I've had my n800 for about 10 days, and I'm keeping it. :-)

The likelihood of getting a bad unit is anybody's guess. Mine exhibits pretty good build quality. Some screen shadowing, a minor annoyance, is the only obvious deficiency. It's only visible on white screens and under some lighting conditions. As you've no doubt read here, this is an issue with the current screen technology.

To be honest, though, I'm avoiding adding RSS newsfeeds to the borked reader. Even the Nokia team admits it needs to be rewritten.

So that's two small strikes, one of which is fixable and the other tolerable. You mentioned the notorious video performance, too, which we've heard will improve. This is a serious deficiency. I watched an hour-long mpeg and the performance was barely acceptable, as long as I didn't go full screen which caused intermittent freezes. By most reports, the email client is crummy.

The fact is the n800 does a few key things superbly and that is quite enough for me. I surf, do email (through a web client), and read ebooks. Using FBReader is a delight, and in rendering quality the n800 puts to shame my faithful aging Ebookwise/GEB 1150 while offering text as clean as Sony's e-ink machine.

As for Linux, I'm a newbie learning as I go along. That's half the fun, isn't it? In truth, you need no Linux at all to get started. Some software can be installed quickly and easily, while other packages need you to identify a repository. In some cases this means installing separate libraries if you want to get something like the very good Evince reader running. That sounds more daunting than it turns out to be. Installing the libraries for Evince (which displays comics) took me about 15 minutes of searching this forum and making one or two tries, not such a burden, eh?

Learning the n800 interface is child's play. Yes, it's got idiosyncrasies, but it isn't nearly as problematic as some purists have argued. I was impressed by the Newton developer's blast at the Nokia GUI--and he makes many good points--until I got my hands on the n800 and found it plenty practicable. As for taking interface lessons from MS, good lord. Happily Nokia hasn't. ;-)

My chief interface complaint is the physical rocker buttons on the top. They're too small, too tightly spaced and require fussy manipulation. They should be redesigned. The front panel buttons are much better.

I give the device an A- for web browsing, B+ for overall design, and a C- for overall execution (mainly because it's broken in some advertised areas). That said, it's usable and enjoyable today.