Despite what others may think, I do actually applaud Nokia for what they have achieved so far Which is all the more reason why I'm so aggrieved when they let down the excellent hardware with such mediocre software offerings such as the email client, RSS news reader, media player etc. Sure, these applications can all be replaced by free, open source alternatives but should it be necessary, as it currently is? The device should be supplied with tip-top applications, open source or closed, that work well together and give a very positive user experience. The unfortunate truth is, the standard applications fail by a wide margin to give a positive user experience.

It's the rough edges that are present in the built-in applications (and still present in the N800, which is essentially a v2 product ) that let the device down, and which need addressing in the long term, whether by rewriting or replacing with OSS alternatives.

My view is - and in the last couple of posts, this is mainly where I'm coming from - that the future Internet Tablets should be usable by people like my Dad who know absolutely nothing about OSS alternatives. Within reason, the out-of-box Internet Tablet experience should not require a new user to consider OSS alternatives to replace or augment the default applications. Unfortunately, OSS is currently an absolute necessity for new users. I only hope that by v3 (the "N900") Nokia will be closer to the holy grail.