I got one N900 and I don't see why it's a bad small PC, let alone a really bad one. Granted, most interesting tasks involve accessing a remote machine via ssh, but you can still toy with (for example) ipython, the shell and, in general, a good number of Debian packages. What is bad about it? (Pricing shouldn't qualify as part of the diagnosis.)

If anything, I'd say it's a so-so phone =).