Yeah,, i think.
I have an xterm that I got with the N900. What does NOT work is:
su - root
sudo su - root
sudo su - etc - tried lots of different.

It asks for a password, and just hitting return goes back to prompt, but 'whoami' tell me I'm user. Other commands have me with error output pointing to the ID 'user' not having enough permission. I believe this O/S was built to not have a cowboy go screw it up, so they made sure no-one 'needs' root for anything... Maemo obviously boots off a "read-only" source that can be altered by something other than a live O/S, like flashing etc.