While I don't like the idea of anything on my Maemo device (phone or not) making it irreversably dependent on an "always on"-connection, I don't really have a problem with the idea of ads.

See, right now, to get a cheap phone, I have to pay the carrier; renew my new contract for another year or two, sign up to a data plan, whatever. It's money. I can refuse the deal and pay the full price.
If I get an option for the same cheap phone by simply having part of my home screen reserved for an ad - why not? As long as there's still the possibility to get the ads-free version at full price.


The other thing that sounds bad is that the ad isn't removable, which somehow feels wrong in the context of a "free" operating system. You expect to be able to hack your device, don't you, and even more you expect to have full control over the home screen.
I don't know how they'd implement it code-wise, but I remember Nokia saying that free code may end at the level of the user interface. That's not news to us. We knew they'd probably build a proprietary UI on top of the free components... and an ad module being hardwired into this proprietary UI doesn't taint the free components or make them less hackable.

So if these rumours are true, as long as it's an option you can choose to keep the price down I'm happy with it.

And in general... I'm too busy getting my old brain to love Fremantle, I'm not inclined to worry about unconfirmed rumours that may or may not affect a device that may or may not be released 2010/2011.