apps, but...

The Meego platform is a Linux distribution with underlying technologies like X11, OpenGL, and GStreamer; the platform toolkit is Qt and Qt Mobility APIs but some device flavors also support GTK and Clutter. So yes, "native linux apps are possible". You can even install the Meego SDK on a Linux PC and cross-compile to Meego, and/or use the build service. Back in the Maemo days hackers would blog about porting programs to their device, but that seems to have died down, maybe the WeTab will encourage it. http://apps-beta.meego.com/applications has e.g. Audacity, but it isn't (yet?) the equivalent of packages.ubuntu.com.

Meego has the triple crown of easy ports: lots of Linux apps, newfangled QML/Qt apps, and the ever-increasing power of HTML5 apps. (Maybe even Android apps if the Myriad Alien Dalvik ships for Meego.) But similar benefits didn't exactly make millions run out and buy Nokia N810s & N900s. Also, many Linux applications are not just GTK or Qt, they tie into Gnome Shell/KDE libs/Plasma, Zeitgeist/Nepomuk, etc. Meanwhile the appeal of a device is no longer the sum of its hardware, software, and available applications; it also depends on the quality of its "cloud" connections to app store, profile and data sync, location services, etc.

(Disclaimer: I know nothing.)