Let me post my opinion. I bought the 770 because i wanted a small device to surf the web and read my mails. ARM? Linux? Do i care? As long as it works.
One month later i bought the N800 for the camera (bad choice, camera does nothing, haven't used it ever, unfortunately) and for the raving reviews compared to the 770 (i guess that's all relative as well).
So i bought it to surf the web. Now i not only surf the web, but i make phonecalls, i use it as my PDA, i watch videos and listen to the FM and/or Internet radio stations (no MP3's for me), read my e-books and PDF's on the thing. Occasionally i use Maemo Mapper (still no TomTom replacement), i even start to understand something about Metasploit, nmap, DNS Tunneling.
Ans yes, i've met the Linux side of the IT as well, but do i really care? No!! I just found out that my IT can do a lot more than just surfing the web and i'm loving it.

I hope they will NEVER make this a Linux tablet. <hiding> I never got or will get used to work with Linux.

Just my experience.

Ton.

Edit: Ah, i would LOVE to see a step-by-step Compile your Linux sources for the N800 and Hildonize them for Dummies guide. I still have some wishes to be fullfilled.