Oh don't believe those bunch of halfwits (engadget and gizmodo for that matter are truly awful websites). You can find much better reviews of the N900 out on the interwebs.
As for software its Linux in your pocket... how cool! The web browser is Mozilla based and the best browsing experience in any mobile, the email client could be better but it's only a matter of time until some one ports a better client to it and on the subject of 3rd party software that to is coming along nicely but still in its infancy (the N900 only came out a couple of weeks ago!).
The N900 has its "issues" but then so does every smart phone.