Coming back to the Symbian convert thrust of the thread, don't forget there were other flavours of[1] Symbian than S60. If I can hark back to Series 80, the ability to delay the sending of text messages and (IIRC, which I may not, not having used amy 9500 for a couple of years) emails to some deterined time in the future was a boon and its omission from the E90 caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[1] OK, GUIs for...

Hmmm - I got a bit bogged down in this thread. But unless I'm mistaken, the OP was asking those of us with a symbian (or similar) background what it was about that OS that attracted us, presumably in order to address the reality that if this project is to have a long and happy life it will need to address a lot of people saying "oh but it won't do X!"

Here's my list of things I'd want in a 'perfect device'.

Solid, quality camera: like the k750 had. (Yeah, I know - SE lost the plot with the c905!) The n95 (after the 1st firmware upgrade) had a more than decent camera

Basic office functions - calendar (preferably syncable... in a perfect world, syncable with groupwise!) calculator, documents reader (in a perfect world tv out and a powerpoint reader that includes the animations and transitions!) Preferably a pdf reader.

Music player taking all possible files, including DRM

E-reader programme, also compatible with DRM

Bible reader with search, verse finder and choice of translations (like the Olive Tree reader, for example)

A good card/solitaire game

Something for a shopping list (I currently use smart-shopper which is j2me)

A good app for following twitter - gravity is pretty good on symbian. Tweetdeck is awesome.

In a perfect world, a choice not only of facebook and myspace, but a range of other blog tools: I use LJ and Tumblr (be great to have a 'post to tumblr' option!)

Oh, yes: a phone and sms. I only send about 3 MMS a year, so I shan't weep for that. Email - and a good webbrowser (again from groupwise among other things).

Basics such as 3g, wlan etc.

A sound recorder (comes as standard with MMS phones so you can send a sound file - I have MMSed 'happy birthday' to people before now).

I truly have used a phone/pda as a torch (palm used to have an app for that which was handy!)

I'm honestly not sure quite how many of those maemo can or cannot do. Some seem to be a bit a lost cause.

Connect to AT&T's 3G network? ZING!!!

Haha, all kidding aside, to be honest, until the first full reviews of the N900 come out, I think it's going to be a bit difficult to see.

The main difference that Symbian holds (against other smartphone OS', too) is that it's a phone first, mobile computer second. That's why it works so good for normobs who ease themselves into it.

Maemo, on the other hand, is quite clearly a mobile computer first, phone second.

While that might seem obvious, it's a very important distinction, and Symbian users coming over to Maemo will, in some cases, have to completely alter their usage to fit Maemo.

I actually really like the idea as what you have suggested as 'opportunities' for indie/community devs and/or professional devs as well.

It definitely would be good to see a list just to highlight the differences as I am guessing people who have never used a previous tablet and are expecting a full fledged Symbian experience may be disappointed that Symbian apps don't install etc.

Oh, I dunno... some of us have been using Symbian since before it had any means of wireless comms beyond IRDA. S60's interface is very much dictated by the phone form factor, as evidinced by the pain communicator users felt moving from the 9x00s to the E90, but even S60 can be used as a computer with phone capabilities. I'll grant, however, that the majority of S60 users don't know this.

Can be, yes, but the overall interface and experience has always been phone first, IMO. (speaking solely in terms of the interface and how functions are laid out, etc)