We really need a sticky to answer threads like this.

Basically, it comes down to this.

Are you happy with the n900 as it is NOW ? That is, assume Nokia and the community here gets hit by a nuclear bomb tomorrow and ceases to exist - i.e. there will be no support of ANY type from tomorrow onwards - will you still be happy with the phone as it is TODAY ? i.e. no meego, no flash 10.1, no ovi, no TMO updates, no PR1.3 - NOTHING except what the N900 has NOW today.

This is NOT sacarsm or hyperbole - the above question is the utter truth. Unlike Apple or Google, Nokia has shown itself not to be committed to the n900/maemo 5 as a future platform, so you cannot rely on official support. Community/unofficial support is ALSO uncertain - for all you know when Meego comes out all the devs will move to develop for OFFICIAL Meego, and N900 will become a desert - not saying this is 100% certain but neither is it out of the realms of possibility (in fact I consider it very likely).

If the answer is YES - and support is NOT important to you, then this phone IS for you. Hence the geek/coder comparisons - because these guys love the N900 because they can mess with its internals, they wouldnt give a frig whether there is support or not. These guys can do stuff on their own. And good on them because this is the uba phone for them. No other phone is better in this aspect.

If having NO support in the future makes you hesitate because support when the phone breaks IS important to you and you do NOT have the time or the expertise to fix this yourself then this phone is NOT for you. Instead get a DROID or Apple (or even windows mobile or blackberry or wahtever) where support IS available.

Here is a real life example of the above that recently happened to the n900 (and which I had to spend hours fixing).

Example - since the release of PR1.2, MANY (look up the threads) have experienced issues with very poor N900 battery life due to badly coded widgets that were OK prior to PR1.2. When PR1.2, these guys have had to reflash and install their widgets 1 by 1 themselves (and monitoring battery life/CPU load IN BETWEEN each installation) to find out WHICH widget was causing the battery drain and uninstall it. Obviously this takes alot of time (some guys have 10s of widgets installed) and effort depending on how many widgets you have to play with.

If doing the above makes you blanch and say "I dont have time to fiddle around like this", then do NOT get the N900.

if doing the above makes you happy because you like to tinker and optimise your phone, then the N900 IS for you - for the best price get it second hand for a user that doesnt like it.

Ignore all blanket options of YES or NO in this thread - whether the n900 is suitable depends on your expectations for the product.