GETTING BACK ON TOPIC...
I thought the OS already allowed apps to auto rotate. So the individual apps can always be made to rotate. That's already understood. But if the UI already rotated on its own, developers would work to make sure their apps conformed if they fit that possibility of being used that way.

It totally sucks to be holding a phone/device as you wish to hold it an launching an app that opens in the opposite mode, as if it makes choices for you. Imagine that, an open source OS and the device takes away choices smartphone users have been making for years.

I'll be getting an N900 anyway, and I won't be paying for it, so its all good, plus the OS is magnificent, but it feels like Maemo needs a history lesson. No matter how you slice it, N900 is now a phone, and phones have a bloodline. Recent times show all touchscreen devices to have autorotation throughout the main UI. History shows users want to choose between QWERTY and T9, landscape or portrait. Is Maemo going to make those choices for us now? Or shall we?

Ignore it all you like, but Maemo 5 is a step forward in mobile computing, where most of the trails were blazed by the smartphone. What did Maemo learn from those pioneers? Nothing?!

I understand certain apps will be more pleasing in certain formats, but having to grab a device with both hands and hold it in landscape just to open a list of apps that all support portriat will be a PR nightmare for Maemo. We'll just be giving the hater bloggers something to talk about.

First there's the fact that unless there's some sort of memo, no one will know an app rotates, since the UI doesn't, and most people will avoid holding the device one handed for the most part. Then there's the apps that open in portrait when you've held the device in portriat. Its a disconnect unless all apps open in landscape. So everytime you open a new app, check widget data, or use the device settiings, you'll have to go back to landscape. This is so inefficient, and so NOT smart. Isn't this a smartphone?

AGAIN, I request the focus be on getting the UI to rotate. THEN work on getting the apps to do so as well. And does anyone have an N97 or a 5800 style device, or even an iPhone? Let that be a case study, and build off of that.

Is that the real problem of why the UI doesn't rotate from a development standpoint? I don't see why that would be true, but I'm just a whining user, right?

From my experience, you just need a portrait UI and a landscape UI, which we already have. Make a nice transition animation to make it look slick and voila! Figure how the widgets and running dashboard apps get rotated within the screen and its all good.

Why isn't it as simple as I imagine? Why was it so sijmple in S60, OSX, WinMo, and Android, but not Maemo? Did Maemo's designers not anticipate this?

I don't understand why, and no one has a real explanation that "normal" (which is everyone but me, according to popular opinion) folks can understand. Where are the Symbian OS UI developers? Any here? Maybe we can recruit someone with knowledge and experience doing something like this. I can't believe after 5 versions, Maemo isn't close to S60 in the UI orientation game...