You got those from my mid-range/tablet list, not my pocketable/phone list.

Both the UMID and the N900 would fail my mid-range/tablet criteria. They don't have a 9" or 10" screen. That's a loss right there.

In the pocketable/phone category ... it _has_ to be a phone. In order for me to consider it to be a "phone", it has to:

• be able to make voice calls to any number (including emergency services)
• be able to send SMS messages to any phone number (not just other VOIP subscribers)
• be able to receive voice calls from any number, and if necessary wake the device up from "stand-bye" mode in order to alert me of the incoming call
• be able to receive, via your public facing phone number, SMS messages from any phone number

As far as I know, Google Voice can only do SOME of those, and Skype can't do any of them (can't call emergency services, like 911, can't wake your device up from stand-bye mode, can't send or receive true SMS messages, nor will it gateway its internal IM service to/from standard SMS messages, nor allow you to use your "skype-in" phone number for receiving SMS messages). Those are all things that I use on my phone, and that I, in varying capacities, depend upon.

Of the above 4 things you mention, only ONE of those is a criteria that matches my _ideal_ pocketable/phone list (USB Host/OTG). Certainly, the N900 is less than ideal. But the UMID, without those two voice call capabilities, is not only "less than ideal", it doesn't enter the race.

(if you translate those other 3 items into the comparable items on the pocketable/phone list, it's 800x480 resolution, external display of some sort, and more than .5GB of RAM ... the N900 does meet all 3 of those requirements. And, while I don't consider it a show-stopper, I don't think I'd want 1024x600 on a 5" or smaller screen -- at that point, I expect the pixels would be TOO small)

No, I have a very rational basis for rejecting a device based upon the OS it ships with. I don't want to lose my device because of a bad upgrade. My gf currently has a door-stop of a laptop because of a bad-upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 9.10. Bricked it. And she doesn't even have her 7.10 install media anymore. I'm an IT guy, but I don't have time to fix it.

Luckily, it's not her primary device, so she's not "dead in the water". But I can't afford to be dead in the water, either. As I pointed out in an earlier comment in this thread: if it's not a Vendor Supported OS, I am not going to use it on my primary devices (my pocketable/phone, the mid-range device that I carry with me to work, nor my main workstations at home nor work). I will only go down that path if it is a "purely tinkering device".

And, it's entirely rational, not impulsive. I don't have the luxury of being "unable to do my real work" just because of a bad upgrade. Nor do I want to lose my non-computer hobby/recreation, girlfriend, nor dog time to fixing such a situation. If my only recreation was "making computers do things they weren't intended to" (like when I was younger), then that would be different. But, at the very least, my girlfriend and dog deserve to be a higher priority than that.