This was a very valid point. So let's check their websites:
...
Conclusion:
I think the above quoted descriptions and mission statements try to clearly specify what they are about. What I personally like is what Gentoo says. That's perfectly clear and very well highlighted. Ubuntu is not that straightfoward as it could be. I guess it is because they started to grow recently and they have all sorts of these subprojects (Desktop, Server, Mobile, etc.) so on their front-page you only read about being free (which is nowadays not a very distinguishable feature).
Quite frankly I couldn't care less what the "mission statement" of the various distros are. Most mission statements are just marketing garbage with no warranty attached, and are simply statements (not commitments).
Anyway, if it's only for your own personal satisfaction and you want to know which distro is most suitable for you then:
Sharp/Cacko - for mostly PDA functionality, and least need to fiddle around
pdaXrom - if you need maximum flexibility and a real desktop experience, some fiddling recommended
Angstrom - probably a cross between the above 2. I've never used it so can't really comment
All the others (*BSD, Gentoo, Debian etc) are probably not quite there yet - in terms of hardware support. So if you want to play safe stick to one of the 3 listed above.
If this topic was started for the benefit of the wider community, then yes, please go ahead and try all the various distros then write up a summary comparing and contrasting them all I'm sure a lot of people would be grateful for it.
Personally I picked pdaXrom because I was able to use standard X applications on it. If a particular app you need is not available in the standard distribution it is relatively easy to compile it yourself. I've long since stopped fiddling with my pdaXrom installation since it now does all I need of it.