Whenever I hear about a new nifty OSS package, nine times out of ten I can type "apt-get install package-name" and get it within a matter of minutes under Debian; no dependency hell, and no worries about incompatibilities. Maemo has not disappointed in this respect, and I fear for the future of Linux on MIDs if people seriously think that RPM is a superior solution to DPKG+APT. Granted, I haven't used an RPM based distribution in years (I haven't needed to; Debian inspired my traditional signature of "The more I use other software, the more I like Debian"), but from what I've heard and seen, there's no reason to d suspect that moving to RPM and anything but apt will be anything other than a downgrade..
# apt-get update Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle Release.gpg Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Translation-fi Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Release.gpg Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Translation-fi Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle Release.gpg Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Translation-fi Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Translation-fi Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle Release.gpg Ign https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Translation-fi Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Translation-fi Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Translation-fi Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Release.gpg Ign http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle Release.gpg Ign http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle/amsn Translation-fi Ign https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Translation-fi Ign http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle/tcltk Translation-fi Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Release.gpg Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle Release Ign https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Translation-fi Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle Release Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle Release Ign http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle Release Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages/DiffIndex Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages/DiffIndex Ign https://repo.codemages.net ./ Release.gpg Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages/DiffIndex Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages/DiffIndex Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages/DiffIndex Ign http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages/DiffIndex Ign https://repo.codemages.net ./ Translation-fi Ign http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle/amsn Packages/DiffIndex Ign http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle/tcltk Packages/DiffIndex Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Release Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Release Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Release Ign https://repo.codemages.net ./ Release Ign https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Packages/DiffIndex Ign https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Packages/DiffIndex Ign https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Packages/DiffIndex Ign https://repo.codemages.net ./ Packages/DiffIndex Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Packages Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Packages Hit https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com ./ Packages Ign https://repo.codemages.net ./ Packages Get:1 https://repo.codemages.net ./ Packages [70,8kB] Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages Hit http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages Hit http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle/amsn Packages Hit http://www.amsn-project.net fremantle/tcltk Packages Fetched 70,8kB in 10s (6541B/s) Reading package lists... Done W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/repository.maemo.org_extras_dists_fremantle_free_binary-armel_Packages) W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/repository.maemo.org_extras_dists_fremantle_non-free_binary-armel_Packages) W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/repository.maemo.org_extras-testing_dists_fremantle_free_binary-armel_Packages) W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/repository.maemo.org_extras-testing_dists_fremantle_non-free_binary-armel_Packages) W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems Nokia-N900-42-11:~# apt-get install uae Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: uae: Depends: libhildon1 (>= 2.2.10) but 2.2.3-1+0m5 is to be installed E: Broken packages (...and SO ON WITH MANY PACKAGES)