Yes! It is!

Well, I tried!

Returning (briefly) to the OP, having owned my NIT for a while now and used it almost every day, i must admit i'd be pissed if i'd paid full price for what i ended up with. It's a fairly decent PMP and internet surfing device, but thats about it for me. I've gone through most of the apps that i have an interest in, and pretty much all of them come up short.

For instance, I 'could' spent a shedload of time trying to get Mapper or Navit to work, or i could just turn on GarminXT, McGuider, TomTom, Route66, Google Maps, Nokia maps or Viewranger on my E90 and simply use them. On the same vein, i'm driving along the road with Maemo Mapper running. BUT... Its downloading its maps through my E90's DUN. The same E90 that has 3-4 FINISHED turn by turn apps installed on it.... WHY am i not just using the finished products?!? And WHY am i having to keep 2 devices charged at the same time while driving?

The point is, as much as i like experimenting, tinkering, and trying to figure things out, a lot of the time i just want the app to WORK and that doesn't happen with the NIT app's. I totally appreciate the work and patience the app developers have put into what they've made (i couldn't do it), but "at the end of the day", they are what they are. Homebrew apps. Unfinished, often unpolished, homebrew apps.

I got lucky, i stumbled across a deal that meant i only paid 80 for my 810. I would have been pissed too if i'd paid anything remotely like 400 for what is, essentially a PMP with internet capabilities. An Archos 5 with 60gb drive would run me about 250 (yes i know about the codec 'upgrade' BS), have the same main functions that i use my NIT for, FINISHED apps, and acres more storage space than my 810.

Some of you piss and moan about the upcoming tablets with Windows, but so what? If i had a NIT form factor device with FINISHED APPS THAT WORK, i'd be all over it, even if it was infected by Windows. I'll be looking real hard at the Viliv's, Samsungs and the other options.

I don't think my N810 is use-less, but its not always use-ful.

it's pretty useless

Of course current hardware dies slowly, it always has. How will the n900 solve your problems?

Stop waiting, buy something that "just works" for you now. This is what I keep failing to understand. Someone either doesn't do the research before making a purchase or has expectations that aren't realistically met. At that point, most people sell it off and buy an ipod touch or a smart phone.

A very few feel the need to fault the device or the community for their problems. The severely deficient expect an apology.

And threads like these are born.

No; I fail to understand why you're still here.

Honestly, I've found that Windows doesn't "just-work" for me. Before I switched to using Linux for most of my stuff I was a Windows person. For it to do what I wanted, I had to hack around with the system way to much (occasionally messing it up) and having to reinstall (didn't know how to restore an image succesfully yet). Then came Vista, what I necessarily knew no longer worked, and after a few months I gave up, heard about Ubuntu. Gave it a whirl and now I'm in Ubuntu most of the time.

Maemo is kinda similar. While I don't find it ideal [there are many many improvements that could be made], there aren't any other alternatives out there for me. I could go with a Windows based one, but from my experiences it's left a distaste in my mouth. And I really don't feel like hacking around with a Windows machine anymore. I was considering an iPhone, but the price plus the fact that I'd have to jailbreak it and deal with updates and all that jazz just to get it to do what I wanted it to do felt kinda pointless.

Maemo is kinda like that.. for example, rotation. It had to be re-hacked everytime there was an SSU update. But at least it's not as bad as what I would have to go through if I were using an iPhone.

Like I said earlier, each user's experience is different. My dad owns a TomTom GPS. I used it myself for several roadtrips, that itself has left an occasional distaste in my mouth and I find that MaemoMapper does a better job as long as you download the maps beforehand. And since I don't have a data plan, it requires me planning the route beforehand. The only experience I've found that's better was when my cousins and I navigated a road trip with his iPhone 3G. And I thought that was pretty cool, though the fact that Apple won't allow background apps and your stuck with Apple's restrictions unless you jailbreak it (leading to my point above) kinda killed it for me.

I did, I ended up buying a vaiop. I did all the research before buying, as any smart consumer should. and followed the forums religiously. but no amount of research will help you understand the inconvenience some people have trying to get things to work as they should. my grip is not so much with the device itself as it is with the development community. so you're right, n900 wont solve my problems. unless it has, a better gps system, working msn, faster/smoother internet browsing, bigger hard drive, maybe a faster processor. but even if it had all that. the apps / games would still look/feel unfinished/halfassed. right now all I need is a portable non-apple media player.

I agree w/ you about vista . I've used it once. I'm still on xp. waiting for windows seven. I have never had to "hack around" with windows for as long as I have been using it. and I use it daily, but mainly for design, gaming, development, work, art, surfing.

but from the moment I had received the n810. once I started loading new programs. it required a lot of work arounds, research, jumping into xterm, red pill, blue pill, pink pill, rainbow pill. fixes, updates, system hangups, system slowdowns, white screen of death.

So I'm curious as to what you had to hack around with in windows, what you were trying to do and how it messed up.

windows does have its share of problems. I've had programs crash on me. blue screen of death. but for the most part, when I want to install things. even the most amateur, poorly programmed software/utiles. its pretty much setup and go.

The only way through that is experience and it's not entirely different between the OS's. Some apps are well reputed, others hose your system. It is difficult to know what can be trusted, which is why the extras repo was implemented. As has been mentioned before, if you stay there you should have no problems. I wish you well with your Vaio.

Not sure why you're refusing Apple hardware out-of-hand; they've appeared less draconian of late than Sony...but that's clearly subjective.