I am aware of that, at the same time i feel it will take a bit of time before being able to use the modem for phone calls. Until then, another phone is needed. Perhaps it will come the time when we'll be able to start a phone call with a smartwatch or a bluetooth headset

You mean 4 years ago?

Thanks all for the responses!

First to address some of the questions. I love my N900 because it is super functional without ever opening the "store", and using only the FLOSS in the repos, i.e. the 'ecosystem'. I use unison to sync my tomboy notes with conboy, use gpodder a lot (unfortunately some servers have upgraded SSL and I can no longer download episodes from those servers due to an SSL error.) I appreciate the plugin frameworks for IM and VOIP; I had been using it for skype calls and I use 'hangouts' via gtalk. (Of all the issues I have with Google, I have to say that using their IM using an open protocol makes me happy.) I also like the user replaceable battery, the fact that I can take it apart (I should replace the keyboard but I have not found a source that does not charge more for shipping than the keyboard itself; I'm in Canada) and the durability is a real plus. I've dropped it sooo many times and it seems rock solid. I do appreciate the hardware keyboard, but I could survive without it (using a BT keyboard).

I think it will fail soon because I've been having difficulty with the SIM connection which seems to be intermittent; i.e. it sometimes can't communicate with the SIM and I get disconnected from the cell network). This happened twice in the last week, but I'm thinking now it could be occurring when the phone gets damp... Both times it happened when it was in a wet pocket in the rain, but the problem persisted for hours.

I had been following sailfish but it seems N900 folks are not so happy about that; how come? Other than the lack of HW keyboard...

I have a droid tablet I will eventually switch to Lineage to see what that is like, but my tablet use is much more media oriented and I do use (proprietary) streaming apps on there (and hangouts). I find the software in fdroid much more buggy than I'm used to.

So what do people like in terms of a functional phone with a strong FLOSS ecosystem? One that plays nice with my Linux machines would be good (I have my desktop unison package pinned to a super old version to keep the N900 syncing working).

Aside: I'm running CSSU Stable since this is my main phone, has everyone else switched to the CSSU Testing? would it be considered "stable" at this point? I did not know about Leste! That is exciting news.

It's nice to hear so many people are still using their N900s!

I'll keep along and hope this SIM problem does not return if I keep my N900 more dry...

Wait for Pinephone, then you can choose the software of your choice....

Game-set-match !
Let me try to rephrase it...

Perhaps it will come the time when we'll be able to start a Pyra phone call using a smartwatch or a bluetooth headset

with a bit of luck at that point we'll be just 6 years late

For me the main issue is that the experience was too constrained, very similar to Android or iOS. Add the lack of HW keyboard, and at that point the competition has more computing power, more apps, more phone choices, more ecosystem and blah blah blah. I went back to the N900 and struggling since then against parents, friends & co. complaining 'how the hell you are not using Whazzapp???'

CSSU Testing (or even -Thumb) is the way to go now ... I mean, it has been in use for a couple of years already .. can't get more stable than that
It's -devel that you should use with caution.

To pour some salt: I am afraid your 'all telephony functions disabled' will pop up more often and stay...
I had 4 devices dieing this death and as I 'needed' WhatsThat always used a Jolla as secondary device.

Now after the last death in April (or so) I switched this month to a XA2 (not the XA2+ which is still in my drawer) and I can't get no satisfaction!

So if you are still happy with what N900 can offer to you nowadays (HW spec, display size, SSL issues...): get a cheap one from the bay and use backupmenu. You will be more happy!!!
Else ........ idk

I tried this with the OpenMoko, was a great phone(if it even noticed an incoming call) but with a small user base, and they were almost all devs I think, the app situation was too weak and the software bugs were many and never solved.
If Pinephone gets a use base as big and more importantly as active as the one around the N900 fine we will have everything we need; but if we are stuck getting our needs met by say running an Android compatibility layer it adds kludged utility but also signifies a failure of the platform.
I really believe we (Mameo/Meego) were successful because even faint hearted incentivization by Nokia was enough to leverage the large pool of Linux devs who didnt have to tweak existing FOSS code already on github much to develop for the N900.