You asked for it

I try to sync my Google services (contacts, mail, calendar) via Exchange and it fails.

I can sync the contacts & calendar via Exchange occasionally but that means I then can't sync my work email up. (Maemo 5 at the moment does not support multiple exchange accounts)

Gmail via IMAP is incredibly slow. This is due to a bug that if you have a very large Inbox, it tries to process the whole thing.

I'd like to fire up my twitter app and get @ notifications when they come in, but OH WAIT, there IS NO twitter app that would do such a thing.

I'd like to set different phone profiles based on work location & home, and even when I'm asleep except right now there are 2 Profiles. Vibrate or Normal...That's it.

It would also be nice to set specific ringtones for contacts...but wait, I can't do that either.

I got a text message, I'd love to just whip it out and answer the text message with one hand by using an onscreen keyboard with possibly T9....but I can't.

These are what I would consider some normal use cases. Obviously the N900 is a small computer first and phone second. I would not consider it a true mobile device since it doesn't really cater to the fact that you have to have 2 hands to use the device. You can't just be walking down the street, pause, take out your phone with one hand, and do something with it. Nor can it handle things like email that easily, although every other device out there on the market has overcome most of the issues that come from just opening up an email.

Its not a phone, I get it, but its not really a true mobile device beyond the fact that you can sort of stuff it into your pocket.

Moderator - can you paste this into the other "I've got my device" thread?

It just got fun.

It was painful before, having to worry about lugging my laptop around in the Jeep with me day to day just in case I got called.

Now it's all in my pocket. It's really hard to describe just how much something as simple as having everything you do be accessible from a device that sits in your pocket can really change your mood.

must most important of all is vlc that is coming so i can stream tv from home on the go!

Haha all this story needs is a cool 80's theme song. I vote on this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIK3akktLU

@Laughingstok

i feel you!!

i'm not a unix professional but i'm also in the it buisness so i led a very geekish live too somewhat compared to yours, and this is exactly the group of people this phone was made for in my opinion

if you're a normal user expectin just another phone get an iphone. i can live with the small flaws but the features it has to offere .. there is just no competition for it yet!

As soon as Perl gets ported over, I've already written a simple webserver so I can host webpages off it.. if I feel so inclined.

Just another example of what you can do with it. I'm sure someone will get Apache ready for it too, but the fact that I can write my own on it makes it really awesome.

There probably already is a perl version for debian armel, it probably just needs to be optified so it doesn't fill up the rootfs.

Uh, duh...Have you not read anything published about this device? Even from Nokia? They never intended it to go to the general public, it was always designed for early adopters, techies, and developers. N900 is perfect for folks like us. (yes, I'm a Unix systems engineer as well.)

God:

I *love* my N900. It's a phone. And it's a cool Linux box.

I've never sent an MMS, so I don't miss that. And I surprisingly find myself not caring about portrait mode.

That said: the lack of a home button that cycles between desktop, task manager and apps is completely bizarre.

Early adopters, who don't mind very slightly unfinished software, will love this phone.

The funny bit is, people forget how unfinished the iPhone was when it was first released: no apps, no 3G, only a few apps supported portrait and landscape, limited email server support, no mms, no sms to multiple people.

I, and many others, are happy to deal with a slight lack of polish (for now), in return for an enormously capable device.