Hi Hempla, I can for sure answer you since canola concept was created by me, so I can tell you exactly what I told everyone.

Maemo devices, are great because they are open, and that gives you the power to transform them in something else. We used them daily and it just didn't feel right for Media consumption. Sometime you're on the bus, walking.. there's no room for stylus based usage. Why? because you need precision for that. And finger usage on GTK / hildon is getting better, but still clumsy.
Also to simple media consumption there's no need for a FULL Featured Windows / real desktop metaphor. You want fast access to your media and you really want to consume media, not browser on the internet on that UI.

This is the UI concept, and was very well received by the Users. But of course we did a lot of things under the hood!
1) it's a really stable software. We wanted to provide not a fancy but also Solid application
2) it's incredible flexible. We can plug new backends, create new features pretty fast now
3) We try not only to use but also contribute to the platform, and also to other projects (helping them, sending bug reportings, and even patching some UPnP servers.
4) We improved a lot the Shared media experience, so you can for example slideshow pictures from one upnp server while listening to music from other.
5) We ported libdmap to maemo, and released it for all other devices, so now you are able to see Iphoto sharing, rhythmbox sharings, Tangerine sharings and also Itunes(not 7 now).

In the end, I think it's like frontrow for the OSX or a simplified version of media center for windows. You just don't need your full desktop.. just want the media, easy and simple.

Geatgazoo :

You mean using it while minimized right? because you can press the home button and use maemo while canola stills on the "background". it's there minimized but you can't use it because there's was no way to create a interface with the same usage concept if it was in the application space (touch spots would be in the middle of the interface, smaller, clumsy).

BR

Marcelo