But are you claiming that Microsoft or Apple left it up to the users to figure out how to solve problems with their operating systems or their applications? Because if that isn't your claim, then your analogy breaks down badly. Apple and Microsoft didn't charge for a product and then dropped the support without having managed a standard release complete with requierd service-pack fixes. The Nokia updates to Maemo isn't service-pack fixes to a release-ready product. They are just releases to get the N900 software a bit closer to version 1.0. I would be very surprised if next Maemo release wouldn't still leave the N900 with beta-state software.

I bought the N900 because it allows me to write own "real" applications - I'm not too fond of Java applications. But I didn't buy it wanting to make money from applications, but to use the phone for myself.

Paying for my own phone, I did expect to have to put down own time with adding own applications. Not having to waste own time just to overcome failures with the Nokia-supplied software. Are users expecting too much if they think a N900 can match the N95 as base platform but with the addition that we can really start to change the world of mobile computing by inventing new way to work outside the office?

To get Nokia to improve, it's important that all N900 users unifies in our claims. When some peoples just can't take criticism about their beloved N900 and instead blame buyers for not solving themselves problems with the N900, we get nowhere.

I don't know how many threads I have seen where people make fun of iPhone fan-boys. How come? The only reason for these threads is that a N900 fan-boy created the threads. But does it really help us to have N900 fan boys laughing at iPhone fan boys? Does that give happier N900 users?

Haven't you noticed that the phone is available in all the "normal" phone stores? Nothing claiming: This is a proof-of-concept experiment. Users beware. When looking at it in the stores or web shops, there are feature lists telling what it can. There are no warning lists telling what it can't. How many users who buy the N900 realizes that the N95-supplied headphone can't control the multimedia player anymore? How many users realizes that if you register a bluetooth headset, you'll get the battery warning beeps in the headset and not in the phone - despite many people not keeping the headset in the ear(s) all the time?

Anyone who have seen Nokia claim that the N900 is seriously dangerous and/or unsuitable to use with hands-free solutions in a vehicle? How many of the N900 buyers realies that with the N900 you will not let a voice tell who is calling (unless we spent own time implementing it), and will not let the user talk to the phone to order it to dial someone?

Don't spend time blaiming the users for not reading the fine print and registering with a development site to learn the status of the phone and phone software. Don't blame the users for wanting to dial Nokia support and complain about software problems instead of registering and report bugs - would you want to register with a german web site and register bug reports if your new BMW navigation system sends you to Frankfurt instead of Nice? I think you would be very frustrated if it wasn't enough to call the dealer and then got told to just drive in to get a cup of coffe while your car got a firmware update.

Everytime someone writes: You shouldn't have bought a N900 if you aren't a experienced Linux user or a experienced Linux developer, I want to scream. How ridiculous to blame the user for not investing days or weeks on developer-oriented forums. The marketing material doesn't require you to be a developer. Why should a buyer then suspect that Nokia requires you to be a developer or at Linux system administrator to get the phone to at least function as a "normal" phone? Only if Nokia sends out sales material indicating the need for such Linux knowledge can Nokia - or members on this forum - expect such knowledge from the buyers.

Yes, many other manufacturers have their problems. But that is irrelevant. The only thing that is relevant is that Nokia sells this phone as a smart phone++. But a smart phone++ would be a smart phone with some extra. And a smart phone would be a phone with some extra. What Nokia doesn't tell is that the N900 misses a lot of things "normal" phones has. Nokia tells about extra features but not about broken or removed features. And if you do register, Nokia tells you "WONT FIX" for most of the broken things. OK if you bought the phone on speculation, hoping to make money from application sales. Not OK if you bought the phone for own use. WONT FIX is basically just a different way of saying: "we don't care about our N900 customers - get back when we release the N9 and we'll decide then if we'll keep your money one more time without supplying the full product."

Nokia gives us a phone that guestimates the battery capacity in percent and in mAh. But they start to warn about low battery when you may have minutes left to talk instead of warning early enough that you can charge your phone before you go out to lunch.

Nokia tells us about the conversation feature, unifying SMS, IM etc. But doesn't tell us that we can't get individual ring signals depending on contact - that is until someone on this forum added such functinality.

Nokia gives us a phone that can rotate the phone interface - but animates the rotation so nicely that we often press "reject" instead of "accept" because the phone decides to rotate the interface just when we try to accept a call.

Nokia gave us a mail program that can't handle some mails at all. Not sure if it is unsupported characters or what it is, but the mail flashes up (showing as empty) for a second before I get returned to the mail list. My N95 didn't fail like that, but the N900 is marketed to be more advanced...

Nokia gives us a backup feature from their PC program - but with too large files (such as recorded movies), their backups fails and claims we have to disconnect/reconnect the USB cable. Nothing wrong with the cable interface - just the software that isn't properly handling large files.

The list of pure stupidities from Nokia can be made extremely long.

Whatever reason we did have for buying the N900. If we still think the N900 is the best phone there is, or are very frustrated with it. We must still stand unified against Nokia. We must claim that Nokia did sell an unfinished product to end users, and that Nokia expects end users to solve the problems. Something we many times can't since that would require us to reverse-engineer closed-source applications. Only by being unified can we get Nokia to realize that it isn't just some individuals who are struggling or having the wrong expectations. Only by being unified can we maybe get Nokia to care about some of the bugs they now have marked WONT FIX. Only by being unified can we maybe avoid the same problem with the N9 or some other Nokia phone. Only by being unified can we get Nokia to start to use their pocket calculators and estimating goodwill loss from abandoned customers. Only by being unified can we get Nokia to consider the damage from getting too many developers irritated, since the availability of good software really is important for sales of new phones.

So what are we? Are we Nokia fan-boys making fun of users who get into troubles? Or are we helpful people who do try to help users when they get stuck, but at the same time makes sure that Nokia gets the message that the blame for the mess is to 99% Nokia?

You are basically saying that it is an end-user problem, and not a problem caused by Nokia. That really is the implication of your statement. And indirectly, that means you are on Nokias side, and not on the N900 owners side.