Nokia drops MeeGo phone before launch (Reuters)

You can also install other distros on Maemo devices. I have Gentoo on my N800, though not everything works there. Some drivers are closed, and I agree that Openmoko as a whole is more open. People have also installed other distros on Android devices, for example on the Toshiba AC100.

IMHO, the big point is that Nokia has the only mass-market phone that ships with a regular Linux distro by default.