What worked for me plus my own brief negative comments on upgrading, and a "cheers" to the community here.

This is excellent advice. The problem of course, is where do you get the .bin file from?

The Canadian upgrade links are all broken. The mirrors and maemo all seem overloaded. The official upgrade process shows me as taking 6+ hours. There are files you can reach via Nokia.com/OS2008, but they lead to a very fast download of a 134 MB (or so) PHP file!

(This was the link I ultimately used):
http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N...ED_MR0_ARM.bin

(edit: despite the name, this was a 134 MB PHP file for me).

Well, here's what I did. YOU ARE AT YOUR OWN RISK, THIS MAY BRICK YOUR DEVICE IF YOU ARE UNLUCKY. I ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY. (sorry for the shouting, but wanted it to be crystal clear).

I looked at the 134MB nokia_N800.php file on my disk. And I thought... Maybe Nokia just got the name wrong? Surely their software isn't so awful that it doesn't at least do a basic integrity check of the file before flashing the device?

Throwing caution to the winds, I renamed the file, adding a .bin to the end, and supplying the renamed file name to the wizard.

3 minutes later I had booted up in OS2008.

I strongly stress again: DO NOT DO WHAT I DID unless you are prepared to have a possibly bricked device. I'm simply including what worked for me.

I love my N800 (I know this is one of my first posts but I've been a long time lurker, and a user of the 770 and then N800 for close to two years now).

Though I love it, Nokia's update processes are a joke. The broken links on the Canadian site, the wrong filename, the 6-hour updates that can't possibly work... these are signs the company simply doesn't take this marvelous device seriously.

It doesn't matter how good the first 90% of one's experience with the device are, if a regular user has to jump through these kinds of hoops to upgrade, then they'll just be iPhone or whatever users.

To everyone at this site, a Merry Christmas (or if you prefer joys of the Season. Hanukkah was early Dec this year so I'd be a bit out of place wishing Happy Hanukkah). This is a great community that I've enjoyed reading for some years now. I hope what I've posted above helps someone, but proceed at your own risk.

Regards,
-Holmwood