It is not clear to me why you need a n900 replacement. What are you currently missing?

I have gathered some info and thoughts about possible som/soc n900 daughterboard expansions here. They may be used to build a standalone device as well.
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...46&postcount=2
Still n900 with a remote desktop to a server is powerful if you can afford the traffic and server rent.

Well, my good ol' N900 is slowly dying (I'll try to unscrew it, clean & etc.) so I'll be looking for some replacement.

I'm considering another N900;
Pros:
- a real pocket computer and a phone in one
- runs real Debian/X11 apps (need some of them)
- can code something on the fly (Python 3.4, C++, OCaml)
- hw kbd
- whole lotta disk space (need at least 32G)
- minor, but still - a resistive screen!

Cons for me:
- the biggest one: really outdated browser, fennec is far beyond everyday-usable
- lacks good offline nav (modrana is far from being offline)
- minor: outdated spec (but one can live with it)

is there any alternative satisfying the pros?

N950 would be almost that, but is unpolished, lacks some of the apps I have on N900 and has some weird design decisions.
I'd love to see Debian there, but it's a matter of months at least, I guess

Phones with physical keyboards are rare and those that exist usually have Android as OS.
If you don't mind the solution from debernardis the recent BlackBerry Priv might be interesting. The only current phone that is 'kind of' appealing to me. Seems to be pretty popular as well, so maybe we will see more phones with a physical keyboard in 2016.

For me the N900 is still the best phone around, but I totally agree with the cons you've listed.

I believe ken and peter are on the right track.
And conversation on maemo and it's direction(s) potential and otherwise.
I'd imagine all know my passionate stance by now on getting maemo to pc distro status. (and the belief it could free us to go whichever ways we wish like any other distro...)
there was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuIrRoRPufc
by Martinez
there also was this from long ago... https://wiki.gnome.org/Attic/Hildon
to bring maemo to desktop.
I believe the start of real breakthroughs will come when "freemantle" is finished.
But above and beyond all that.
Looking at what can be done / has been done... with the maemo platform on our devices..
porting this porting that...
Easy chrooting, Multi-booting, etc ...all kinds of os's and all...onto our devices...
Something was scratching at the back of my brain ...
esp. over that interesting "debian on android" alternative posed by debernardis...
Y'know...if we can ...we try to put ..." _ _ _ _" (insert os) onto our maemo devices...
hell...
just to see if we can do it.
Let alone run it optimally...

Soooo...
I'm not sure it's in the remotest possible..
perhaps it has already been posed somewhere here at tmo before...
perhaps there is just too much that bungs-up and it can't possibly work...
since I never tried it....
But has it been considered ...ever...
that we could try our own philo. in reverse...
and run maemo in a chroot on another phone's / tablet's / pc's operating system ...
instead?
Just throwin' it out there..

update:
looky-looing
found that someone already has wandered down this path...
I think it has merit to mine...
at least it has been somewhat tentatively explored for android devices...
https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=76149
perhaps more scrutiny and bending of wills towards this option will net more than just android device usage...

Hmm...

What I really hate about Android is
- the lack of mutlitasking - I freaking don't want anyone to close my apps. I am the one in control!
- the amount of malware - hell, you need an antivir on Android! It's becoming Windowsy even more
- afaik you can't do package management on the command line (apt-get/zypper)

Can one use the core Linux utils in the term (tar, find, grep, wget) on Android?
Is it possible to build any given C/C++ app (even the terminal one)? Assume I'd like to build Haskell/Brain****/Lisp for it.

As for what endsormeans says. The dealbreaker are the drivers. We have so many foss OSes. Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, FreeMantle (possibly), even Debiancould fit. But the first two work flawlessly on maybe 6 devices, none of them having a hw kbd. With the needed drivers and an unlocked bootloader we could have anything anywhere. So a device which supports the mainline kernel could fit.

hmmm...
yeah..
don't like android either for exactly the same reasons...
chrooting maemo onto proper pc linux os's then may have more merit.
It is at least a "foot in the door" to getting maemo running eventually ..natively...on pc's..

Thanks. I have avoided this route, because I assumed that even with a gnu/linux chroot, I'd still be unable to use it as an X11 server. Am I wrong about that? Does installing a gnu/linux chroot allow X11 apps to display on an Android device?

But only a five hour battery life... too short for me, I fear.

Actually, nothing. But the n900 is slow by today's standards (although I should keep reminding myself that I used to apply for grants to pay for CPU time on a VAX 11/780 !) and it's just too easy to exhaust the RAM on an N900 if you start doing anything serious. Once it starts swapping, you might as well give up on whatever you're trying to do.

It's also just worrying to have no obvious upgrade path. Sure, the neo900 is a significant upgrade, and I'll be happy when I can buy one, but it's hard to see that pathway continuing for many additional generations.

I really wish either Jolla or Ubuntu Touch had X11 support.