I agree that the desktop would look bad in portrait mode but consider the rather bad example of the iPhone.

If you look at the iPhone's (very boring) home screen you will find that it too will not rotate. On the other hand if you got to send an SMS message on an iPhone you can send it portrait or landscape.

What I am trying to say is that I don't believe full OS portrait mode is needed as many third party applications already have it, you can get it in the browser and in the phone app.

I do believe the portrait mode should be integrated into sending SMS on the N900 with a T9 keyboard after all what is the reason for not having it? The same should apply to the photo viewing application although it may be remedial it would be nice not to have to turn the phone around to browse your photos.

Portrait mode would make the device better for using 'on the go' as one hand functionality is far more convenient.

Just thought I would share my view on this rather tired topic.