it does benefit from remaining 2.6.x and all 3.x kernel fixes and optimisations and the "clean up" of arm stuff they did a while back, so speed may be better.

with the modem, i know meego had some drivers for n900 and n9, either on meego or ofono mailing list. will the new drivers work with ofono for those working with arch/debian/freEmantle or is it specific to maemo.