OTA doesn't work for me, so flashing is the only stable method for me.
Believe it or not, flashing is the only stable method period. Never "upgrade" a debian-based system, only packages inside it. Same goes for desktop systems like Ubuntu.
Never gave me issues, when i got my N900 it came with pr1.1 from the box, pr1.2 was already avaible, OTA went without a hitch, then when pr1.3 came you HAM didn't wanna do it and tried to trick me into doing the upgrade with OVI Suite, which from what i've ****s things up way more than the messages usggesting you use it indicate, i didn't fall for it, i upgraded using Maemo Synaptic, didn't had any issues this time either
You really should upgrade to pr1.3 alot of apps are now compiled for it, especialy anything related to the kernel.
But it amazes me how people who are adversed to upgrading/flashing install things from devel without at least looking at the change logs.
There is nothing wrong with using extras devel, almost all the apps i use come from there, but you really need to take the time to look at what your updating and why, because something is the newest release doesn't automaticaly mean its better and could quite possibly brick your phone.
I only say this because ive learned these lessons the hard way
With 1.3 and kpv.46, I've had no problems at all, whereas I had a bunch of problems with v.42. There may have been other circumstances, but regardless, I'm getting better performance out of 46 than even with the stock kernel.
