It will be a bit of a pain getting the deb repositories for the Maemo SDK working with it though. Doesn't mean you couldn't get the SDK running on it, it'll just be more hassle to set up than a Debian/Ubuntu based distro.

Its only wrong if you are coming from the GNU side, for everyone else its perfectly viable. The fact there is such a big debate what is the right way to refer to Linux is proof enough to me that there is no wrong/right way, its just the GNU folks spitting their dummies out because want the recognition for making Linux what it is today. I'm not saying they do not deserve that recognition, but if its at the cost of confusing the end-users and as such stifling the use of Linux by novices, they are just hurting themselves in the long run.

By their logic Ubuntu is GNU/Linux but Maemo or DD-WRT is not, because they are using BusyBox and so the core OS may not be using GNU at all. Exactly how much GNU codebase do we need to be running to call it GNU/Linux? What should we call Maemo and DD-WRT? By branding them all as Linux you get the point across, that they are for all intents are purposes the same tools, even if the underlying code might be from different sources. The end user doesn't need to know if they are using GNU coreutils or not and in fact it just confuses them. Do we really want to get back to the confusion of the DOS ages? That won't help anyone.

I mean just think, its perfectly possible to start off with a none-GNU Linux (is Maemo an example of this?) and then turn it into GNU/Linux by installing the GNU coreutils, etc. That is just plain confusing and should not mean you suddenly have to refer to your distribution differently unless its specifically relevant to a problem you are having. If that is the "right" way to do things, I am happy to be doing it wrong.

Well, it's wrong, and that's the reason some Debian users don't like it. Linux is the kernel, not the OS... Debian gives you an option of using GNU/kFreeBSD too, although I prefer Linux to to its better development, and better hardware support.

Well, yeah, Linux is the kernel. Just like X11 is the display system, or vi (or emacs) is the editor. GNU is not a piece of software, it is an organization; stamping GNU onto the name "Linux" is more of a subtle piece of political spin, and I just don't like it.

Linus Torvalds put together his little operating system on his own time with his own effort, and then just released it into the wild and let people play with it. At the time, the BSD guys were trying to maintain their fork of Unix by keeping total control over the code within a small group of developers, and the GNU group were trying to dump Unix and come up with an entirely new kernel of their own. Andy Tannenbaum had produced Minix and pretty much allowed anyone to use it, but only under a very restrictive education-only license. So there were many different kernels floating around out there.

And that's the funny thing; you're entirely right, since then Linux has had better development, and better hardware support. Most designers of both free and commercial software seemed to assume that it was necessary to keep an iron grip over the code; but it was Linus' much more free version of freedom that won the day. Ultimately, the open source movement truly coalesced around Torvalds and the Linux kernel, not Stallman and the various GNU-related utilities.

Anyway, these are ancient political battles. It probably doesn't matter what people use to name these products today, but I'm old enough to feel annoyed that the GNU guys are still trying to claim ownership over Linux...

Debian doesn't need to do what is standard... It was one of the first 3 distros which were made, and which are bases of GNU/Linux.
Right now, it is still the most secure, most stable, and the most reasonably-free distro.

Please guys, I just want a linux box for the Maemo SDK/CC. No need to start the old "which distro is better" war over this again.
If Nokia provides ready made ubuntu distro, then I'll use that.
My main box is Windows and unfortunatly has to stay so for work related reasons. (Work specific software)
Thanks for all the useful replies.