Then don't use it. apt-get, aptly, et al are all available, even allowing you to install multiple apps at once.
Not really. If you mean maemo-specific, you could be right, and at which point I'd make the quantity vs quality argument. Otherwise, I'd say we have 250,000 apps available by using easydeb -- practicality is a different argument
Relative. Explain why it sucks and we may be able to improve it. Too lazy to find the posts right now, but some people have already made improvements to the default player by adding plugin support as well as equalizer support. Yet still, others are creating alternative players or porting pre-existing ones.
What is "real"?
Granted PR1.2 is delayed, but in a few months time we've already gotten 2 firmware updates. How many times has Android 2.0 been delated for say, the TMobile's Motorola Cliq for example?
Also, the community support is pretty stellar. Case in point being fmms, vertsms, forementioned mediaplayer mods, fm-boost, and a host of others.
Mine isn't. Alternatively, while it isn't recommended, some are overclocking there device with significant results. I seem to recall there being a thread on making desktop transitions smoother as well.
What software isn't? Can't say much other than that considering I don't user/need sync software. SSH FTW.
Perhaps this should be [included] GPS software lacking? There are already alternatives such as Maemo Mapper, Sygic, Navit, and browser-based google maps.
...

If the N900 was the original poster, I imagine it'd have responded as such about users:
- impatient
- too lazy to write apps for me but has enough time to complain about said lack of apps.
- complains about my current state, but not willing to report the issues so that I can become better.
- keeps comparing me to hardware that has been out for years.
- illiterate -- or ignorant in that they fail to read already available information about me -- that or thought the product box said IPhone

Why are you here? Haven't you sold your device yet and left? Or did you ever own one?

The App Manager is actually quite quick, especially when the list of apps is small. It slows a bit when you enable the extra repositories because you're adding thousands of programs. So, you can't have it both ways.

The music and media software has played everything I've thrown at it without a glitch. The UI has always been responsive and the auto-focus feature works well. It works a lot better than most other phone cameras, which have a fixed focus.

As for GPS software, yup, OVI maps suck. But there are plenty of alternatives (Maemo Mapper and Sygic to name two).

As for "Lack of updates/support", I ask you again: Name one other phone you've had that's had 2 updates in the first 6 months it's been on the market. This device has had 2 already, in under 6 months, with a 3rd looming around the corner any day now. Can you name one other device that's had that much support?

I was wondering the same thing. I must not have done my research properly -- how would I go about it?

I think this bit of woody14619's post is a great example of what the discussion between ysss and Texrat was all about.

And in an utter turnaround it has not once played an h.264 video (even low resolution) that I've made using handbrake, and its music handling capabilities are poor at best and horrible when dealing with non-Latin characters.

Well, I think the larger issue is that vendors like Apple have shown long term support for devices, and the out of box experience is superior. To the Internet Tablet division's credit, they aren't nearly as heavily backed by the parent corporation as Apple's iPhone group is.

The point is that "do your research" is a lame answer to this sort of complaint because the only way that I know of to "do your research" is to hang around here for a few years.

I know that one poster above actually suggested that customers should have known things that were mentioned at Maemo conferences. I remember another poster (at another time) actually suggested that customers should know something because it was mentioned in a speech on the radio once (a speech that I never heard, for one person).

Two years? A google search slashes that into a couple of minutes, assuming you're looking for certain things (portrait mode, MMS, etc). I myself took a couple of weeks and new what I was getting into.

That it should take you two years to figure out if a device is meant for you or not is lame...

Feh. I research using this new thing called "reading review articles". They're all over this thing called "the internet".

The complaints were lame as pointed out... non-specific, general...kinda like:

eggs suck;
egg slow;
egg gross.

perhaps I missed the point.

I spent 3-4 months doing re-search (which purely consisted of this forum and the maemo website)
Now: some people won't take advice (my lady told me to wait) and just spring out $600 to get the latest/flashy/coolest phone/tablet out there (@textrat: I agree about the marketing). By waiting I learned there were issues.

If you want to buy the latest. Then you get your hands dirty, or...just complain.

well sure no device does have 2 updates in a halve year But if there are such heavy bugs that i cant use the phone becouse i cant hear my call partner about the call silence bug, or i sit in a buisness meeting and my media player suddenly starts to play, or i use my phone for a whole day and suddenly the desktop doesnt response completly (hildon bug) then for me its a strange Problem.

And if ppl come to this Forum here and complain about the N900 and those selfcalled geeks just calling them trolls again and again without to know what background the writer has.

Maybe he is in the it buisness for years (just saw a thread where a geek called someone a troll and in the "whats your job" thread the "troll" was an developer for the apple OS then sorry guys i just can lough about you.

I dont know why those bugs dont disturb anybody in this forum maybe you use your n900 as little laptop and never did a call with it , or never used it to hear music just hacking code in the little terminal application all day and getting hard about wow its a real linux look top works ..

sorry for this angry words but i cant read about this stupid arrogant behavior anymore.

I must admit, the hildon bug is a bit annoying as is the fact that when I go to "add shortcut" on the desktop, I get two Calendars, two Clocks, two Conversations, two Media Players, and two Photos - what's that all about?