I'm also just starting to try writing programs for the N900, personally I have managed to get simple things working on the device with Qt and MADDE through following the MADDE/QtCreator integration tutorial and following the example program at the end of the Nokia Getting started with Maemo 5 introduction. I can run programs I write on the device but only through the Qt interface, I am still trying to work out the next bit of getting programs loaded to the device etc. I would agree that trying to get started in this development is a jungle, there is definately a lot of information out there but it is spread across a wide range of tools, methods and platforms and takes a massive amount of researching to get anywhere. Not that I don't expect to do some amount of reading and learning to get started but its taken days of digging and installing / uninstalling various bits of downloaded software just to get to managing a "Hello World" app... All of the information out there is very useful and I'm sure will be necessary as I get further into developing but I can see how it can put people off at the start, beginners just need a single step by step spoon fed example document that takes you from nothing to having a simple working app installed on the device!