First, to try and pull this back onto topic, while the original poster said "Android" he obviously meant "Droid" and he is looking for a comparison between the two phones.

From an average user perspective, most of us don't care if the OS is open or closed unless by being open it adds something to our capabilities. We care about what the phone hardware plus the OS plus the available apps can accomplish. For example, the Droid can run Google's maps with turn by turn directions. That is a capability. We don't care if it's open or closed, we care if it's available or not available.

If I wanted to develop for my phone or for the broader community of users of my flavor of phone, the openness of the OS becomes significant. However, unless the Maemo community can demonstrate some capability that you can add to the N900 because you can get root, it is irrelevant to the average user.

So, can anyone take up the challenge and offer romanianusa a list of capabilities that he can utilize if he buys the N900 which he will not have if he buys the Droid?