That way of viewing things is rather interesting to me as I am one of those people that are considering getting an N900 when it comes out and if it is well received. One of the things I do love about Linux and Maemo in particular as that is the only distro I've been exposed to - is the community support and involvement.

If the N900 would come with a presentational layer that is in lack of better words dead-ended in that it will not continue onto other h/w devices I must admit that I, as a novice, would feel that I would be buying into a device that will soon lack support and s/w updates as focus moves on.

Even a community as active as this can't possibly juggle updates and ports between, what, five?, OS versions (Diablo/Chinook/Mer/Fremantle/Harmattan).

I guess some would phase out - but aren't people still using Chinook and maybe there will still be users clinging on to Diablo after Mer comes out. It still feels like efforts would/could be spread very thin.

I know that my views are simplistic but I also think that I may represent a part of the potential customer base for the N900 and I'm curious as to how Nokia is/will be addressing such concerns).