Right, and it's great that there can and will be API compatability between M5 and M6 and MeeGo and even Symbian... but if M5 uses one package manager while MeeGo uses another (and Symbian a third) Nokia are expecting MeeGo developers to package their application three times for distribution.

This is an overhead they can do without, and I'm sure many will come to the conclusion that it's not worth the effort of supporting the M5/DEB system so support for the N900 will rapidly dwindle despite it remaining API compatible with the latest MeeGo devices.

I'm not that bothered about which package manager is used, I've got no allegiance to either, it's just that switching from DEB to RPM will have repercussions eventually unless the N900/M5 can somehow be updated with RPM support in which case this all becomes a moot point.