Or, to look at it another way, NOTHING else can run Maemo for lack of openness in Maemo. We can only hope MeeGo will not fall into this pit.

I have to disagree there. They're AS configurable, if not more. Let's not forget that Android has been, ironically, more open-sourced than Maemo 5. Certainly, it's been altered and hacked a whole lot more, from the looks of the ROM scene around Android versus development on the N900. Where's all the crazy cool apps that work with that glorious operating system? Not on Maemo 5, it appears. Hell--you have a hard time just getting good MAPPING software, nevermind anything else. But digressing back to "configurable": Take a look around at the modding scene and then try again.

You're clearly behind the curve and haven't really been around much. There are a plethora of already much-more capable and powerful handheld devices. Does your N900 have HDMI out? Does your N900 have wifi-n or at least upgradable to it? Does your N900 have strong CDMA/EVDO grade encryption to keep your phone calls and Internet private? Do you even have a CHOICE in that? How many different models of Maemo 5 devices can you purchase at this time? Are any of them available in a larger tablet form?

Mind you--if you're just comparing to iPhones, you might have something of a point. I wasn't. FUD works both ways, lad.

Full fledged desktop OS like Debian? Yes. At least, in the way you mean it--as full-fledged at the N900 has it, yes. There are many, and even Android tablets can run both at the same time the way N900 can run EasyDebian and Maemo at the same time.

Battery time varies from device to device. My Motorola Droid has some of the best time for a smartphone around. That, and it's extreme durability, were the two reasons why I decided on getting it despite the even faster and more powerful choices around. Nice thing about Maemo's competitors is that there are so gosh darned MANY of them that you're BOUND to find some variation that hits on something you particularly favored.

Overclocking on every one of Maemo's competitor's devices is not only possible, but quite easy and very common--well beyond the 1GHz range. I could technically overclock my Motorola Droid to around 1.2GHz, but I'm a bit too paranoid for that and I like my long battery life.. so I only overclocked up to 800MHz for now.

No, really. Get out more--or at least explore the options a bit so you have a more rounded opinion. Just saying--you can't fight EVERYTHING off as FUD, otherwise you become the FUDster.

DifferentLY. The correct grammar is "Think Differently." You're as bad as the marketing people, if you keep repeating it. Especially if that's all you're going to say about it.

1. Yes. If you use a plain old text editor (Android, iPhone, PalmOS, etc) they ALLLLLLL can edit/view raw text files. (i.e. TxtPad in Android) Almost all of these text editors can also do simple search/replace as well.

2. Yes. At least, I know Android can. There's at least half a dozen Launcher (the Google Experience app launcher program) replacements you can choose from... some 2D, some 3D, one particularly popular one even looks a lot like HTC's HTC Experience program launcher. As far as what I've read, yes--they're completely open-source.

3. Yes. You can use Python to communicate with other apps (it's not called a DBUS interface). Generally, at least in Android, people usually write their programs in a Java-like language, but you CAN install Python, Perl, BASH and other languages on Android using the Android Scripting Environment (ASE).

4. God, yes. Every platform has those in spades. Any particular protocols you would like me to find an application to support in Android?

5. Yes and no. You could do BASH using the ASE I mentioned above. Would seem the same. Or, if you're rooted, you can install and run BusyBox and it's pretty much exactly the same Linux shell scripting in BASH at the Linux kernel. ASE seems much more mature than BusyBox scripting, though.

That smells like FUD against anything except N900. If you genuinely believe what you said above, it's very unfortunate. You should really get your hands on something else for a few days or at least really read up on them before you claim these things as unique to one platform.