For around a year I used an iphone. I really liked my phone, I jailbroke it and set it up just the way I wanted to.

1) I synced it with my documents folder on my computer.

2) I used it as a backup device for my work computer.

3) I set it up to edit my documents.

4) I used it for tethering an internet connection at home and work and wherever I go.

I travel a lot and all my work was on my iphone ready for my. Then one day my partner connected my iphone to the computer and did me a favour and upgraded the operating system to 3.1.3

I was locked out from the iphone and could no longer jailbreak it. It turned into a dumb phone that was unusable for me. I no longer had access to my documents on the phone and there was no possibility of having access to that document because the hackers who jailbreak the phone decided that they will not jailbreak new iphones with 3.1.3. I couldn't even tether my internet connection.

I gave my iphone to my partner and followed advice by people on slashdot to get an n900.

Out of the box it was more useful for me, but when I installed a couple of unix programs it became the perfect handheld companion. I had a unix workstation at my fingertips. Amazing.

I only wish that someone would port procmail, fetchmail, and mutt, without having to install the easy-dabian.

when i had ihpone i was so fed up with its battery life, you could drain it it couple of hours with moderate use. of net and games.
Appstore isn't anykind of promised land of good and useful apps and games, theres tons of games that are copies from each other and apps.that are not so useful. Free and good isnt synonyme for appstore,

Iphone without jailbrake is like life in jail and even better days with jailbraked iphone feels like youre on barole.

So choose life, choose N900!

What a pleasant surprise compared to all the threads complaining about silly issues with the N900 (most of which could be resolved with a bit of effort on behalf of the user)

To me you guys sound like people that need a "little bit more" from their device, so I think its no wonder you're feeling at home with the N900.

I know if I ever switched over to the iPhone I'd probably enjoy the stability and UI of it, but once all that eye candy wore off I'd like to actually get something done on it. which I couldn't do.

The N900 hasn't just put me off the iPhone, but also any other Nokia provided handset as there's just no going back from this amazing experience. I just cannot go back to Symbian, eventhough it offers more functionality than most smartphone platforms. To me the N900 is a great blend of eyecandy and functionality. Winning combination for me!

Mutt should work for you (I use it with gmail as my only mail client on the n900). I do not remember exactly how I installed it, but I might have followed this post:

http://forums.internettablettalk.com...83&postcount=1

swdinitively n900 is "the.devide" for those that like unix like systems. is still a litle way to be done, but I am adicted to this phone. furthermore when t is so easy to pass from applicatioms writen for limux to maemo ir makes as if your on computer is all the time in your pocket.

just amazing!

ive never even considered buying and iphone and will never. its such a controlled platform you at the mercy of Apple, **** them. symbian was very good (my n95 8gb is best phone i ever used), but the reason people found it bad was due to the operators custom firmware, so in that respect i think its good apple dont let operators customise the phone and spoil the experience.

but the n900 is the ultimate device, coming from using all the nokia tablets this is a dream, a unix box at my fingertips means my phone will do anything I want it to, when I want it to how I want it to, afterall I have paid money for it!

3.1.3 has been cracked already, he's holding off releasing it until the ipad has been released as it's likely the same crack will work with the latter too.

I did the opposite, i sold my n900 for an iphone, i have been loyal to nokia for 15 years but the iphone does more for me, simple as that.

No hardware keyboard. Fail.
Lower resolution LCD. Fail.
Can't play xvid / wmv. Fail.
Need to use itunes. Fail.
No MicroSD slot. Fail.

There are many more reasons why iPhone isn't for me.
At the end, iphone is like a console. N900 is like a PC.

I'm a PC.... (oh. is this only for Windows? lol)

There's a copy of mutt in Jebba's etch repository that's been compiled against the maemo extras repository. You may also find other stuff you're after in there.