Android is linux. It was done before Nokia did the N900. Nokia were copying to try and grab market
I think the issue is, if it failed then support dries up and Nokia move on. Like anything that doesn't sell you ignore it and move on.
Vista died because of IBM not buying into it, when the worlds largest company says no you need to think why.
<snipetty> It [Maemo] is a basic linux distro on a phone. It is the same as Android but you can jail break it and use it,
something Google locked down to reduce the amount of messing that goes on inside. The kernel is the same as every other linux kernel, it is still just Linux and that puts it right back to the same basic logic as Android (upto 2.1 when they split off the kernel tree), Ubuntu, mandriva etc.
and now there is Meego 1.1. Google stuck it out and worked well to get it out there, even with their decision to split from the linux tree (which might be reversed.)Nokia failed at the first hurdle because the N900 did pants in the markets and then changed their minds to try another linux distro. It isn't two steps, it is another direction from the same starting point.