im newbie on the os but not in the phone features and the specs of it.. i know which phone is better and what is not...

i used to own an iphone(return it after a week)... and i can say... iphoniacs are the newbie one... they keep on defending their phone... even they don't know how to compare the specs and features of a phone.. and that is what you called newbie....

Only geeks use linux Nokia N900 OS is maemo 5, Maemo 5 is Linux, N900 is for geeks.

That has absolutely nothing to do with it. Android is Linux too, but I would say that it is a lot more Newbie friendly than WinMo devices.

The N900 is for geeks because we are not averse to finding solutions like the one offered at the end of this thread for the functionality that has not yet been implemented on the device:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34052

yeah, but its the general perception if linux.
people tend to think if something is linux, its geeky.
i'm not saying the n900 is a geek-device because its linux, i'm saying other people think/say its a geek-device because its linux ;>

android is linux too, but i dont remember anyone advertising android as linux.

Maemo is still a little "rough around the edges" in comparison to the iPhone and also possibly to Android.
However, the N900 has WAY more potential (even in it's current form).

The place that this is most obvious for me is in the phone functionality. Compared to any of the other recent Nokia phones released in the past 3-5 years the N900 is miles behind (groups, voice dialing, custom ring tones etc).
Many of the apps that are currently in Extras-testing are VERY geeky in nature, but I think over time that will change.

The other thing is, that, as Maemo is such an open platform, there are Community apps appearing in Extras-testing that are designed to overcome some of these shortcomings (and there will be more in the future?)
The cool thing about this is that Nokia can now get real data as to what it is that end users actually want from the download numbers, and then approach the author of that utility about including it in the "base" OS (or at least that is how I would do it).

GAHHH, yet more Americans who don't understand handset pricing. *All* top Smart phones cost around 5-700($/€/£) unlocked when released.
Over here in Europe, you can get the N900 for *Free* (if you are willing to sign up for one of the more expensive plans, i.e. something similar to the iPhone one!)

DISCLAIMER: I have a loan N900 from the Summit and found that it is the perfect device for me as it is a "mobile Linux computer, with a built in phone".

bcuz wat is a repository??

I don't know why the thread title says geeks AND newbies, surely you mean geeks NOT newbies.

Anyway, I think the reason is that although the N900 looks at first glance as easy to use as iPhone or Android, whenever anything goes wrong, or whenever you have to do something advanced, you might have to use the terminal or other things that might seem obscure to non-geeks. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way, but I can see people put off if t.m.o every day when they're told to use the terminal or install a .deb.

[citation needed]

The size for a start. The N900 is one hell of a brick. Sure, compared to what we call over here the Nokia Fridges (the previous IT and the Communicator range), the N900's dimensions can appear to be diminutive. But compared to the average phone that "normal" people use, it's a beast of a device.

The OS, although impressively stable for what is still an experimental device, is still quite immature. The lack of a proper portrait mode is sure killer for a mainstream smartphone. Although I'm a geek and am used to landscape mode, having owned a Nokia E90 for close to 2 years, I have to say that not being to quickly read an SMS or place a phone call in portrait mode (the unlock screen only works in landscape orientation) is really annoying.

Some basic functionalities still need a lot of work. The email client for example is close to unusable with a bog-standard Gmail account (via IMAP4) because of performance issues (which will hopefully be addressed in the next firmware release). It also lacks really basic features such as a search functionality.

The GPS / mapping software bundled in the N900, which is something that most people have come to expect in a high-end smartphone, is extremely poor. Ovi Maps on Maemo is so incredibly slow, sluggish and crippled that it's, in my humble opinion, close to useless. It's certainly the functionality I miss the most from my previous smarpthones (Nokia E90, 5800 and iPhone 3GS).

Maemo sure has a lot of potential. It also already has some really cool functionalities that are anything but geeky and would appeal to the mass-market. But it still has a bit too many rough edges in my opinions. It would probably be a mistake form Nokia to market this as a mainstream device. I'm guessing that the last thing Nokia would want is to see is Maemo labelled as yet another failure that's buggy and rushed to market.

I'm personally using the N900 as my main smartphone even though I've also got an iPhone 3GS but that's because I'm a geek, I really like the open approach that Nokia is taking with Maemo, I quite like the UI concepts in Maemo 5 and I just don't get on with the iPhone for some reason. I'm on the other side very hesitant in recommending the N900 to other people as I really feel that it's a tad too geeky and too rough for now. Should hopefully only take a few months before Maemo graduates though.

Until you can fit a laptop in your pocket, it is not.