/audio codecs that's possible on a linux desktop PC.
- Such as ogg, flac, ac3, xvid, x264, wmv, rmvb, aac, mp3, wav etc
- No need for itunes. No need to re-encode videos.
- Gmail works great. Even from the browser via Android version of Gmail.
- 32GB built-in and can go up to 64GB once 32GB MicroSD comes out.
- No need for hacking. It's fully open to the user with root access.
- Full access to all the OS files including the kernal. Even over ssh.
- True real-time active multi-tasking. Not pause/resume.
- eg. It can even play a normal 700MB xvid avi file in the background while you browse the web / sms etc.
- Up to 9 virtual desktops. (4 officially, up to 9 possible)
- The best integration of internet chat such as skype/msn etc.
- Full desktop version of OpenOffice and Gimp.
- Many more full desktop linux apps. (openssh, truecrypt etc etc)
- It's the only phone that actually can run direct recompiled desktop gnu linux apps.
- 3rd party full turn-by-turn voice navigation is available. (Sygic)
- Awesome mozilla based web browser. Firefox Mobile available also.
- Excellent hardware keyboard. Fully remappable. (4 layers per key)
- Battery life is good imo. Lasted me 2 full days with ~45mins talk, some internet browsing.
- Tons of new apps appearing / improved everyday at maemo.org
- VERY customizable. OS is pretty much desktop linux with mobile gui on top.
- You can create your own scripts for nearly anything just like linux.
(and create desktop widgets that show its output or initiate the script)
- New PR1.2 update with HUGE amount of changes should come out within next few weeks.
- Great still camera. Has flash. Record videos at 800x480 even with flash in torch mode at night.
My priorities were:
- Play nearly all SD-res video files without the need for re-encoding.
- Be as desktop PC-like as possible with nearly no limits. (geeky)
- Proper and super effective true multi-tasking with running background apps.
- Great community with lots of new apps/mods/themes developers.
- Hardware keyboard. This is a must.
- 3.5mm earphone socket. Good video camera.

Anyways, I see no competition to the N900 imo currently. Tell me if there is one and I'll swap to that. N900 will get better over time with MORE apps also. Especially considering it'll support Qt 4.6 which new Symbian 4 and Meego OS will support. Which means new app support for quite a long time.

Tech always changes and better things showup tomarrow. so keep waiting!