What Is Maemo?
You might have heard of the term "mobile operating system" before, but what does that even mean? It's not just an app you download on your phone. It's a way of thinking—a way of life. It is an open-source mobile OS and platform geared toward delivering PC user features and experiences to mobile devices. Based on Debian Linux, Maemo takes many of its graphical user interface (GUI), frameworks and libraries from the GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) project. The vast majority of the most popular programming languages can be used for building apps on this platform. The only fundamental limitation is that apps built on this platform cannot be distributed through the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. However, that does not mean that these apps cannot be distributed. It is quite the opposite. Anyone can download and install apps from this platform. Furthermore, anyone can also download and install the software development kit required for this platform and then use the same programming languages that can be used for other platforms to start building apps. Nokia is a great big lumbering beast, and Maemo is an open-source software platform that powers Nokia cell phones. But it's more than that: it's also a community of developers who work together to create applications for the Maemo platform. Once in a while, you'll see some of these developers at conferences like FOSDEM or LinuxCon, but primarily they work remotely and communicate via email and IRC. They're all working on different projects to improve the Maemo platform—and they're doing it together! The Maemo community has some remarkable tools they use to make this possible. One of those tools is Scratchbox, which lets them compile their code into something that can run on the device.
Related Terms by Operating Systems
Join Our Newsletter
Get weekly news, engaging articles, and career tips-all free!
By subscribing to our newsletter, you're cool with our terms and conditions and agree to our Privacy Policy.










