Maemo - Components

Components

Maemo is a modified version of the Debian Linux distribution, slimmed down for mobile devices. It uses an X Window System-based graphical user interface using Xomap and the Matchbox window manager. The GUI uses the GTK+ toolkit and Hildon user interface widgets and API.

BusyBox, a software package for embedded and mobile devices, replaces the GNU Core Utilities used in Debian-proper to reduce memory usage and storage requirements (at the expense of some functionality).

ESD is used as the primary sound server, and GStreamer is used by the shipped media player to play back sounds and movies. The formats supported by GStreamer can be extended by compiling GStreamer plugins in scratchbox (Maemo SDK), which was done, for example, to bring Ogg support to the platform, as well as experimental features such as WebM and VP8 after they were announced by Google. Third-party media players can access GStreamer directly or via "osso-media-server".

Window management is handled by the Matchbox window manager, which limits the screen to showing a single window at a time (Ubuntu Netbook Edition implements a similar system). This is to improve usability on a mobile device with a small screen.

Although Maemo is based on Linux and open source software, some parts of Maemo remain closed source. These include some user-space software, like certain status bar and taskbar applets (including the display brightness applet) and applications, and some system daemons related to connectivity and power management.

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