You're right, of course, but IMO it's only half of the story.

Licensing issues I understand. I'm not clamoring for a new Opera and/or a new Flash plugin on the 770 if it's something Nokia reckons it can't afford. The subset of sites I routinely use on the tablet are mostly text-based content, and they work just as well as they did a year ago.

Hardware issues I understand. If OS2007 on the N800 takes advantage of more memory, more CPU, and various custom accelerator chips (which it doesn't actually seem to, yet), then that can't be backported, period. These are not the things that make me grumpy.

What galls me most is seeing Nokia and the maemo team jump ship and refocus their effort on a new, rushed-to-market and bug-ridden 2007 platform, leaving 2006 in maintenance mode with some glaring bugs of its own, some of which are known since its very release and will likely never get fixed.

Yes, there was a new release very recently. I installed it last Sunday, having skipped the one before. I left it mostly pristine just to see what would happen... And sure enough, right away it started rebooting itself while idle at least once per 24 hours, just like it's always done. Sheesh, a Linux system that restarts itself at will every day ? My Zaurus NEVER did that, and neither did any of my Psions. You'd think it would be considered a priority, but if you read the developers list they almost make it sound like it's "by design"... and of course the N800 does it, too. So there.

Then there are other things like the brain-dead App manager with its impossible interface, brittle update process, and the Red Pill nonsense. Opera closing all windows when you only ask it to close the current one (the "poof" effect), or deciding it doesn't want to follow any links anymore, or sometimes just the "submit" button on forms... And so on.

Another sore point is all the small or not-so-small "usability" improvements that have appeared on the N800, or rather OS2007, which are not tied to hardware or licensing issues. These are probably not fundamental changes deep down, but can make a huge difference in day-to-day use. The new behaviour of the "Home" button is one example ; official support of Bluetooth keyboards is another. Or the new look of the virtual keyboards, or the improved home applets management, or other such details... There doesn't seem to be any convincing reason why these couldn't benefit the 2006 platform, too.

I'd be quite content with Nokia if they would fix the 770's most obnoxious and long-standing bugs, and grant it some of the eye-candy and usability goodies the N800 has, and leave it at that. But somehow I don't think that is going to happen, and that leads me to wait and see what's going to happen with the N880, too...