N900 will be almost like N97 in size.

With the not so slight difference that the corresponding applications for the iPhone and Symbian do not crash and do not bug.

Seriously. A lot of have been said about the software "advantages" of the N900 is not concrete right now, and so far there is no assurance it will. (Not saying it won't happen either).

Oh ********. Have you used either platform? Safari on the iPhone crashes more than MicroB and Symbian's third-party scene is a joke.

If you get to choose your own subscription, you can get a much better (cheaper) subscription than if you go for a packet deal. Often so much cheaper that you will save in the cost of the phone in about 7-8 months.

That's why they lure you with free or cheap phones. Because they make money on you picking those non-optimal subscriptions.

However, it may be more comfortable to pay $100 a month than $1000 up front, but that's a personal preference.

i voted n900, but that votes really only applies to a mythical 4.1" internet tablet which has a sim slot for data contracts.

i want to buy an internet device, not rent a phone service.

I have about 100 apps, and these that aren´t stable are claws-mail and some beta apps, such as tear. Of course if you choose only stable repos, maemo is more stable than os-x mobile, window$-mobile and a sympian with 3rd party uknown apps.

I use both in a daily basis. And I stand by my comments. Devices:

Nokia e71 running v100 firmware.
iPhone 2G with the 2nd firmware.
Nokia N800 with the latest Diablo release.

Abiword crashes as soon as I try to open one of my corporate documents (sometimes I have to pull the battery off because the tablet hangs so hard it doesn't reset itself). Gnumeric works so-so until I try to work on a formula across multiple sheets. That doesn't happen on QuickOffice neither in the iPhone or e71. Oh, and they can open Office 2007 documents too (not that I use them, but some co-workers send those).

I know you hate Symbian due to the awful experience with your 5800, however for a lot of people is a good platform with stable, and mature apps.

Edit: I am going to extend a bit my comments with this: A lot of you are rightly enthusiastic about your personal projects or favorite applications or the capabilities of Maemo and the capabilities of the next device. Which is very good, because I myself am interested and that is the reason I bought an N800 and I am posting here.

However there are some very basic, must-do things that Maemo should do if it wants to be taken more seriously, and it is not doing right now, and no one seems to be caring about those. Things that every competitor is doing. Among that: a fully integrated PIM suite with direct and wireless sync to Exchange, Lotus and Google. A set of document editors, to read and create complete documents, spreadsheets and presentations in a fully usable manner. And applications that are not in beta or alpha permanently. Part of the reason many people prefer commercial apps is because they expect them to be solid and to have support, and their money guarantee that (at least solid).

I think the platform war isn't really useful. You can do great stabile apps on Symbian and the iPhone and on Maemo 5: the glory/blame falls much more on the individual app. developer side than on the platform side as such. I think all of them can provide a very stabile experience. (As well as an app that crashes the first sign the user is thinking about touching something...)

I think part of the problem is that people expect Maemo to be a 'better' Symbian, just like many people on the desktop expect Linux to be a better Windows that Windows. Unfortunately, the distances between these platforms (and I'm not talking just about technical differences) is really large, and while I understand people just wanting to do what they usually do, seldom does fitting tractor tyres on a sportscar give good results.

I agree with this. However, there is a difference between "better" and "equivalent" that needs to be taken in account, I think.