Definitely the fastest and most used method is to develop on the desktop inside of a scratchbox environment. I have a step by step tutorial on how to install the latest SDK version under Ubuntu Hardy at - http://linuxuk.org/node/38

Porting depends on the application. A very good example of porting gpodder to the tablets is given with the python documentation at - http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/docu...emo_howto.html

Hope that helps you get started.