I know other devices can do this as well … but together with all the other use cases and freedom … there’s not much competition.

I was so sceptical. Incredibly sceptical. Will it be yet another Symbian experience? On the other hand, it’s one of those commercial cell phones where you have the most freedom. I looked at Android, but didn’t like the limitations they’ve put on top of a Linux kernel. I ended up getting an N900. At least, I could hack it more easily than any other phones available … and that *without* jailbreaking it. This was in the end my argument for going for the N900.

This is now almost a year ago. Do I regret it? No not at all! It’s been one of the better experiences I’ve ever had. Yes, the OS do have bugs from time to time, but the bug tracker is alive and active, and I do see that things reported there are getting fixed. I can even feel it myself. And I now have a device I can connect to via secure shell (ssh) to do more advanced stuff from a computer. I’m running OpenVPN on it to connect to work or my home network. I’m using it to ssh into devices I’m a sys-admin for when I’m on the travel, to check out critical issues. I’m online on several IM and VOIP lines whenever I’m online (which mostly is via WLAN). It’s simply fantastic! Nokia’s slogan “Connecting people” has raised the bar to another level again. And the software repository is growing steadily, with mostly quite useful applications.

The only thing I dislike that a lot of the applications I hoped would be open sourced, is not – like the calendar application. I do have several ideas for enhancing it. On the calendaring side there’s not much F/OSS alternatives available yet (and I don’t have time to write one).

But then MeeGo came, and it seems all the efforts is placed here. And the N900 is upgradable to MeeGo, so it’s yet another layer of freedom. I’m not even locked into maemo5. In fact, it’s even some people having been working on MER as an alternative to maemo5. But I believe MER will disappear, as I think MeeGO covers a lot of the issues MER tried to solve.

So the N900 gives a freedom I’ve never seen on a commercial selling cellphone. You have of course OpenMoko based phones, but that’s more conceptual phones and not really comparable. N900 is a commercial success compared to previous attempts.

And the N900 hardware itself? I’ve had no issues with it. The only “annoying” thing is that it drains the battery quicker than other phones I’ve had, and it is a little bit chubby. But then again, what’s the alternative device to carrying a microcomputer (in shape) with a feature set pretty much comparable to a laptop with a mobile phone built in in their pocket and can stay connected for 24-32 hours constantly? It’s not many products who fits into this frame. If the next-gen N900 only gets slimmer with at least the same feature set, it’ll be even closer to perfect.

But all in all … N900 is really great. And I would have done the same choice today, because there are no other cellphones on the market who can provide the freedom N900 can with a good user experience. And I’m looking forward to see MeeGo taking off.

You don’t see it here or the EU as none of the operators would even contemplate allowing a phone with 2 slots officially connect to their network on the off chance one of the sims wouldn’t be theirs.

Arun, the N900 isn’t an S60 phone, it runs Linux. Totally different beast.

A few months back I owned 5800, a phone running on the same S60 platform. This phone convinced me never to buy a Nokia Smart phone again.

At first the phone was great. Its user interface is very responsive. It can do what ever you want it to do. Amazing.

But about 6 months into ownership the bugs got steady irritating. After 6 months, the phone started to miss calls. The calls will come, by the time the phone recognizes and rings, 10 rings are over. It was very painful. I tried reinstalling the OS, resetting the phone. Nothing worked. After about 10 months the phone was missing most of the calls. Thats when i gave it away for what ever price and got myself a Blackberry – Some smart phone that does work. Though it could not do stuffs the Nokia could do.

Bugs are outright irritating. Ill buy Nokia if there just a few bugs, may be 1 a week/month. But not when there are 30 bugs per day of usage.