Yes, I think there might be. Specifically, the new Mer desktop is quite nice; I think it will make a nice replacement for OS2008.

I'm quite busy right now, but I'm trying to find time to play with the Mer 0.11 release in my chroot.

I'm playing with the "replace Maemo desktop with Mer desktop" thing right now; I'm trying to figure out the details in my spare moments.

I'll post when I have something substantial.