There is a very important difference, and it's not package formats or technology I'm talking about. It might be more open source-wise (it has the (dis)advantage of not being tied/developed with a single vendor product in mind), but focus and community-wise it's a completely different matter, and (IMHO) a huge step backwards compared to what maemo.org is/was (if I want to draw parallels, I'd say we're closer to a parliamentary monarchy, while meego.com is a feudal system with a BDFL approach). The project goals/workings (still) have not been properly communicated, and IMHO this is one of the reasons MeeGo reception is somewhat polarized - there are still plenty of people who don't quite grasp what is MeeGo and how it affects them.

In that sense, I'm glad to hear news about MeeGo, esp the (soon to be CE) DE and the bigger-impacting technological changes, but I wouldn't lull myself into MeeGo itself being (or looked at as) all that much 'closer' to the NIT lineage than, say, Ubuntu or NITdroid is.