KDE Mobile/Maemo Explained

Here you can find some definitions to help you better understand the "Maemo linguo" as it comes with its own versioning scheme and specific projects.

About Maemo

• Maemo is the core software stack that runs on mobile devices like Nokia's N810 or N900, it is based on Debian.
• Maemo's garage is where the projects for Maemo can be hosted, somewhat compareable to Sourceforge.

• Maemo versions:
  • 4.0, codenamed Chinook
  • 4.1, codenamed Diablo, unofficial Qt support
  • 5.0, codenamed Fremantle, first one to have official Qt support
  • 6.0, codenamed Harmattan, based on Meego Touch Framework and QML

• Nokia devices running the Maemo stack:
  • N770, first Maemo based internet tablet, runs Maemo 2.2 (aka OS2006)
  • N800, internet tablet running Maemo 4.0
  • N810, internet tablet running Maemo 4.1
  • N900, first Maemo based phone, runs Maemo5
  • N9, Maemo/MeeGo based phone, runs Maemo6/Harmattan
  • N950, Maemo/MeeGo based developer device (phone), runs Maemo6/Harmattan

Build environments

• Scratchbox is a cross-compiling environment used by the Maemo community for development and packaging, it tries to emulate the whole platform at build time extensively using qemu;
• MADDE is a newer cross-compiling environment, simpler and more streamlined than scratchbox, it behaves more like a classical cross-compilation environment and doesn't rely on qemu during builds.

Related Projects

• Busybox is a single binary that allows you to run commands like ls, cat and bunzip2;
• Hildon is an application; framework and desktop shell for Maemo, compare it to the role that Plasma plays in KDE 4;
• Mer is a Maemo community driven project which focuses mainly on porting Fremantle to the N8x0 devices.