I have never heard anything about the new vs older n900. This should however not cause you problems softwarewise..

I have not tried those programs you are talking about. But it could mean that they might not be supported on PR1.2.. i am not sure. You should try to upgrade to the latest version of the programs. Possibly enable extras-devel if necessary.

If you want any help... you will need to print out those errors you got. Otherwise it would be difficult to help.