Nokia, Intel merge mobile Linux offerings
Maemo + Moblin = MeeToo MeeGo
MWC Intel has tightened its alliance with Nokia by merging its Moblin mobile Linux platform into the Finnish phone giant's built-on-Linux Maemo OS.
The combined platform will be called MeeGo - which will undoubtedly be satirised as 'MeeToo', given its clear intention to fight the rise of Android and iPhone.
The two companies said MeeGo will "support multiple hardware architectures across the broadest range of device segment". So expect to see it not only in Nokia's high-end smartphones, but also netbooks, tellies, in-car entertainment systems and flavour of the month, the tablet.
Intel handed Moblin over to the Linux Foundation after doing the initial development work, and MeeGo will likewise become an LF property.
The agreement follows on from the two giants' partnership, announced in June 2009, designed to bring their mobile technology plans into alignment.
At the time, Nokia and Intel said they would "develop common technologies for use in the Moblin and Maemo platform projects", and they have clearly since discovered that this can best be served by bringing Moblin and Maemo together.
The result will be a common platform, independently managed, that - the two principals hope - will encourage developers to code apps for it, if not instead of working on Android and/or iPhone then at least in addition to those two popular platforms.
Intel will distribute such software through its Atom-oriented store, while Nokia will punt versions for its devices through Ovi.
The first release of MeeGo is expected in Q2, Intel and Nokia said, with devices launching later in the year. ®
COMMENTS
Glark
That's probably the worst product name I've heard in a while, it sounds like the burblings of a two year old. MeeGo toilet now. MeeGo sleep.
I see where they were going, what with the iPhone and all; but I'm afraid the name MeeGo just sounds stupid to me.
Path?
The "clear path" you're after from Nokia, is to write for Qt. Nokia have been saying this for a while, and porting Qt applications between Qt-supporting OS's (both Symbian and MeeGo) is trivial.
QT for MeeToo?
Downloaded and running SDK – a QT variant - eventually got a ‘Hello World’ working – grrr – far worse than my experiments with Meamo.
The question I ask is – do I invest time in developing the necessary skills to develop apps for this platform? What is going to happen with Symbian?
With other Mob OS’s such as Apple and Android, I know that they are going to be around for a few years yet, Symbian is an unknown, and Meego may be just another dead end as is meamo.
Developers need a clear path, offered from the manufacturers, as to which platforms they are going to use, rather than just making an educated guess and potentialy being left behind. Personally, I think that Meego will take over from both Meamo and Symbian, probably in 2 to 3 years time – but i may be wrong, and than all the time invested in development will be lost profit - Who knows - confusion reigns?
That didn't last long did it?
Not content with releasing the N97 (symbian) followed weeks later by the N900 (Maemo) Nokia wants to confuse and annoy users even more by annoucning yet another Smart Phone OS.
No doubt they'll drop this in a couple of months too.
Meego != Maemo
Maemo is a Debian-derived system but is pretty disconnected from that upstream now. MeeGo is claiming to be an independent RPM-based distribution (although it appears to have had some ancestry via Fedora).
MeeGo is basically Moblin + Qt (with Gtk+/Clutter on the side, much like Gtk+/Hildon was to be "community supported" in Maemo 6).
There's essentially nothing left of Maemo <= 5 in MeeGo, so far as I can see, although Moblin and Maemo had a lot in common, so the end result is somewhat similar.
