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Nokia Trades Symbian For MeeGo In N-Series Smartphones

Posted by timothy on from the unfortunate-name dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nokia announced that moving forward, MeeGo would be the default operating system in the N series of smartphones (original Reuters report). Symbian will still be used in low-end devices from Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. The move to MeeGo is a demonstration of support for the open source mobile OS, but considering the handset user experience hasn't been rolled out and likely won't be rolled out in time for its vague June deadline outlined at MeeGo.com, could the decision be premature?"

2 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Aww shit, throw down by Weezul · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, it's an OSS mobile dream come true, but also :
    (1) Nokia ships more advanced hardware than any other phone maker.
    (2) Nokia is the biggest phone maker in the world.
    (3) Nokia has maintained user interface loyalty since before Apple even rehired Jobs.

    We've been bullshitting about "the year of Linux on the desktop" here since the beginning, but well this might actually be the year of Linux on the mobile. Maemo/MeeGo require special apps for UI purposed, like all mobile devices, but unlike iPhone, Android, and Palm they don't require those apps be owned by Apple or be rewritten in Java or whatever.

    N900's are currently fairly raw, but they are fucking bad ass. I'd assume that Meego will bring rotation, after that, the only shit that annoys me is :
    (1) the integrated aim and msn suck, although sms, skype, and sip are solid,
    (2) few games dispite being the only phone with solid GL, and
    (3) no cups/gs printing.
    On what other phone would you bitch about the lack of fucking printing?

    --
    The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
  2. Re:Android by Microlith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If Nokia had any brains left, it would switch their smartphones to Android

    Yes, to an OS wholly controlled by Google, not developed in anything resembling an open fashion, and forcing a pseudo-Java runtime with kernel extensions, a filesystem that were never meant to be open source in the first place, and a custom framebuffer system that isn't compatible with anything that already exists on Linux.

    No thanks, I'd rather go for a system that has more in common with modern, open Linux distributions.

    Garbage collection? Code better if you're using C/C++, or use Python. Sandboxing? Can be done without a pseudo-Java VM.