The N8 is the best multimedia phone and camera phone in the world. I own the N900, N8, HTC G2, Nokia C7 Astound and Nokia 5230 Nuron. With the N8, you will have more powerful hardware, greater access to 3rd party apps and games. support. Symbian3 has planned support until 2016 and that is more support than we get with our N900. The newest updat Symbian Anna, aka pr2.0 is due in late July/August Now, Symbian is the most feature rich Smartphone OS. You may actually need to read the manual. With that said, it is a step down from a mobile computer and is not open as far as application creation and OS mods. You can mod it though. If you just absolutely don't need 12MP Of Xenon camera awesomeness, I would let Nokia know that you NEED a hardware KB and have them send you the E7, that is, if you need the KB. The only thing that compares to Maemo is Meego Harmattan. Go to the N8 with the right expectations. It ISN'T a hacker mobile computer, it is a full featured smartphone with great apps, video, pics, navigation and premium build. It does some things better than on the N900 while other things can only be done via Maemo/linux.