Mass exodus from Nokia's Maemo group -- what does it mean?

We're not able to glean much of a clue what this all means to the program exactly, but at least four players in and around Nokia's Maemo team have quit in the past few weeks. The company's so-called "Internet Tablets" -- the 770, N800, and N810 -- have been the main beneficiaries of the Maemo community's efforts; with Nokia's recent acquisition of Trolltech it's pretty clear that the company's still fully committed to the open source thing, but who knows, maybe Maemo's not the way they want to do it. Fortunately, Maemo's picked up enough of a following to live on with or without Nokia's support, but it'd be an awful shame to see 'em move in an entirely different direction nonetheless. We'd say the platform's safe -- for the moment, anyway, with the impending launch of the WiMAX'd N810 seeming likely -- but we'll keep an eye out for developments.