I did too, like all early adopters. The most charitable thing that can be said about OS2005, in retrospect, is that it was somewhat "experimental" :-)

Indeed.

I believe either one will be so good and powerful that it would not be worth to compliment it with the other.

One might do e.g. N97 + N8x0 (for bigger screen & Linux liberty). Or N900 + cheap telephone (phone capabilities).

I dont think the n97 will be that powerful, considering that it is not going to use the high end arm processor on the n900, and having the phone seperate is really nice. I have the n810 and the n958gb. I use the phone for the camera, music and sometimes basic gps via gmaps. But browsing, videos and apps... the tablet is best in its class. I just want more fluidity to the experience and that will come via the updated processor.

I just hope nokia release n900 with diablo and then later on make the fremantle update.... i just cant wait anymore. I have also considered the archos 5 tablets in the interim

This is probably the most important aspect of all. Everything said here by more or less official Nokians about why an "N900" wouldn't be released sooner (spell: CES) etc. etc. does make sense to a certain degree and I can live with it. Or rather: I could live with it if they'd given us something to spend money on in 2008. That is the reason for my frustration, not the late release date of the Maemo 5 device.

I'm not a developer myself and have no experience with other projects or communities, but there's one thing I always found odd about the Maemo ecosystem:

Community members expect Nokia not only to take the lead, but to actually do things themselves. On the other hand, when it comes to implementing things requested by users, Nokians always point out that this is an open platform and they expect "the community" to handle these things, while Nokia only provides a basic experience.

This is an impression I got from the early days (I bought my 770 in early 2006). Things do change right now. In fact, change started during the first half of 2008. But there's still traces of "But first Nokia has to..." answered by Nokia's "Do it yourself if you want it."

Why do I point this out?

Because it indicates a lack of role allocation. What's new for Nokia ("being open") is new for the community as well. People know how to work in a community that's completely open. People know how to play by the rules in restricted communities (like developing for S60 or jPhone). And of course people know how to work in communities that definitely act against the intentions of the company producing the hardware (hacking game consoles etc.).

What we have is different. We don't fight Nokia and hack a closed device. That would be easy: No help expected, all done by ourselves.
We also don't really work on par with Nokia like we would if this were a normal free software project. And we don't even have clear guidelines like "you do the software if you want, but stay out of the platform, will you?" as in controlled communities.

It's a little bit like a kid being confronted with a teacher or a parent who tries not to act authoritarian but doesn't know how else to handle the responsibility. The teacher/parent will make a lot of blatant mistakes (as did Nokia), but in the end, the child will get confused and will not know what it should do, what his role is.
Of course the community is not a child in terms of being immature, but it's still growing. And the community is confronted with a partner who, at least in the beginning, didn't know how to handle his own role in this partnership. Such a situation always affects both parts in a negative way.

This is my explanation for several weaknesses we still have in the Maemo community even though the project started quite a while ago. Maybe somebody at Nokia had similar thoughts... after all, a lot of the work they did in 2008 focussed on defining roles, even words. And it seems they are about to change some of the rules yet again with Fremantle: There are some statements indicating that maybe we'll have more openness not only in code, but also in the development process.

I would hope that the WiMAX fiasco would be the right kick in Nokia's a*s; I'm starting to see some modular, although proprietary-bus looking, products that have Bug-like components. But it seams by the current state of the cellscape that we'll see each other in Hell before we'll see a swappable cell radio. I guess what I'm really trying to say is: F*ck you FCC and f*ck you cell industry. "You're doing it wrong." I want to eat my cake. Can I have my cake now? Here, here's some money. Now give my my f*ckin' cake. I have this nice, chilled glass of milk just waiting. Whew, I feel much better now, thanks.

I want to make sure I'm very clear here.

I'm not even referring to the N900 or anything close-- I mean take the N800 itself and polish a few aspects. Improve video speed. Increase onboard memory. Upgrade to the BP-4L battery. Change to a transflective screen. Reduce size and weight a bit if possible. Things like that. But KEEP the current features like FM radio. An "N801" so to speak.

I believe the N800 form factor still has legs. I do not understand the decision to completely move away from it. I think there should always be at least two form factors at any given time: with keyboard and without. There should also always be some overlap between release schedules, and NEVER gaps.

on that return rate thing,

iirc, it was msi that claimed 5:1, not asus.

if you think the eeepc or aspire one distros are bad, the wind distro was a nightmare. missing drivers are just an example...

You don't understand the decision because you're not thinking like the people who made the decision.

on that community thing, i suspect it has as much practical as social issues.

even now with thee ssu's, there are still to much heavy handedness on nokias part, making it hard for any potential community to make its own fixes...

@Textrat:

I don't know how Nokia let you go. They should have found something for you, or they should have worked with you to redefine your role. Something. I'm glad you've decided to stay active here; I'm not sure that I would have. Anyway, many of us feel similarly about the n8x0 platform. Nicely said. It's that damn keyboard, isn't it? The funny thing is, I would probably own an n810 if they just left some kind of d-pad on the front. That's my show-stopper. I never would have thought I was that picky...

@Nokia:

Nokia is not perfect (except for my ex-wife, who is?), but they're in a class by themselves. "Nobody does it better" for this platform; there is no where else to go and they deserve all the credit for this. I don't want Nokia wasting time blazing software trails, I want them blazing hardware trails. My instincts tell me they're going to hit a home run with the hardware refresh (d-pad out ). But I'm tired of my instincts and I'm tired of their finessing-the-market mumbo-jumbo.

<shouting>Hey. Nokia. It's not a race to the Moon. Your reasons for all the hush, hush seem to be bordering on paranoia. And the irony is that I feel the lack-there-of (paranoia) is your biggest strength. You almost seem to encourage your customers to remain hardware/software agnostic; as if you actually believe in some form of competitive, free market. Bravo to you. That's why I'm a customer 'cause I can feel that. Now, cough up some hardware specs and shut me the f*ck up.</shouting>