I skipped the previous Maemo steps, but seeing the frustration that has been growing for many long-time maemo supporters and developers over the last 9 months is a pretty clear sign to me that Nokia is doing something very wrong. I've gotten a small feeling for what that might be when i have tried to do a few things to customize my N900 or develop an app and hit a wall due to undocumented or closed components.

It's really hard to have a successful platform when the most enthusiastic supporters are beaten down until they drop off.