I would say thats pointless... the whole Hardware/Software - what is more important - discussion! (and perhaps a little bit offtopic)

That's the old chicken-and-egg problem. Remove the Battery from your N900 and you will see how much this peace of Hardware is without Software. And you could sell your N900 and run Maemo in Scratchbox at your Linux Desktop. But the benefit of Maemo is very small with your Desktop at home while you're on the go...