I get the feeling this debate could go on forever. While, in theory, I am in favor of complete open source software, in reality I am willing to pay for convenience or capability or credibility in certain cases. I am willing to pay for TurboTax in order to do my taxes because that capability does not exist in open source. Furthermore, if it did exist, I'm not sure I'd trust it.

If Nokia wants to add closed source applications to its devices, it then becomes a decision on my part. Is the total package I'm being offered worth the price and other trade-offs that come with it? After all, no one is saying the handset should be free or open although open source engineering exists.

Frankly, living in the US, the openness and cost of the OS is the least of my concerns. It doesn't take many months of a voice/data plan from any of our carriers to exceed the cost of an N900 or of Windows Vista Ultimate.