I think there is an unstated concern underlying Silvermountain's posts that some of the subsequent posters are ignoring.

AFAIK, NITs are unique in the following way. Other near-totally-open Linux installations are on generic hardware that wasn't built for Linux. (I'm excluding, for example, Android and embedded Linux as not "near-totally-open".) The deep-into-FOSS posters are accustomed to servers and desktops and laptops -- machines that would be built or could be assembled even if Linux sucked or had too little software to interest many "mere users."

The unique issue here is that if Maemo and the software that runs on it does not attract enough users, then the hardware itself disappears. That doesn't just mean the loss of the hardware but the loss of the ability to have an open-source environment on such nice hardware. There is no corresponding threat to Linux on PCs. None of us are able to build a pocket-sized Linux computer like we can build a desktop PC. As a result, "FOSS purism" is possibly a threat to NITs in a way that it isn't a threat to Linux/FOSS in general.

I don't get that Silvermountain is overall disappointed in the experience, but sees holes in the offerings and support and wishes not only that it were better for himself (you can't argue with such a wish, even if you find the NIT a continually renewing Christmas present) but that it were robust enough to ensure a big enough following to make it worthwhile for Nokia to keep building us these things.