So you could have argued the N810 was a "first" because it was the first Maemo tablet with hardware keyboard and GPS. And, of course, the N800 was a "first" because it was the first Maemo tablet with camera and stereo speakers.

I'm basically on your side, all this whining is ridiculous. People blaming the N900 for not being what it's not meant to be are telling more about themselves than about the device here...

Anyway, one thing is true: All the buzz about Maemo 5 and how new and fresh and innovative and bleeding edge it is... all rubbish. It's the same old Maemo we've had for years. Look what's under the hood. X11, GTK, DBUS, Telepathy, Modest, MicroB, BusyBox, etc etc... Whats so grand and new about Maemo 5 compared to Maemo 4? They put a new UI on top. Well. That's only the icing and has little to do with the OS. When we speak of Maemo in terms of how long does it exist, how much time did it have to evolve, why aren't these features integrated yet or those bugs fixed... When we do that, we have to acknowledge that Maemo 5 did not magically appear out of the blue in 2009. Not doing so (and quite a few people try this trick) is just wrong.

Having said all that - well, I think it does show that Maemo has a long history and is not the first iteration of a brand new OS. It's rock stable, it's a joy to use (even for me, although Nokia doesn't support 60% of my old tablet-use-cases any longer), I'd even call it addictive. Nothing much to complain about - except that I don't use it as a phone because I hate touch screens on phones.

3rd party video calling was possible on the N900 from the moment it was launched.

would you please ditch your double standards?

To the OP:
Okay, so you ditched the N900, bought a Nexus One and you feel proud of that.
If so, what are you still doing here? Go to the Nexus One's forums and don't bother the community here...

google talk and aMSN.

Your point is?

This 'delusional' phone has a great GPS software since yesterday!

....and the 1.2 firmware is fixing a lot of issues and more enhancements (including video call and a bunch of bug fixes)

so, who is delusional here, me or you?

I think this phone is living up to my expectations!

end of story!

I agree. I loved my N900 for the first few months that I had it, and started to feel disappointed by it. I won't buy another Nokia product in the future (for now). I sold it, and now am a proud owner of my Nexus One.

and I don't understand why some users here get so damn defensive when others don't enjoy the phone. to each his own.

It is the constant complaints, whining and lack of research in to a major purchase that get people irritated and defensive. I'll leave it at that. Frankly these threads should be in "Competitors" or at least separated out to make room for threads with some real value.

It is all about expectations. Depending on what the buyer thought the N900 was going to be versus the reality.

From a leaked PR1.2 User Guide:

Page 100
Plan routes
You can create walking or driving routes, view them on the
map, and get turn-by-turn directions

It looks like PR1.2 will have Sygic maps finally...