The only checker boarding I ever noticed after using my N900 is if..

A) I was on EDGE and scrolled before page finished loading.
B) I installed the Ad-block extension from extras. That seems to screw with the browser (alot more browser rendering issues after I installed that).

Never had a problem with music and browsing the web either *shrugs*. I routinely listen to podcast or music while browsing the web. Even using my bluetooth headphones (which should consume more power and resources).

There are things about this device that need to be fixed and some that make you wonder how it ever got past Nokia. One of the issues MegaCrazy pointed out that I do see as valid is that the RSS reader blows. I just don't bother with it (partially due to me using Google Reader so the articles I read on my desktop and laptop are kept in sync). It also doesn't seem to detect some feeds that Google Reader will. Since I was trying to get the DC Alerts in the RSS reader so I could be updated about any DC related emergencies that would influence my commute.

And reading that this community is one of the worst made me laugh. If this is the worse you've encountered in a decade of using the internet you need to turn off the kiddy filter. There are some screwed up things here (some by relatively new 2009 posters, and some from older posters) but by far this community is relatively decent compared to what you can find on the internet.

As for why Linux in general has a hard time capturing desktop/laptop marketshare? (note the word desktop/laptop). It's because there are so many bloody distributions you can choose from. Hard to support the operating system if you have to make sure your application runs in Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu (granted it's a derivative from Debian), Gentoo, etc..etc.

It's the same thing with Maemo. Maemo 3 (or whatever the 770 ran since I didn't own it) =/= Maemo 4 =/= Maemo 5. Heck Nokia is trying to put in a framework so that applications that are developed in Maemo 5 using QT will work in Maemo 6 and vice versa. And potentially this relationship expands to Symbian as well.