I've always been a fan of Nokia phones, Symbian is far from perfect but it does the job...there are plenty of applications to download and it works fine for me. When I heard Nokia was going to release a Linux-based phone I knew one thing...I had to get it!

The idea of being able to run Linux applications on a phone is awesome, just open some terminal screens and do whatever you like, start VPN's, use SSH to connect to remote servers, use nmap to scan networks and so on...

I'm also fond of the whole open-source idea, I like to decide for myself what I want to download/install instead of having for example the Apple Iphone. Apple decides for you what you are allowed to download/buy from the App store...it's user friendly and you are almost sure of high quality apps, but i'd like to choose for myself. If I wouldn't have bought this phone i'd probably get an Android.

I've been using the N900 for a couple of months now so I felt it would be a good idea to write a little review with the advantages/disadvantages and the applications i'm using.

Advantages:

• It's Linux! Whatever application you run on your servers/pc you can run on the phone.
• Good multitasking, you can run lots of applications and it's fast.
• Qwerty keyboard, for typing e-mail/sms this is pretty nice.
• SMS Application...I love it, but i got used to sending short messages with just an "OK" or "NP" and so on...I thought I had a unlimited sms plan with my provider, but ended up knowing it's just a fair use policy with a 1000 sms limit...I sent 2000 in a month ! (And felt like a teenage girl with too much spare time)...now i'm staying within the 1000 limit ;)
• Touchscreen works just fine, I was used to using T9 but it's good.
• The repositories offer you lots of applications, games, and most of them are for free.
• Root access on your phone.

Disadvantages:

• When you decide  to use the "devel" repository you gotta be careful what you are installing, there's alot of apps that make your phone do funny things.
• You got 32GB of memory for storage...and only 227MB "rootfs" which alot of applications are using, I had problems where I ran out of memory and couldn't upgrade my firmware.
• Sometimes you need to use the command line for troubleshooting apps, I love it but it's not really user friendly.
• It's a phone for technical people, you can't expect users to use the command line for solving some things.
• When I use the e-mail app to sync all my e-mail accounts, it only syncs the mail and not the calendar...I need to start the "mail for exchange" app to do this, kinda annoying.

Applications i'm using:

1. PokerTH: Nothing beats a quick game of poker, you can set the gamespeed very high so playing vs computer is fast.
2. Zoutube: Good app to play youtube video's, you can also download them.
3. Witter: The best Twitter application I found for the N900, you can tweet, retweet, direct message, etc.
4. Gainroot: Of course you want root access, this does the job.
5. Gpodder: If you like podcasts you want this, if you never tried podcasts then you should. I love listening to podcasts about networking, security, cisco, microsoft etc.
6. Dr. noksnes: It's cool to run Super Nintendo games on the N900, Mario Kart anyone?