I'd happily pay $10 to run Harmattan on the N900, but I wouldn't be happy to pay for bug fixes to Maemo 5 (Fremantle).

The vote should be for full platform updates, which are once by year or so like Maemo 5 to 6. Now its bit unprecice.

2 years for free and then with money. There should be an motivator for the backporting, as it costs money for the company. Of course free is free, but I'm realist and I remember how it has been so far.

No, no, no. Now I'd pay to run a new OS like Harmattan, but only if forced to. Honestly, isn't Maemo supposed to be an open OS? This ain't Apple, and I am glad it isn't. The day Nokia tries that crap is the day I join forces with the Linux community to build my own OS of some sort. I'm praying for the day I can buy a device with no OS or an open source OS, and I can choose to load Symbian or Maemo on it if I choose.

Well, you already can, can you not?

Only Mer, but I prefer Maemo and Symbian. I want to be able to download one of the two OS images and load and run it regardless of device. Mer is cool, but not on Maemo 5's level yet.

I think since everything is open source, upgrades should be free. That being said, I wouldn't mind having a bounty system where us non developers can contribute money into a pot for new features or apps.

Looking at the comments on here I think that it is clear that; people would not be happy to pay for "windows update" equivalent, updates of maemo 5, but they would pay for things like changing the OS etc etc

Personally, why would you want to change the OS in the first place? Maemo is free, the apps are free (baring the 3rd party guys that will eventually catch on ), and you have a great community all after the same goal, improving the end user experience, the OS and the apps. Why go for Windows Mobile/Symbian etc over Maemo when they are so closed?

I would not expect to pay for things that involved the OS directly.

I think in order to make this platform grow there needs to be the understanding that this is a Linux based device and the same ideas need to be carried across; it is all about community and being open.

Paid apps will destroy this idea and turn the N900 into an iPhone.

I'm glad you asked. I have strong sentiment for Symbian. Plus, once Maemo 6 and Symbian^4 come out, they'll run the same apps. So one is more phone centric, and the other is more workstation centric. I like to either use my old devices as backups or pass them on to friends and family. Some of them aren't as advanced technically, and may benefit from a simpler Symbian. Or some of the features of Symbian may not be available in Maemo, like ASR. So when I'm walking my dog, I really want a Symbian device for ASR so I can have a free hand.

Open isn't alway convenient when on the go, at least not in my case. For the last 3 years, I've grown used to using my Symbian device as my main computer, always doing my RSS browsing and research as well as posting to the blog while walking my 75 lb. pit bull, but without ASR, T9, and portrait view, I'm forced to leave my blogging at the wayside. Can't do landscape QWERTY with a APA champion weight pulling beast tethered to my arm. Sometimes a more simplified device is better as a backup device or for those fishing trips where you don't need all of your power, but more simplicity instead.

Ideally, I'd like a dual boot phone...

It hasn't destroyed Linux, and it won't hurt Maemo in the least bit. In fact, paid apps will have to be damn good to compete with FOSS, so I like paid apps for Linux. I'll always support free, but look at Linux in terms of linear video editing software. The best solutions are paid, but the free solutions are competitive. It breeds competition and innovation.

I fully agree on this. Won't pay for bug fixes, would pay for new features.

Amen Chris!

Sometimes open or closed is not the point, and not the beginning or end of all things for a lot of people. It can be if it is open enough.

On the other hand, Symbian is going to be fully open source, will cover a wider range of devices and it already has many things that Maemo doesn't (and that people want). I like Symbian, and can't wait for ^3 and ^4.