Update.
After using the N900 for the past week I can say I am even more happy with it.

I've installed the following apps and games:

zoutube - works
VGBA - havent tried yet
Transmission - works
TowerBloxx - havent tried yet
SiB - works
Quake 3 - works and is awesome fast, freaky
PrBoom - works
omweather - works
NumptyPhysics - havent tried yet
N-Speed - works
Mappero - works
liqtorch - works
KMPlayer - works
fMMS - works
Firefox - works
eCouch - works
DrNokSnes - works and is coolio
Conky - works
Bounce - havent tried yet
BatteryGraph - works
AngryBirds - works
AlienBlaster - works
AutoDisconnect. - works

Battery life is better than expected.
With a 2 hour train trip watching movies, and then checking email and web intermittently through the day, I still had about 30% left after about 14 hours.

On a weekend I pushed the battery to the limit to get a full discharge and had about 5% left and thought it would turn off soon.
It kept going for nearly another 2 hours. It just wouldn't die.
The battery indicator seems to be the most linear of any phone I've ever owned. That is, it doesn't accelerate as it gets to the bottom like a car petrol tank.