Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to compete with Apple and Android, and that strategy failed for complex, institutional and strategic reasons.
Maemo is mostly based on open-source code and has been developed by Maemo Devices within Nokia in collaboration with many open-source projects such as the Linux kernel, Debian, and GNOME. Maemo is based on Debian and draws much of its GUI, frameworks, and libraries from the GNOME project. It uses the Matchbox window manager and the GTK-based Hildon framework as its GUI and application framework.
The user interface in Maemo 4 is similar to many hand-held interfaces and features a "home" screen, from which all applications and settings are accessed. The home screen is divided into areas for launching applications, a menu bar, and a large customizable area that can display information such as an RSS reader, Internet radio player, and Google search box. The Maemo 5 user interface is slightly different; the menu bar and info area are consolidated to the top of the display, and the four desktops can be customized with shortcuts and widgets.
At the Mobile World Congress in February 2010, it was announced that the Maemo project would be merging with Moblin to create the MeeGo mobile software platform. Despite that, the Maemo community continued to be active, and in late 2012 Nokia began transferring Maemo ownership to the Hildon Foundation, which was replaced by a German association Maemo Community e.V.
Since 2017, a new release called Maemo Leste is in development which is based on Devuan.
User interface
OS2005–OS2008
Up to Maemo 4 (AKA OS2008), the default screen is the "Home" screen — the central point from which all applications and settings are accessed. The Home Screen is divided into the following areas: Vertically down the left hand side of the screen is the taskbar, with applets for the web browser, communications, and application menu by default. These can be modified using third party plug-ins (e.g. to provide a favorites or command menu). Horizontally across the top left half is the menu bar, which shows the application name and window title, and gives access to the application's menu (which contains the typical file, edit, view, tools, etc., menus and sub-menus). Horizontally across the top right quadrant is the status bar, containing icons such as battery life, wireless connection, volume, Bluetooth status, and brightness by default. These can be expanded using third party plug-ins in the same manner as the task-bar. The remaining large part of the display contains Home applets (roughly analogous to Apple Inc.'s Dashboard widgets), which can display data as well as serving as a shortcut to applications. These include an RSS reader, Internet radio player, Google search box and contact list by default, but can also be expanded with third party plug-ins.
The interface uses either the touch screen, or a directional pad and select button, with separate back, menu, and home buttons. It is capable of receiving text input through handwriting recognition, two different sizes of on-screen keyboard and hardware keyboard input with the N810.
Maemo 5 (Fremantle)
The user interface in Maemo 5 is different from its predecessors. It provides four fully customizable (with the ability to add/remove widgets, move widgets around, change the background and customize shortcuts to applications/contacts) "Home" screens, called Panorama Desktop. Switching from one desktop to the others is done by sliding one's finger horizontally on the background. The dashboard is accessed via the upper left icon and shows all the running applications, in a manner similar to the Exposé feature in Apple's Mac OS X operating system. From the dashboard, running applications can be brought back to full screen by tapping the preview window, and applications can be closed by tapping an X-symbol located in the top right corner of the preview window, similar to the concept of closing applications in other operating systems. The application launcher, where all the installed applications can be launched, can also be accessed from the dashboard. If no task or application is running in the background, tapping the top left icon skips the dashboard and directly displays the application launcher.