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what can maemo do that symbian can't?

maemo is based on linux, and has a strong history of openness and collaboration and barn building.

our principle strengths include

we are open by default, it is the norm, not the exception to find open source applications.
we have strong free applications written by members of the thriving community
we can share code with desktop apps - this makes a difference in how development commences
we can ssh in and understand the console and run standard tools and apps
we have the ability to replace anything we don't like and mould this device to our tastes, upto and including replacing the operating system.
our community is large and varied, from app specific stuff like canola or conboy to entire frameworks like qt, we have emulators and games and a whole cosmos of applications built for you.
we are not exclusionary - its entirely possible for a user to have 4 different toolkits on their device for different usage cases and app requirements.
we do tend to listen to feedback.

the platform openness extends to the symbian crowd who have the freedom to create/maintain/discuss apps which do as they like, and whilst they can say a lot in many threads, actions speak louder than words - get stuck in and do some coding.
open up and port your apps and show us how it should be done!

I, for one have been creating my liqbase apps and trying to sculpture my dream, I could not do it in WinMo, I could not do it in iphone, I could not do it in Android, and I certainly could not do it in Symbian.

the whole device has been assembled based in part on the communities goals and wishes - most of the developers of the system have been or still are active as users in the community and the maemo stack uses an impressive array of upstream components.

that some folks now at the final hour hear "nokia phone" and expect it to behave exactly like their existing devices is wrong, we understand its different and we will try to being some of your suggestions on board.

help the community developers - test, suggest, encourage and most importantly donate.
a lot of the guys here do things based on the good will that exists and an awful lot of the great apps which exist here simply would not exist without that.


we are maemo.