The maemo (version 5) that comes with N900 by default is most obviously the best supported version for the device itself.

Meego and nitdroid are hacks to make it work on N900 and they both have their own issues with having no full support of the device compared to maemo nor are they recommended for beginners.

What you need to realise that N900 is not exactly a phone, it has some features of what a smartphone would have but its not a phone. For instance, there's no MMS functionality by default, the portrait mode works to some extent (with a hack and applying unofficial/community made updates), the device has a few known hardware flaws, etc.

The N900 would not suit you if you're not familiar to linux environment and/or not willing to learn and be familiar with linux environment as by default the genuine N900 is powered by linux. It is great for as an internet tablet (like its predecessors which never had phone functionality let alone the ability for one to insert SIM card and receive calls, etc) it is subpar in phone operation (as Nokia seems like they have rushed this device out onto the market with high expectations and got the opposite of what they hoped).

As I've said before on a few other threads to keen/new owners of N900 that it is a geek's toy. Everyone has their own opinion of what a geek's toy is but in my case it allows one to tinker the toy to their hearts content knowing full well that the toy may not operate properly in the process of tinkering but its all for the sake of learning. N900 is not really suitable for you if you do expect it to function as a full blown smartphone and should maybe have a look at N9 instead.

Aboveall N900 is a great device if you choose to use it after you have done your homework on what its flaws as well as limitations are and have chosen to live with it due to its `half baked' design. This is coming from a now proud owner of 3xN900 whom has two with SIM cards and is used at times as a smartphone.

buy it. Just be extremely, overly, trmendously (add more adjectives here) careful if you are planning to buy a used one. I have a new and a old one here and the new is massively faster, maybe it's because it doesn't have so many apps but I think it also has to do with hardware age. Also the usb port is fragile and you don't want it to fall out now that nokia doesn't fix them anymore (they do honour the warranty but some folks here ended up with N8's and E7's).

So if you can get your hands on a new one get a new one.

I've bought mine in perfect condition for ~140$ (few months ago) and I would definitely do it again now. Judging by current state oh such devices (non-existant)market, I would probably do the same even +1 or +2 years from now

don't worry about operating system. Maemo is all You need (it's based on Debian), with chrooting to Easy Debian, if You need really specific things (well, running full fledged GIMP or Open Office on You "phone" isn't a small feat). Meego is rather for developers now, and Nitroid for people that need some Android applications. To be honest, I *never* felt any need fro Androids "apps" - You got everything for Maemo, and it's much better than any Android adware crap You may find. There is nothing for Android, that we can't have ported to Maemo.

/Estel

The average price of new N900's has gone up for some months now. The price new in Greece now is as high as I bought it on Dec 2009. 565€ and it had dropped as low as 330€ about a year ago (but vanished from stock in less than a day)

one thing that needs to be underlined is the fact that if you use the N900 with its original Maemo 5 / Fremantle (maybe with a few useful applications like unlimited history, individual ringtones, recaller or so) the N900 is a perfectly fine phone;
not quite as elaborate as a N95 or a 9500, but certainly better then an iPhone or any ANDroid device, as far as (phone) functionality and having your phone fully under control are concerned.
start adding power-kernel, Community Seamless Software Update (aka CSSU) and the like & get ready to have the device crash / reboot in the middle of a phone conversation
ultimately it is up to you to decide whether you want a phone (which seems to be what you are looking for (?)) or a geek's toy, indeed.
keep in mind that the phone is over two years old and that the last firmware update (PR1.3) was released nearly a year ago: the CPU runs @ 600MHz, it has only 256MB RAM and the browser only supports Flash9 and doesn't support JAVA, to give a couple example

wooho! thanks to all of you for your answers and patience! ,..
yesterday I had a birthday party and I was out .. its a very nice surprise to see all this answers.. thanks again to all of you.
first of all I understand that its a pc whit a phone and not a smartphone .. and thats what attracted to me , also is a full Linux inside and also,. it has a good camera whit flash -_- I like taking pictures ..and listen music, audio is pretty good too regarding some reviews),and it has a full qwerty keyboard!,..and I really like the (¨in mine opinion¨) good construction quality, but aside of this ..
,... the capabilities of this pc+phone .. and the Linux running , its very appealing to have it .. sadly ,I have a win xp pc mostlly because I need for my work ( I need to run Photoshop and corel painter and other programs ) .. I was a long time thinking to swich to linux and start to learn ( thats why Im going to buy a second pc with linux :P ).. .. - About the apps .. well yeah,, android has .a lot ... I like their huuuge variety , but to be honest how many of those, I would reealy need and would use? maemo offers a good variety of apps.. and about myself.. I will use skype, internet connection , and some others,.. , and I would love to link to my pc while I m out of home .. but since my pc is a win xp ¬¬ and the ( linux users hide your smiles ,pleass DD ) I dont know n900 would be capable of link to my pc ,since its an xp :P -_-.. but this is not a obstacle to do not buy it .. I also was always think that big modern hardware are mostly for gamers.. ok I like to have 1 or 2 games in a phone .. for just in case ^^ buying a phone just for play games its a nonsense to me .. if Maemo has a good community support , and I will take care to do not over stuff it whit a lot of dumb apps .. I think is a good thing to go!

prices.. yeap its getting expensive everyday .. in ebay a new one is around 300 usd :P
N8 around 380 usd and E7:around 430 usd ( maybe there are some about 400$ usd ..)
but none of them whit the functionality and capabilities of the N900 .. E7 has a crap fixed focus cam .. all in all N900 is still a good warrior ! .
my fear and concern was about community support and understand what is better or more wise to use,.. Maemo, meego or some other ... but I think this was pretty clear thanks for u guys!

buying a used one ... hmmm it cross my mind .. but I think its not worth .. all the money and not be sure that its in perfect condition ..
best regards to all
Vladimir

Nothing wrong with having a windows XP computer, you just need to be more willing to accomodate yourself to the linux environment.

Maemo can be unfriendly at times so you cannot judge maemo as a definitive source of where linux realm stands at . Linux has become so much more friendlier to windows converts and what not. To judge only by using a maemo linux powered device as a view on linux progress as a whole would be to undermine its reputation.

kohrime: I didn't know you had a question about what I said for meego (harmattan) based device. Both N950 and N9 will have virtual keyboard as N900 did. I was told by a few lucky developers who managed to get their hands on N950 that the virtual keyboard (on screen based) is so much more nicer than that of on N900. A few claimed that it was so nice they even forgot N950 had a physical keyboard.

Unfortunately N9 will not have a physical keyboard, unlike N950 and N900 both have physical keyboard which slides out underneath from the screen the N9 will just be like a one piece type of device.

The only reason why I say its unfortuate N9 won't have a physical keyboard is that in case if one installs beta software and the software makes the virtual keyboard not appear, you are pretty much stuck not being able to enter in words (which means chatting for instance will be a no-no). In the case of N900 it was fairly easy to lose the virtual keyboard when one installs international input such as mscim.

Without a physical keyboard on N9, it would probably leave keyboard warriors (like myself) having to fork out extra money to buy a bluetooth keyboard, to carry that extra bluetooth keyboard around and hope the bluetooth keyboard works well with the device.

I checked some sites which offer N900 for sale and quite cheap too.... what makes me suspicious is that some say land of origin is:

1- Finland (that's ok)
2- China (hmmmmmmmmmm)
3- Germany

So my question is:
1- Where are N900 built?
2- In case different origin? Do they differ in specifications?
3- How can one know that he's holding a genuine phone in his hand.

@Finn

i got used N900 with xp in my pc and i am comfortable with it.

1) As far as I know genuine N900 is designed in Finland but made in Korea (South Korea to be more specific).
2) As far as I know of South Korea was the only place where real N900 was produced, they have different hardware revisions but as far as I know of for production based N900 were all in South Korea.
3) The easiest way to know if the seller is actually selling a genuine N900 is to compare the pictures the seller has with your real N900. Fake N900 may sport:

• Weird designs like built-in dual SIM card slots
• Weird underside of the backside cover where there was meant to be two rectangle stickers, one is coloured white and the other is coloured blue. If you're interested, that sticker or plastic bit is for sensor to pick up whether or not the lens door is actually open or not.
• Antenna sticking out of where stylus is meant to be in.
• TV capability
• Does not look like the real N900 (you can check pictures against wikipedia website)
• Java phone, N900 does not have Java capability by default.
• Does not list maemo as the operating system or some other operating system.
• Internal memory capacity as listed does not state 32GB.
• The specifications does not match with reviews sites.
• This, does not look like a genuine N900 at all