One of the feelings you get reading threads here about other devices, is that software that isn't open source (and I guess all other commercial items) are evil and not to be welcomed to the NiTs.

Whereas it is interesting have a large open source model on the nokias, and I guess inevitable with the linux roots, it seems a very odd monoculture, and not very helpfull for any platform to have so little commercial support.

For a geek, obviously this is a good thing, but not so helpful for people who just want to do what they want to do, and want the nokia to help them. The people who don't know it is linux, more likely don't care what it is, or in some cases, the people who buy it despite it being linux.

Given the choice between spending £10 on a piece of software that works well and does what I want or spending an evening trying to get some other piece of software to work, I would be happy to spend the money - my time is worth more than that.

Also there is some software that just doesn't seem to happen. GIven that the platform has now been around for quite a long time, the lack of PIM facilities and other software that is in abundance on other platforms is quite disturbing. Lets face it, writing software like that is rather dull compared to games and media players and maemo is harder than a lot of platforms to write for, so why bother if you dont get to do fun stuff.
But it is what a lot of people want.

I am not saying that open source is bad, just that I don't think that commercial software is bad either, and I think it is desirable to have both for the long term health of any platform.

I guess I wouldn't see commercial software is bad. It pays for my food, my house and my toys!