I have spent little over 2 weeks on this forum and find huge value from it, tonnes of smart passionate people here who want to see Maemo and Nokia be successfully. The only hangup I have is the worldview.

I have read many posts describing Maemo devices as not meant for the mass market, but rather it is meant for tech junkies. I can see the value proposition of the n900 (or any Maemo device) to a techy. It is a real OS with all its functionality open to you.

My question is can the n900 and future Maemo devices be more than a cool toy (tool) for a techy? Can it be a mass market device with broad appeal. Can it be both?

If the world were perfect what would the community need to meet the needs of both niche users and mass market? I think we need to think openly about what the open source community at large has done as well as what 'closed' competitors have done.