Well, I already wrote two threads about my transition to my iPhone. This one is going to be the most difficult to write: the look back...

Since I have gotten my iPhone 4S all those months ago, I never once put my N900 in a drawer, it sat on my nightstand. Proud. It was exactly the way I wanted it. It had a sense of pride about it. Like Full Metal Jacket, "This is my N900 there are many like it, but this one is mine."

So late at night as I decided to boot up for the fist time in months it hit me that I was an iPhone guy now...

While I love the N900 and the tweakability, openess, customization of Maemo, etc. it just was too slow. It could not compete with the iPhone 4, let alone the iPhone 4S - in almost every aspect.

But holding my iPhone - I feel no sense of pride in what I have done with my purchase. It feels cold, soulless, one might even say Orwellian.

But hypothetically speaking, if the N900 magically got the all the hardware upgrades that the iPhone 4 has - I still couldn't go back. For one simple reason: the iPhone just works.

If Apple got together with the Maemo programmers to not only upgrade their obviously outdated UI and make it open source and factor root access, it would be the perfect device.

It saddens me I can never go back to a world without iCloud (taking a photo/video and automatically having it on desktop when I walk though my front door), Siri, the Google Voice app, banking apps, YouTube anywhere, etc.

But I think there is a silver lining - Apple has gotten cocky, the iPhone 5 in my opinion is nothing special and iOS 6 is a disgrace. I hope that an open *nix based OS will take off from where Apple left off. Maybe someday...

I will return...

I am an opponent of Cloud. For instance, I find it comforting to know what photographs I manually move from phone to desktop, and how I move them, and where they are stored. Occasionally, I wish to have my mail server, so that my emails would not depend on Gmail/Yahoo/Hormail/whatever - but it's too troublesome.
Saera is Maemo's answer to Siri. Though I am not an active user.
Somehow, I don't watch Youtube, much; if I will, it will be in a browser with HTML5 video, not with Flash. Recommended Youtube app on Maemo is cuteTube.
Banking through Internet is not my cup of tea. I distrust 'credit cards' and ATMs, as it is.
I hope so, too. There are many alternatives, but nothing revolutionary, yet. Nothing which attracts attention like no other. Maybe, it's lack of an outstanding hardware platform.
Best wishes.
__________________
Per aspera ad astra...

I think the problem here is not with the N900, but rather that your concept of a cell phone has evolved.

I kinda consider this as an aspect of "feature creep" -- once people see that you can run a particular type of program on a new device, all previous devices become "slow", whether or not they were slow to begin with.

My N900 does not play my podcasts "slow", or handle phone calls slowly, or do any number of other tasks slowly. And I can open a shell and easily log into other machines or edit files in vi on it. It is a perfect portable computer. On the other hand, the iPhone is extremely powerful (especially as it has been updated with the latest hardware, while the N900's hardware is now something like four years old ), runs many cute little apps, and can play media files extremely well; but it makes a terrible portable computer...

The iPhone "just works" mainly because Apple has worked extremely hard to get their software right, by (a) putting massive amounts of effort into designing, implementing, and debugging iOS and its built-in apps, and (b) severely limiting what you can actually do on the phone. Apps are fast because you can't run more than one at a time, because you can't modify them to make them do something Apple didn't design them to do, and because you can't install anything without first going through Apple. In short, you have no control over your own device, therefore you can't do anything that would slow down or mess up your device.

But, if all you want is a little device that runs little iApps, you certainly can't go wrong with the iPhone.

well,according to me "N900 is a phone(Mobile computer in other words) which gives u the control rather than gaining your control "

I use the N900 and an iOS device together. I just got the new iPod touch. It has such a slim size I can carry it around with me as well as the N900.

The N900 is my phone, chat, terminal, and modem/hotspot.

I use bluetooth PAN tethering between the N900 and the Touch.

I find having two devices is great. For example, I can take calls and chat on N900 while at same time use the Touch for screwing around.

I still have the best mobile computer with me at all times and all the latest and greatest apps from iOS.

"That's right, Egg Shen. The best of two worlds!"

Here on maemo.org is so much going on. There is surely one way only to look on our N900: Forwards!

well the UI is outdated but i think there is no solution and no developer is interested in making a Best a UI for it

I remember the OP's other thread. Around that time my contract was up, my n900's usb port was getting loose...I made a hasty decision. 4S or lumia 900.

I've never set my n900 down, it's not with me as often as it once was but often enough to miss it when I don't have it.
The n900 knows how to do contacts correctly and trusts me to manage them. It doesn't try to upload them to the cloud or an exchange server and mix them with others and get confused in the process.
My n900 also allows me to do 20 different things I can't do on an iphone, period.

The iphone on the other hand is connected to the modern world. I can use banking apps or upload coupons to my grocery store's loyalty card to save me money. Or use ebay and paypal with ease.
I can control my Roku, or watch CNN and TED. I can listen to music from tons of services.
Getting recipes, tracking my health and exercise is a snap.
I can play lots of silly little games with people all over the world, not just the ones who know their way around terminal.
Driving anywhere is a joy with an officially supported Waze app. I'm happy to use Teamviewer instead of messing around with VNC, SHH and port forwarding.


Which kind of leads me into Jailbreaking. I found some programs that block UUID uploads and some adblockers. They have kismet too. Did I mention most of these apps crash or cause your non Cydia apps to crash? Good thing they also have crash reporting and debugging tools in the repo. Mostly Cydia is just notification hacks, themes and ringtones. Ugh! I've been reading about jailbreaking for years, and to see it in action it is a disappointment. Even Apple's underground counterculture is all hype and little substance.

I would describe my n900 as a tool or my computer, and I would describe my iphone as a "lifestyle assistant" or toy. As long as you use both devices for their strengths, they coexist pretty well.

Same here.
Elop was right about the ecosystem wars, even if he was fundamentally wrong about his decisions.

I think that Blackberry World and Maemo 5/6's ecosystem are identical; nearly non-existent.
Windows Phone does have a better ecosystem than both, but only marginally better.
Android has a much much better from entertainment to productive Apps (eg Your Bank).
iOS has an even better one, with better quality of Apps. But its slightly more expensive and much more restrictive.

The Nokia N9 and iPhone 4 are pretty even in terms of hardware and software, however the iPhone 4 excels when it comes to customer care, resell value, 3rd party accessory/support and 3rd party services and Applications. Its clearly a better device.

Our definition of a "smartphone" has changed in this last 2 years (ever since the 3GS and SGS).
Now a smartphone isn't just about what its capable of from the original manufacturer, but also from the community/3rd party. Featurephones can do exactly what smartphones do... maybe not as fast, powerful or beautiful but they do do it. The differentiating feature between feature<->smart phones seems to be all about "outside support".

In 2010 the Nokia N9 would've been advertised as one of the best, if not "the best smartphone" on the market. Today, its a glorified featurephone or a smartphone-with-no-future. The Windows Phones had this trouble last year with the 7.5 update, now I can say without doubt they are a smartphone.

/rant
Nokia N8 = featurephone.
Nokia N9 (2011) = glorified featurephone / homeless-smartphone
Nokia N9 (2012) = glorified featurephone.
Droid (2009) = glorified featurephone.
Droid (2010, 2.2 + Many Apps) = smartphone.
HTC HD7 (2010) = glorified featurephone.
HTC HD7 (2012, WP7.5 + Some Apps) = smartphone.

Just a simple thing about the iphone, jailbroken or not... can you ssh into it?
I thought so case closed.