For those of you who are familiar with open source software, that’s what Maemo Community, is all about. The community works to develop software on the Maemo platform. There are over 22000 registered members who contribute on a constant basis to more than 900 community developments in the Maemo Garage using open source tools and processes. We as a community develop new software for the platform itself, as well as for other areas, and the applications developed by the community using Maemo SDK are utilized by thousands of consumers. Maemo as a software platform is mostly based on open source code and is the power behind mobile devices such as the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. The Maemo platform has been and is being developed by Nokia in collaboration with many open source projects like the Linux Kernel, Debian , GNOME and many others.

Maemo’s platform is the core software stack that is run on devices such as the Nokia N900, and is built on in large part on open source components. The Maemo SDK we spoke about before provides developers with an open development environment for applications on top of the Maemo platform. The platform is made up of the software stack from the Linux Kernel to Maemo’s API’sand the Hildon UI framework. All the devices which are commercially available and run on Maemo come with the Hildon UI pre installed, as well as a set of applications by Nokia. Developers have the option of developing another UI on top of the existing Hildon framework. The Maemo platform is based on Linux’s operating system, whose architecture comes originally from the Unix operating system. Linux, as well as the other open source projects which contribute to the Maemo platform embrace and advocate the sharing of source code, and an open, collaborative development model. The Maemo community promotes those shared values by keeping the platform open where ever it is possible to do so by sharing code and contributing code to upstream projects.

Maemo’s evolution began with a series of touch screen internet tablets which utilized the open source platform. The very first one was the Nokia 770 tablet, which launched in November of 2005. The 770 allowed users internet access using a WLAN connection. The next step taken on the Maemo platform was the Nokia N800 tablet built on Maemo 3 release; this version added Skype over WLA as well as an integrated camera. Maemo 5 was a huge leap forward in the evolutionary process, introducing an entirely redesigned finger touch UI, cell phone feature and live multitasking on the Maemo Dashboard. The Nokia N900 is a powerful little machine, packing an ARM Cottex-A8 processor, up to a Gig of application memory as well as OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. Jumping from application to application is a simple task, since all content is available from the dashboard. You can customize your panoramic home screen with widgets, shortcuts and applications. To make browsing on the web even more enjoyable, the N900 features a high resolution touch screen Thanks to the Mozilla powered browser; websites look just the way they would on any computer! Online videos are in vivid colour thanks to full Adobe flash support and Maemo software updates are done automatically. Messaging is simple and convenient thanks to the full slide out QWERTY keyboard. Email setup is a few touches away and the Nokia Messaging services allow mobilization of up to 10 personal email accounts. All conversations are in separate windows and IMs or emails from friends are shown in one view. With 32 GB of storage space (expandable to 48 with a micro SD card) and a new tag cloud user interface that helps you get the most out of your 5MP camera and Carl Zeiss optics, there’s no reason not to have it!

As you can see Maemo is the future, get on board now!