This is a good question for me, too. One of my favorite things about the N900, and one of the ones I didn't even think about when I got it, was that it comes pre-rooted. Now I got an iPad for work, and it drives me nuts every day that I don't have root access. Heck, NOBODY has root access to the iPad without a jailbreak, not even the developers! My next smartphone is going to have root access and a community like this.