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AMD Joins Intel's MeeGo OS Effort

angry tapir writes "In an effort to expand software compatibility for its upcoming Fusion chips, AMD has joined rival Intel's efforts to develop the open-source MeeGo OS. AMD 'will provide engineering expertise intended to help establish the technical foundations for next-generation mobile platforms and embedded devices,' the company said in a blog post on its website."

117 comments

  1. Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalization by rsborg · · Score: 1

    I love me some AMD, but this is just confirmation that mobile is where the money is at, and Intel and AMD are both out of the running compared to ARM-class chips (power usage), and are struggling to keep relevant.

    Specifically the "iPad cannibalization" meme is probably scaring the pants off the x86 chipmakers, who hope to stave off (or take relevant share) of the nascent tablet invasion.

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  2. Compiler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only expertise AMD is offer to the OS is to be a comic relief by Intel's continued mockery. After all, the Intel-AMD 2010 settlement does not ban Intel from crippling AMD in Intel Compiler, it only requires Intel to honestly gloat how it screws AMD.[1]

    [1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20012610-38.html

    1. Re:Compiler by symbolset · · Score: 1

      This is a Linux. The compiler is open source. If AMD has a trusting trust problem, they have the bit-diddlers to implement a basic C compiler and assembler in raw machine code. And of course they can add all the optimizations to the compiler that apply. Linux is about as level a playing field as it can get.

      If AMD wanted to improve use of their products they probably need do no more than go to SourceForge's most popular projects and offer optimization tips to the developers - and maybe some test hardware.

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    2. Re:Compiler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AMD can offer optimizations, but many of the device builders who customize and build MeeGo already have Intel compilers, so they would not see the benefit of these optimizations, and then blame AMD for 'inferior' CPUs. Thanks to Intel's nefarious schemes, AMD is still screwed even when dealing with non-Windows OS.

    3. Re:Compiler by jonwil · · Score: 1

      GCC may be Open Source. But the Intel Compiler is NOT (and thats the one where Intel has been crippling the output on AMD chips)

    4. Re:Compiler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > many of the device builders who customize and build MeeGo already have Intel compilers

      Meego is open source. It does not require an Intel compiler.

      Of two developer groups who both make a build of Meego for an AMD-based device, one who compiles it with an Intel compiler, and the other who simply uses ggc or LLVM, the latter group would deliver the faster build (even starting from the exact same source code). Guess which group wins the contract to build the deliverable distribution software for a new mobile device based on AMD Fusion APU + Meego?

      Hmmm?

    5. Re:Compiler by afidel · · Score: 1

      Actually up until Core optimizations made it into ICC it probably did make better code for Athlon using the "crippled" code path than trying to foist the stupid long Netburst "optimized" codepath onto the high IPC K7/K8 parts. For SSE optimized code most developers who cared were already hand tuning anyways so the loss of ICC auto-tuning was probably meaningless.

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    6. Re:Compiler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > GCC may be Open Source. But the Intel Compiler is NOT (and thats the one where Intel has been crippling the output on AMD chips)

      So ... if you are building an app for an AMD Fusion APU powered mobile device running Meego ... you simply shun Intel's shoddy compiler. Anything else will be better.

      Where is the problem with that?

    7. Re:Compiler by makomk · · Score: 1

      it probably did make better code for Athlon using the "crippled" code path than trying to foist the stupid long Netburst "optimized" codepath

      Only if, for example, having a memcpy that's significantly slower than a naive generic assembler implementation isn't a performance problem for you.

    8. Re:Compiler by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      I wonder why both Microsoft's and Intel's C compilers produce so much better code output than GCC if the playing field is so great.

      GCC compiles slower and the executable code is slower in most cases.

      If you want fast, you don't generally use GCC.

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    9. Re:Compiler by symbolset · · Score: 1

      Hey, whoa. The Intel C compiler does compile Linux targets. I hadn't looked at that in a long time. Does Microsoft's? I haven't used that in 20 years - it's probably different than I remember. Back in the day if it compiled for both the server and the desktop version of Windows they considered it "cross platform". Back then they liked to pretend non-Wintel environments didn't exist. I'm trying to imagine people wanting to use a Microsoft compiler to compile their Linux, and I'm just not seeing it. Maybe you could draw me a word picture of just what such a person would look like.

      Regardless, the issue was compilers, trust, AMD, Intel and MeeGo. Since GCC is a credible, trustable open source compiler it's likely to be used to compile the open-source OS MeeGo, at least for AMD-centric or cross-platform distributions of MeeGo. And of course if Intel can squeeze out a few extra watts by using the compiler that's highly optimized for their platform, that's what they'll use for their reference implementation. Nobody gets hurt by that.

      As for compile time, I really doubt that's relevant. All of the modern compiler toolchains have distributed compilation now, don't they? And source files just aren't that big. So it's a problem of how many cores you throw at it and how fast your storage is.

      As to executables performance, well, the HPC folks are using Linux aren't they? Like 91.8% of them? Don't they use GCC? In my experience poor application performance is better blamed on the craftsman than the tool.

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    10. Re:Compiler by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1

      HPC on GCC? Can I have what you're smoking?

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  3. MeeGo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now they can call it, wait for it........ WeeGO!

  4. AMDs and Intels living together? by Z80a · · Score: 2, Funny

    Time to build a huge bonfire and call the ghostbusters, because gozer is coming again.

  5. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by iplayfast · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually Meego is ARM ready so I don't think this is a case of x86 doing catch up, More like joining forces in order to make a viable competition. JMHO

  6. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    > Intel and AMD are both out of the running compared to ARM-class chips (power usage), and are struggling to keep relevant

    Are you sure about that?

    http://fusion.amd.com/

    http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20101010112734_AMD_Fusion_is_Going_to_Be_Unlike_Everything_We_Have_Seen_Before.html#

    According to AMD, their upcoming Fusion family APUs are actually the reason why AMD has joined Meego.

    http://blogs.amd.com/press/2010/11/15/amd-joins-meego-linux-open-source-linux-project-for-next-generation-mobile-embedded-platforms/

    Apparently the lowest-power end of the AMD Fusion APU is a combined CPU + GPU (on the one die) with a TPD of 1 watt.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Fusion

  7. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Sorry, too much marketing speak.

    Maybe AMD is getting involved because one, it can. It's pretty much the only real open source project for mobile that is being worked on. They don't really have to work spend a lot of cash on contractual obligations to get involved. And two, because err...well, related to number one. It works on netbooks too. It's not tied to mobile chips. They're definitely targeting mobile, but the stuff will work on just about anything. Netbooks, embedded, cell phones, etc. There's nothing stopping them from including x86. That might be what brought AMD to the table.

  8. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love me some AMD, but this is just confirmation that mobile is where the money is at,

    Of course that's where the money is at, they've pretty much saturated the developed world at the desktop level, any further growth will be slow and steady, not rapid and profitable.

    I suppose they could go for the undeveloped world, but wait, won't mobile computers be desirable there too?

    Seems like it.

  9. "/." dinosaurs realize prediction cannibalization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If power was the be all and end all then explain all the Nvidia Tegra 2 powered tablets coming out? Not to mention there's still the HTPC and STB market like GoogleTV to fill up with a chip like the Fuzion. Also in the mobile space there's companies like Qualcomm with their Snapgragon processor and the integration of all the diverse cellular standards in one chip.

  10. Re:Talk about Abomination of Desolations. by yuhong · · Score: 1

    Yea, I know. I think The Register covered it a lot.

  11. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    > That might be what brought AMD to the table.

    The Meego project is hosted by the Linux Foundation.

    http://www.linuxfoundation.org/node/5887

    AMD is a gold member of the linux Foundation, and it has a seat on the board of the Linux Foundation.

    AMD has released programming specifications for its GPUs so that open source drivers could be written.
    www.x.org/docs/AMD/

    Open source driver for Linux have indeed been written for Linux for AMD/ATI GPUs. The have existed now for a couple of years.

    AMD are about to enter the low-power embedded and mobile space in a big way with their Fusion family of APUs ... which are chips with a GPU and a CPU together on the one die. Perfect for the low power mobile space.

    All things considered, Meego and the mobile space is a very good fit with the future directions of AMD/ATI and Fusion APUs.

    This is what brought AMD to the table.

  12. AMD and Intel both need to compete in mobile by symbolset · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They have to because we're going mobile with or without them. This much has been clear for years. They're trying to come up to speed, and Fusion looks like a credible effort but it's not going to be under anyone's tree this year - and iPads and iPhones and Android phones and tablets on ARM will be. Oak Trail from Intel looks promising but we'll need actual power and performance figures to know for sure.

    Windows? It's not coming with us. It will wither slowly in the first world. It has a long tail. Familiarity is important. But the next billion users? Almost all of them will come online having never used it, or a machine that can use it - and they'll do fine.

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  13. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by ADRA · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I doubt AMD or Intel feel much of a sting from the 4-5 million iPad units sold this year, but strategically, this is an area where both AMD and Intel have to start worrying about. There are a ton of low-end consumer spec devices growing rapidly in a highly volatile market of mobile phones and personal computing devices. This is an area where X86 systems have fared poorly. Intel and AMD need to find some magic to get themselves through the door before the market is so tight upon ARM arch that there's no hope for penetration.

    How did they get here:
    1. Intel blew their early adopter chances here when they dropped StrongArm/XScale years back. Maybe the licensing and profits were bad then, but it makes it a lot harder now to claw back into the sector
    2. Intel bought into Atom big time, which combined with Windows put the chill on Linux/ARM based netbooks before it got enough traction to become 'a threat' to the status quo, though I doubt Intel makes nearly as much as it does when compared to a standard Notebook computer, residuals are better than nothing, though its yet to be seen just how low end (power and affordability) that Intel can scale down the chip line.
    3. Both AMD and Intel are not seeing gigantic sales growth in PC CPU's or GPU's, so they need to look at other areas to continue to grow their businesses
    4. With supporting Meego, at least AMD will gain compatibility for free instead of say investing in OHSA requiring the native pieces to be ported from ARM7 to X86
    5. Nokia has been supporting Maemo as an also run Windows mobile type smart phone OS for a long time, and having iPhone, Android, WebOS, and WP7 absolutely blow their offerings out of the water means that something had to change with them. I'm not sure why they just can't pull something compelling together, but its hurting the company until they work on getting something. I personally think that bringing in Qt was a bad decision which has at least in a small part hindered efforts to get product to market.

    Why this probably doesn't matter to consumers in the long run:
    1. We have three large companies (AMD, Intel, Nokia) that are all considered dinosaurs of their industries who have very little impact on the software development or OS space to make me think that they can pull off a win in both areas of the scale needed for this product to do well
    2. They have a large hurdle in getting X86 capable of competing on mobile computer-type devices at the same power efficiency that ARM chips seem to get for a lot less effort. They could license ARM which gets them part of the way, but then they get bit with higher royalties
    3. In 2 years when the 'tablet computing' fad has largely blown off, Intel and AMD will realize that its just not that important to keep pushing down their marginal revenues until its just not worth the investment to keep with it. Nokia will either keep with Meego (and hopefully for them) make something substantial out of it for their phone platforms or just fumble along as they have with efforts like Symbian and further reduce their mind share and eventually their revenues

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  14. Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by paulkoan · · Score: 1

    MeeGo is a linux distribution optimised for low power mobile devices.

    No one would be surprised if the title read "AMD Joins Mobile Linux OS efforts" which is what is going on. It is an open source project, and the only real contender for mobile at the moment.

    Of course AMD want to play in the mobile space and to do this they need an OS. Their alternative is to roll their own or form another equivalent partnership like MeeGo that aims to achieve the exact same thing.

    This is the only sensible move they could make.

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    1. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      Of course AMD want to play in the mobile space and to do this they need an OS.

      Surely they need a mobile CPU first? Do they have anything that can compete with ARM or Atom at the low-power end of the market?

    2. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      *puts on anti-Nokia troll hat*

      Isn't that what Android is for?

      What's stopping Google from using code in the MeeGo base?

      I'm 99% sure that it's nothing, and that if the code's good enough, we'll probably see a lot of cross contamination between Android and MeeGo kernel code.

      I think though, that this is more proof that Nokia and maybe Google(I suspect that since Android's source is completely open, there would be no shame if Googlers went into Nokia, Intel and AMD's back yards and stole the grill) are both too stubborn to realize what's best for them.

      If Nokia and Google were smart, Nokia would steal Google's UI code and Dalvik and Google would steal their best threading, i/o, and whatever other code is probably superior in MeeGo that isn't probably going to wind up in the base kernel trunk and call the whole thing a "cross platform open source collaboration" or some other nonsense string of buzzwords that make marketers beyond happy.

      (I'm pretty sure AMD and Intel know better tricks for CPU optimization than Google does, then again, I don't know if ARM is working directly on the Linux kernel/Android or not.)

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    3. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by jrumney · · Score: 1

      No one would be surprised if the title read "AMD Joins Mobile Linux OS efforts" which is what is going on. It is an open source project, and the only real contender for mobile at the moment.

      I've heard a rumour about another possible contender, I don't recall the exact name but it was something to do with robots, and backed by some Silicon Valley startup that is apparently doing quite well in online advertising. Seems unlikely to me that some upstart can challenge Intel's clear history of successful operating system development, but some people apparently consider it to be a real contender.

    4. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I do not think MeeGo and Android are as similar as you think they are. Android uses the Linux kernel and that's about it. They could probably share kernels and that is probably a significant amount of code to share... but I am not sure how much of that is pushed upstream anyway.

      Android runs its own environment with the Dalvik VM, etc. MeeGo is just a normal Linux distribution that happens to be optimized for small screens / low-power devices. It runs normal Qt apps.

    5. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by imroy · · Score: 3, Informative

      What's stopping Google from using code in the MeeGo base?

      The fact that Android has very little in common with mainstream GNU/Linux distros i.e those with GNU libc. That includes MeeGo (and its parents, Maemo and Moblin). Beyond the kernel (including drivers), I don't see them being able to share much.

    6. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by paulkoan · · Score: 1

      Yes, their upcoming "APU" series has low power variants.

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    7. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by TheEyes · · Score: 1

      Bobcat might eventually; right now I think they're aiming at the ULV notebook and nettop segment with Ontario and Zacate, in the hope that the bump down to bulk 28 nm in the next year to year-and-a-half will make it suitable for netbooks and tablets.

      Phones are probably not in the picture for AMD; as a late third competitor to ARM and Intel's Atom (which should be in phones by 2012-2013) the market just won't be there for them, unless AMD really pulls a miracle out of their hats and somehow makes Krishna on 28 nm bulk better than whatever Intel will be fabbing Atom on in 2012. But frankly that's just about impossible; Intel's strategy for Atom has been basically to outspend everyone on process tech, and they're doing quite well with it.

    8. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by paulkoan · · Score: 1

      Android isn't anything like MeeGo or a linux distribution. It has its own stack - the commonality ends at the kernel (if they have even merged the custom kernel changes back in to mainline yet) The kernel is only a part of the equation - significant but a part.

      If they want their CPU platform to only be thought of as useful for running Android java apps, then ok that is a possible decision. If I was AMD I would prefer something that has a bit more potential - which is what Meego provides. I am not surprised at their decision to want a proper gnu/linux stack, hence my post.

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    9. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by paulkoan · · Score: 1

      The goal for both Meego and Android should be to get their kernel customisations back into mainline.

      They benefit everyone then, provided they are not customisations that only benefit the android stack.

      As for using Dalvik.. doubtful. QT is the strategy and it goes beyond Meego, and is native.

      "Stealing" is an odd term to use for open source. Sharing it is the point.

      We don't need to worry too much about Nokia's involvement in MeeGo either - you can take your hat off. It is an open source linux distribution, and the more people / businesses that get involved, the lesser is Nokia's influence. My hope that this goes the way of other distributions, where corporations contribute but the distribution has its own life. Once MeeGo has reached a usability milestone we'll see xda port it to everything they can get their hands on, then demand will increase for handset manufacturers will be pressured in to providing open source (or at least blobs) drivers for their hardware. Then the tables will be reversed, asking not what handset/OS shall I buy, but what handset shall I buy, and which OS shall I install on it.

      And it will go the way of the PC

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    10. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by klapaucjusz · · Score: 1

      What's stopping Google from using code in the MeeGo base?

      There's no GPL code in the Android userspace.

    11. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by klapaucjusz · · Score: 1

      If they want their CPU platform to only be thought of as useful for running Android java apps

      Note that since Android 1.5, there is a native development kit.

      You still need to develop almost all of your UI in Java, but the core functionality can be written in C or a subset of C++; Android is no longer for Java only.

    12. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by klapaucjusz · · Score: 1
      Oops, wrong link.

      Android NDK.

    13. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by Urkki · · Score: 1

      >

      Isn't that what Android is for?

      Android isn't particularily "Linuxy". If you want to take advantage of the wast amount of open source Linux/Unix software, Android is hardly the way to go, because it doesn't provide Unix-like environment.

      IOW, no, that's not what Android is for. Android is Android, and is useful when you want Android. If you want anything else, you shouldn't choose Android.

    14. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      If Nokia [...] were smart, Nokia would steal Google's [...] Dalvik

      WTF? Why on earth would Nokia want Dalvik?

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    15. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      The goal for both Meego and Android should be to get their kernel customisations back into mainline.

      It's basically already done for Meego.

      As for Android, google (hah!) "tokenised dead mice" to see what the chances of that happening are. (Ignore Google's attempt to "fix" the spelling of tokenised).

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    16. Re:Of course they want a Linux Mobile OS by peppepz · · Score: 1

      Isn't that what Android is for?

      No, Android is not a Linux distribution. It's an embedded platform supporting Google's business model; it happens to run on the Linux kernel just because it was the best strategic choice. Android might drop the Linux kernel tomorrow, and Android applications would hardly notice it.

      What's stopping Google from using code in the MeeGo base?

      I'm 99% sure that it's nothing, and that if the code's good enough, we'll probably see a lot of cross contamination between Android and MeeGo kernel code.

      Android already uses Nokia code. For instance, Bluez, and Nokia-contributed kernel code.

      Palm, too, used some results of a collaboration between Nokia and TI on their products (at least this is what was said at the first MeeGo conference).

      The Linux kernel already makes use of Google-contributed code.

      If Nokia and Google were smart, Nokia would steal Google's UI code and Dalvik and Google would steal their best threading, i/o, and whatever other code is probably superior in MeeGo that isn't probably going to wind up in the base kernel trunk and call the whole thing a "cross platform open source collaboration" or some other nonsense string of buzzwords that make marketers beyond happy.

      I think that, from a collaboration point of view, MeeGo are doing their share, by developing their software on the open, using public repositories and mailing lists, reusing existing open source projects instead of inventing new ones, and especially with the "upstream first" policy. It is yet to be seen if such approach will be successful. Or even feasible: for example, Maemo's changes for GTK were rejected by upstream IIRC.

      Android chose a more business-oriented approach, by forking the software they needed, to keep it under their control, developing it behind closed doors and "revealing" it only after handsets have already been manufactured. This approach has been very successful so far, but I doubt the Linux Foundation would approve it.

      But even if the two worlds were compatible, I wouldn't be happy if they merged. Competition is good even in the open source territory: in the end, after all choices have been made, a single project, open source or not, can only evolve in a single direction, and that direction need not be the best one. Or, it might make some users happy and others angry. It's good to have more projects, with differing philosophies and targets, see the different results they obtain, and be able to choose among them.

  15. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by jonwil · · Score: 1

    Anything which brings more openness to the mobile GPU space is a good thing (right now everyone, Intel included, is using closed GPUs from the likes of NVIDIA and PowerVR)

  16. I was completely with you until the end... by rsborg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    3. In 2 years when the 'tablet computing' fad has largely blown off, Intel and AMD will realize that its just not that important to keep pushing down their marginal revenues until its just not worth the investment to keep with it.

    I just don't agree that 'tablet computing' is a fad. Bill Gates was definitely correct that this form factor held lots of promise but Microsoft just could not untether themselves from the Windows gravy-train and thus constantly missed the mark with their tablet OS (not to mention pricing put it well out of the general consumer market). Intel got lucky in an emergency conspiracy with Microsoft to kill the netbook market but the tablet market is out of their control (with upcoming wave: Google/Android, HP/Palm, and RIM/BlackberryOS will put a permanent dent in PC sales). I bet both Intel and AMD are pretty disappointed in Microsoft's lack of real competitive OS here and have no "in" with the tablet players of today.

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    1. Re:I was completely with you until the end... by MrHanky · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It's a fad. Not that it doesn't have its place, but considering that Apple and their brain dead followers in the mainstream press have pushed it as a "revolution" that would "change" (oh, where have I heard that before?) "everything", while being less capable and twice as expensive as a netbook, and that the only influence it has had is that news outlets can push their wares in the form of paid "apps" through iTunes instead of the usual web content, it just isn't worth the attention it has received. The tablets are pushed for everything, and are unsuitable for most: poor ebook readers, poor computers.

    2. Re:I was completely with you until the end... by gtall · · Score: 1

      Funny you bring this up. I have here a new marketing campaign from Apple:

      Tablets are crap; we only did this to con you poor consumers into consuming news outlets' propaganda. Please buy more.

    3. Re:I was completely with you until the end... by ducomputergeek · · Score: 1

      I don't think so either. I gave up my MacBookPro at work for an iPad and glad I did. I have a docking station at the office and one at home. If I need to write longer emails to people I can. The only machine I have left at home now is the Mac Mini attached to the TV and that's mainly used as a media center.

      I got my Dad a iPad3G for his birthday and a docking station. He loves it as he travels a lot while he is still able and can keep up with emails. I don't think he even turns on his iMac anymore unless he's doing tax related stuff.

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    4. Re:I was completely with you until the end... by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      WebOS and BlackberryOS are only worth mentioning because of the companies they USED to be. They are so far behind its like a 200 lap race, where the race is over and HP and RIM are still trying to roll over the first lap.

      Android had a chance, but its openness is killing it, too much fragmentation for normal end users so its going to be unlikely it'll take over anything anytime soon unless something changes. Sure, people buy android devices, but very few people own one for any length of time and continue to say 'I'll buy another' once you exclude the geeks who buy it just cause its Linux.

      Apple still wins, sadely, as I'm sick of them. I'd love to see Android not suck, but I certainly won't be devoting any development time too it, I can make several times more for several times less work by sticking with iOS for the time being.

      If anyone wants to beat out Apple, they're going to have to start paying attention to why people like iOS, and contrary to what everyone seems to think, its not just that its got apps or a fucking home screen with buttons on it. Making all these other OSes LOOK like iOS with its eye candy isn't why people buy A SECOND or REPLACEMENT iOS device, its because the device worked well, easy to use, not a freaking hassle, updates are plugin and click okay and not constrained by the carrier and for the most part work on all devices except several year old models. The same can not be said about anyone else.

      People aren't going to buy the others the first time without the eye candy, but the eye candy certainly isn't keeping anyone around for the second purchase, especially after they use the devices for any length of time and they realize the eye candy feels crappy and unresponsive.

      Tablet computing IS a fad right now, 90% of the people with iPads won't be using them (or anything else) in 2 years. That doesn't mean the other 10% won't continue to use pads (from apple or anyone else) in the future, but the general population isn't going to use pads all the time. A phone is pretty close to a pad, can accomplish the same stuff and is far smaller, when that doesn't cut it a pad is bearly a step up unless its a specific function (doctors using a pad to view medical data/imaging for instance) but really for any sort of real work, you want a real computer with real input devices.

      Tablets won't go away, but this fad of everyone buying one will once the 'new' and 'trendy' wears off.

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  17. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by 0123456 · · Score: 2

    Intel bought into Atom big time, which combined with Windows put the chill on Linux/ARM based netbooks before it got enough traction to become 'a threat' to the status quo, though I doubt Intel makes nearly as much as it does when compared to a standard Notebook computer, residuals are better than nothing, though its yet to be seen just how low end (power and affordability) that Intel can scale down the chip line.

    As I understand it, margins on Atoms are pretty good, and an Atom-based netbook usually uses Intel chipset hardware so I suspect they're making a decent profit on the overall system.

    I'm sure they'd prefer to be selling i7 laptops, but I doubt they're too upset about selling millions of netbooks.

  18. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know. I think it's more bandwagon jumping than "joining forces."

    I think this is a case of AMD knowing what side it's bread is buttered on. If they can drum up more business through direct sales because linux now works as well or better than a competitor(like say, intel, or ARM)'s product, and the cost is a few dozen engineers on a crazy fun short term amount of time spent kernel hacking, I'd say it's worth it.

    From what it sounds like, MeeGo might be a less than stellar MID or phone OS compared to say, Android, but, MeeGo's probably my first choice if I had to design a DVR set top box, or a kiosk that would be shipped to thousands and thousands of locations.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  19. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by randallman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nokia has been supporting Maemo as an also run Windows mobile type smart phone OS for a long time, and having iPhone, Android, WebOS, and WP7 absolutely blow their offerings out of the water means that something had to change with them. I'm not sure why they just can't pull something compelling together, but its hurting the company until they work on getting something. I personally think that bringing in Qt was a bad decision which has at least in a small part hindered efforts to get product to market.

    I agree with everything else but this. Have you used an N900? Maemo is the most capable of the mobile OS's and it's a solid progression from the previous versions. The interface is slick - four desktops with useful widgets, combined IM/SMS/SIP "conversations", nice view of multiple running apps and more. The reasons it's niche is because Nokia has not aimed Maemo at the general public, but instead has targeted a small geek market. In fact the N900 is marketed as a mobile computer, not a phone. I'll bet their next Maemo or Meego offering will be a smart phone.

    Qt has long surpassed GTK and since Nokia owns the company they'd be nuts not to use it. From what I can tell they've done a fine job of transitioning developers.

  20. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by NNKK · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Qt has long surpassed GTK

    Um, I think the words you're looking for is "GTK has never caught up to Qt". Qt was first, GTK was a crappy response to it by a panicked FSF.

  21. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Microlith · · Score: 1

    MeeGo might be a less than stellar MID or phone OS compared to say, Android

    There's nothing particularly for or against either in terms of being a capable OS for those purposes. MeeGo mostly defines a framework and APIs, whether it works well in those roles is heavily dependent on the device vendor stepping up to the task of providing a good UI.

  22. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Microlith · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought GTK was simply an outgrowth of GIMP?

  23. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by AvitarX · · Score: 1

    Are you referring to the reference to falcon, which was cancelled and replaced with swift (5 Watt), which was then cancelled and replaced with bobcat (9 Watt)?

    I look forward to it (9 Watt including a gpu that's good enough (today's low mid range, in 6 months)), but it is not the super mobile chip they were hoping for.

    It will find a place under my TV if the lnux support for h.264 is there (allegedly it will be)

    --
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  24. Are you sh*tting me? by Qubit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    *puts on anti-Nokia troll hat*

    I don't know about hats, but it sure sounds like you're trolling!

    What's stopping Google from using code in the MeeGo base?

    MeeGo uses a (somewhat) stock kernel, I believe. Android puts in all kinds of special sauce not in mainline like wake-locks.

    Drivers written for Android aren't necessarily going to just work in MeeGo, unless you add all that additional stuff (cruft?) to the kernel, etc...

    Like most popular distros, MeeGo uses the standard GNU userland; Android uses their own, non-GPL userland.

    we'll probably see a lot of cross contamination between Android and MeeGo kernel code.

    Sure, anything that's from upstream.

    (I suspect that since Android's source is completely open, there would be no...

    Android, like MeeGo is largely open. But there are certain things that are not released under a FOSS license (e.g. some drivers, particularly power-related and graphics-related drivers).

    On Android, I believe that all of Google's core applications are completely closed-source. What's more, it's non-trivial to set up the phone to sync with non-Google servers.

    Nokia would steal Google's UI code and Dalvik

    I don't think that Android's UI is particularly better or worse than MeeGo's.

    And Dalvik? That's like asking the MeeGo folks to go stick their hand in a beehive filled with thousands of tiny little Larry Ellisons with stingers. Surely, you must be joking!

    Google would steal their best threading, i/o, and whatever other code is probably superior in MeeGo that isn't probably going to wind up in the base kernel trunk

    Part of the whole point with MeeGo is to try to get as much stuff pushed up into upstream projects as is possible. If there's some good threading or i/o improvements to be made to the kernel, it seems reasonable that the MeeGo kernel devs will work hard to get it into mainline. From my perspective, Android has an "after the fact" attitude towards kernel development, whereas MeeGo has more of a "let's cooperate with upstream" attitude.

    I don't know if ARM is working directly on the Linux kernel/Android or not

    Sure. One of the projects they sponsor is Linaro. Linaro is a projects tasked with making it easier to deploy Linux-based systems on top of ARM: http://www.linaro.org/

    --

    coding is life /* the rest is */
    1. Re:Are you sh*tting me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's more, it's non-trivial to set up the phone to sync with non-Google servers.

      This, this, this! HOLY FUCK.

      My mom got a captivate to replace her old winmo that was literally falling apart. So I decide I'll help her out, seeing as it was a pretty big tech leap for her.

      She's having problems with duplicates in her contact list, which is huge. Hmm. So I poke around...then decide to google it. Well, you can either manually edit them one by one, or sync it with a google account and do it there. Ugh. really? So to edit a contact list without spending a week...I have to give all my contact list info to google? And be locked in to their email service?

      Ah. Then I decided I would try to set up her corporate email account. Nope. Nothing there either. She's forgotten the password and all that. So the only way to really do it is to sniff the pass off the network or just export some outlook settings. Oh crap, that's not supported. Sniffing the pass it is.

      I decide one last try...I'll go see if there's a suite from google or samsung. Samsung has a suite called Kies! yay! After downloading this bloated behomoth and proper drivers I find out that syncing isn't supported. What's the point?

      So to sync anything you pretty much have to go through Google. And most of the time it isn't going to do what you want it to do anyway. It's a mess.

      I could have fixed any of the problems she was having on my n900 in about 5 minutes because it's all familiar. Config files here, apt get there. It even has a (sigh, windows only) suite for syncing contact info, making backups, importing/exporting.

    2. Re:Are you sh*tting me? by Zebedeu · · Score: 1

      Android's framework supplies an API for synchronization which any app can use.
      Furthermore, apps have full access to the contacts database (given the right permissions, of course).

      Essentially, as an app developer, you have access to the exact same sync functionality which is used by Google's services.
      The problem you're facing is that those services are so good, that maybe the incentive to develop synchronization with other systems just isn't there.

      I say "maybe" because I think Android now supports at least Exchange out of the box, and there may be other utilities which are able to sync on the market.

      I think I even saw one which could back up and load your contact list to/from a file (presumably in a standard format).
      Just dump your contacts into Thunderbird, edit them, and reload them on your smartphone.

      But again, Google's services are so well implemented into Android, that I never had the incentive to try any of that stuff.

      So yeah, you can complain about a lot of stuff on Android (say, the lagginess of the UI), but managing your data isn't really a problem.

    3. Re:Are you sh*tting me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never considered the Thunderbird route, I'll try it. This is just plain ol' Outlook. So, export the contacts/settings...

      Didn't have enough time to look through the market . What I did see seemed to be bits and pieces of what I was looking for.

      These are not trivial problems. People have been complaining about stuff like this for almost a year now if you look around android forums.

      I'll give it another shot the next chance I get. Thanks for random slashdot tech support. :)

  25. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by NNKK · · Score: 0, Troll

    I thought GTK was simply an outgrowth of GIMP?

    What we know today as GTK (actually GTK+) has little resemblance to what was originally written for GIMP, and never would have become anything remotely like what it is except the FSF decided they just _had_ to do something about Qt once KDE became popular. It's a "growth" of the GIMP toolkit in much the same way as a brain tumor is a "growth" of your own cells.

  26. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by arivanov · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You really need to get your hands on one of the tablet flops coming out with Android to understand just how bad android can be. Even established makers like Toshiba have a 80%+ return rate. It just goes to show that you need proper UE and proper testing and proper development to create something even if you start with a "ready" OS.

    In any case, MeeGo is geared not just towards the phone and Tablet market. All those STBs, media SoCs in TVs using bespoke builds are ripe for the picking and make a much easier target. It is also a market where Intel has some clout as their media processor + Atom combination delivers same or better performance and price/performance than the incumbent (predominantly MIPS) offerings from Pace and the like.

    --
    Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
    http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  27. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The one piece I've noticed a lot of geeks miss about OSes is that UI is a really, *REALLY* important piece, particularly when you're targeting Apple, in the mobile sphere. It's not about just good, it's also about consistent.

    If Nokia wants me to build Qt framework applications, they need to get UIs consistent and in order, particularly if they want me to be able to develop from anything from a netbook, to a MID to an STB.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  28. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

    From what I understand about Qt's place as an application framework, it's really lacking in scope as also a UI framework.

    I think that Android tablets DO fail based on UE and UI concerns, but, I think unlike MeeGo's, the APIs need to be just simply fixed, not built from the non-existant ground up.

    (Although this is advantageous if I'm building an environment where a custom UI, building general purpose applications would be a hassle at best, and nightmare at worst.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  29. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Compaqt · · Score: 1

    This.

    Meego defines the OS, but there's nothing saying an implementation of it has to be ugly. Nokia, please for the love of silicon,

    -get rid of those "laughing amigos". They might look cute to (some) geeks, but to no one else.
    -get some artists to create some nice icons, you know antialiased, glossy, shiny stuff. Not the pathetic 2D ugly colored ones you have now.
    -either depreciate the name of the OS, or you should have picked a better name (Amigo woudn't have been bad)

    http://meego.com/devices/handset/handset-screenshots

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
  30. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by hyartep · · Score: 5, Informative

    nokia hired peter skillman - designer of palm pre - as UX designer of meego (or meego based nokia products).

  31. Recompiling for different mobile processors by Compaqt · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm missing something, but by going with Meego, which features C++ APIs, devs have to recompile for every different processor line.

    How does this help the desire of Meego partners to have a single large Meego app store?

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Recompiling for different mobile processors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I don't see your problem. It works for just about any established Linux distro; e.g. for each of my systems, a i7-920 desktop Ubuntu64, a 32bit Atom-based Server, a ARM Kirkwood-based plugcomputer or my ARM Cortex based smartphone, I can issue one and the same command to get the app I want, for instance "apt-get install lynx" and it will download the correct binary for any of the platforms.

      An appstore could function just like the other Linux repositories.

    2. Re:Recompiling for different mobile processors by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      every single processor line is actually just two lines. arm and x86.

      maybe you should dig up how much new android sw is actually tied to either arm or x86.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Recompiling for different mobile processors by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      >every single processor line is actually just two lines. arm and x86.

      Really? I didn't know that. Thanks. Given that's the case, it's an advantage for a C++ API, I would think.

      Btw, do the latest ARM processors feature new instruction sets, like 686 features more instructions than 486? Or do most mobile devs target the ARM equivalent of 486?

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    4. Re:Recompiling for different mobile processors by peppepz · · Score: 1

      How does Android market handle this problem? Android supports native development using the NDK, perhaps the apps using native code appear only on devices with a supported architecture?

    5. Re:Recompiling for different mobile processors by Compaqt · · Score: 1

      True that. It's just more work for developers (cross-compiling, though Nokia does have a compile farm, I believe).

      Might run into trouble if a user thinks he can move an app for one processor line to another phone. Though most people probably just download directly from the store to their phone.

      --
      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    6. Re:Recompiling for different mobile processors by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1

      Hell yeah they do, though a tad messy.

      --
      I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
  32. Meego doomed for failure. by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Android's a good idea because it's a mobile phone _platform_ based on a Linux kernel.

    Meego is a bad idea because it's basically "let's run Linux on a phone!". You're going to get all kinds of shitty looking apps using different conventions. Qt gives you just too many ways to develop your app. That's why all the successful phone implementations are moving towards a platform where you can't just willy nilly throw shit up on the screen - you have layout constraints and don't just develop the app the way you would on a 800x480 screen on a desktop - it's a different world.

    That said - I'd be down for one, but I'm a nerd. Most people are just going to see the complete lack of polish (which Meego will always have) compared to iPhone and even Android, whose polish is improving steadily.

    1. Re:Meego doomed for failure. by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

      With all this corporate support, I doubt that Meego is heading for a disaster. As I see it now, the worst thing it can encounter is "design by committee". But that can happen with any open source project. And freedom is not something bad. If you can develop in quite a number of ways, you can always encourage a "preferred" one. That is, if the other ways are harmful in any way. I think the whole point of a widget library is to standardize the look-and-feel of a system, so using one (like Qt) will give the power to adapt existing software for a mobile platform without having to rewrite it. I know this is over-simplified, but that is basically the idea. And it works with Maemo (I have no experience with Meego yet), even though with some applications you can "feel" they originated as desktop applications.

      My phone almost IS a desktop. It has a keyboard, a reasonable screen and, like my desktop, a stylus as input device (I use a tablet instead of a mouse). So why could we not run Linux on it?

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    2. Re:Meego doomed for failure. by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

      "design by committee" not sure why why is ever mentioned in connection with open source, all open source is designed my meritocracy. I am not sure why design by committee is even mentioned as a bad thing. The other word you could use for committee is team! its a successful way of doing things. The negative of a committee is it implies that unprofessional people making choices. Why would three very successful IT companies have unprofessional people make choices?

    3. Re:Meego doomed for failure. by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

      The other word you could use for committee is team!

      Not really. A team is actively developing, whereas a committee is "above" that.

      To say it bluntly: committees make sure all the buzzwords get incorporated, while team members make sure all the features get built.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
  33. Nokia Icon? by Etiko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When is Nokia getting its own icon? They are quite a big (understatement of the year) player in the daily lives of us Mobile devs.

  34. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by kamochan · · Score: 1

    Please note that the "amigos" are the reference UI graphics -- i.e., placeholders. The least a device vendor should be bothered to do is to provide their own visual style definitions and gfx to customize the platform before shipping products to customers...

  35. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Bert64 · · Score: 1

    It seems as if ARM will be doing to Intel and AMD what they themselves did to the traditional high end RISC architectures...

    General mass market devices will end up going ARM, because ARM chips now offer enough performance for most peoples day to day computing needs while offering low power consumption (and the things that go along with it such as low noise, low heat output, long battery life and low running costs)... Intel and AMD will be pushed upmarket into highend workstations, highend servers and other areas where performance matters more than cost or power usage.

    --
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  36. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by chrb · · Score: 1

    Apparently the lowest-power end of the AMD Fusion APU is a combined CPU + GPU (on the one die) with a TPD of 1 watt.

    TDP isn't a great metric by itself, you need to consider the amount of computation that is actually being done in exchange for that peak thermal energy, and, more importantly, what the power consumption for real world usage patterns is. Intel's Atom similarly promised a revolution, with a minimum TDP of 0.65W, and whilst it has been successful in the netbook market, it hasn't challenged ARM in the lower arenas of cell phones etc.

  37. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by hitmark · · Score: 1

    I wonder how much those returns have to do with either build quality or the lack of android market (fuck you google!). Or perhaps some parent getting talked into buying it by some buttery sales person making the claim that it is like the ipad, only cheaper. Then the return comes when the spawn of said parent throws a hissy fit...

    --
    comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  38. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't need antialiasing at these high pixel densities. Modern Cellphones are not crappy 72dpi desktop machines.

  39. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This.

    Meego defines the OS, but there's nothing saying an implementation of it has to be ugly. Nokia, please for the love of silicon,

    -get rid of those "laughing amigos". They might look cute to (some) geeks, but to no one else.
    -get some artists to create some nice icohttp://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1869804&cid=34239488#ns, you know antialiased, glossy, shiny stuff. Not the pathetic 2D ugly colored ones you have now.
    -either depreciate the name of the OS, or you should have picked a better name (Amigo woudn't have been bad)

    http://meego.com/devices/handset/handset-screenshots

    ...and what are they thinking wearing those shoes with that purse?

    I will agree, the cartoon things look stupid. But I'm smart enough not to care. You can make any theme you want once it is finished.

    Why should they take even a second away from development work to please the fashionistas and marketing slobs?

  40. Wow... by balaband · · Score: 1

    Let me get this straight: couple of biggest hardware manufacturers are putting their effort to bring full-blown GPL-licensed Linux distro on mobile devices, and you guys don't seem to care? I would imagine geeks all over the world would be jerking off on their monitors upon hearing this news...

    Am I missing something?

    1. Re:Wow... by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 1

      >> Am I missing something?

      Yes. Those who call themselves geek are discussing how wonderful it is to have one more band on their apple toy.

      See this and weep - http://i.imgur.com/LFA76.jpg

  41. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by MrHanky · · Score: 1

    It's interesting that while preaching "consistency" and "good UI", your examples are about gloss and marketing.

  42. Pr0n has always been at the leading edge by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    "I would imagine geeks all over the world would be jerking off on their monitors upon hearing this news..."

    I am quite capable of not getting it on my monitors, thank you very much!

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  43. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by moonbender · · Score: 1

    Yeah, Qt is great. I'm surprised nobody has tried building a decent desktop environment with it.

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  44. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    From what it sounds like, MeeGo might be a less than stellar MID or phone OS compared to say, Android,

    If MeeGo can match or beat its predecessor, it will be better than Android.

    - Maemo user

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  45. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Not only are they reference graphics, they're reference graphics being used as a desktop background. They could have used a plain blue screen or the infamous old goatshit brown Ubuntu background just as easily in their mockups.

    Those screenshots look very similar to Maemo's Hildon desktop - I hope they don't change to a "scrolling" task manager though, kinetic scrolling's novelty was dead to me after about 5 minutes, luckily kinetic scrolling menus also support "type to filter" or they would drive me insane.

    Kinetic scrolling is a dumb piece of eye candy, it needs to die now, let's go back to scroll bars, kthxbye.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  46. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

    Android was designed as a smartphone OS - It is very specifically not designed to work on large screens, and is very specifically designed to work well on small ones ...

    So it not having a nice friendly interface on a tablet is not surprising at all ...

    The advantage Apple has is that iOS is a scaled down full desktop OS designed for a mini-tablet that is also a phone, not an OS re-designed for a phone that has been scaled up to use on a tablet ...

    --
    Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  47. I hope we at last will be getting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...some graphics drivers for Linux from AMD. Last 4 years has been a nightmare if your laptop was born with an ATI card.

  48. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by bberens · · Score: 1

    Linux is a server OS that has been migrated to desktops, cell phones, set-top boxes, and tons of other devices. Frankly I don't think there's anything wrong with Android. The primary issue is that most manufacturers can't put together a decent hardware/UI package. I had an opportunity to play with a soon-to-be released Android tablet device and I was taken aback at how atrocious the feedback was on the touchscreen. I thought the iPad was horrible with being responsive to touch/slides but wow. Is that Google/Android's fault? No, it's the touchscreen manufacturer's fault.

    --
    Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
  49. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by arivanov · · Score: 1

    The primary issue is that most manufacturers can't put together a decent hardware/UI package.

    Exactly. Windows has made most of the established ones forget how to do it. None of the "stablished" PC players remembers how to do this any more. At the same time the phone players do not know how to do a bigger screen and a more PC like experience with some productivity apps that re not toys and get actual use. There are some examples here - Samsung, Archos and Sony come to mind, but that is about it. The rest of the industry has relied on someone else doing the UI for so long that they do not know how to do it. When you look at what Toshiba and HP have tried to ship it is frankly not even funny.

    So not surprisingly it is being returned and Apple continues to laugh all the way to the bank.

    --
    Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
    http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  50. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by arivanov · · Score: 1

    There are some examples - meant to say "exemptions", not examples. Should use preview next time... Sigh...

    --
    Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
    http://www.sigsegv.cx/
  51. + or Vs Android? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Is MeeGo increasing the robustness of mobile devices by offering variety? Or is it splitting the developer and consumer activity in mobile between MeeGo and Android, and so slowing down the pace and survival strength of mobile development?

    Both are happening. Which is stronger than the other?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:+ or Vs Android? by Teun · · Score: 1
      Android is backed by Googles money but is for important parts closed source plus there are serious doubts they are contributing up stream.

      MeeGo is run by the Linux Foundation thus truly Open Source and backed by money from Intel, Nokia and now possibly AMD.

      I'd put my money on MeeGo especially because I don't see Google actively hindering MeeGo.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  52. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    moonbender, you just made my day.

  53. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

    I love me some AMD, but this is just confirmation that mobile is where the money is at, and Intel and AMD are both out of the running compared to ARM-class chips (power usage), and are struggling to keep relevant.

    Specifically the "iPad cannibalization" meme is probably scaring the pants off the x86 chipmakers, who hope to stave off (or take relevant share) of the nascent tablet invasion.

    Bingo. Specifically, AMD and Intel are taking a competitive stance against Apple and Google. And all are doing their damdest to promote Linux! Who woulda thunkit.

    And there is another big theme here: anti-Java, pro native. Java on cell phones is just, in a word, idiocy. It introduces startup lag which people don't want, sucks more battery to do the same job, and has legal problems. This new situation should help Google get a clue and offer a proper native environment for Android development, as opposed to that weird malformed JNI silliness. With JNI you can in theory write native apps but they use Java as a launcher which introduces nasty startup latency, and its far harder to debug JNI apps than native. Plus the JNI interface is just sickening to work with.

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  54. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

    Linux is a server OS that has been migrated to desktops, cell phones, set-top boxes, and tons of other devices. Frankly I don't think there's anything wrong with Android. The primary issue is that most manufacturers can't put together a decent hardware/UI package. I had an opportunity to play with a soon-to-be released Android tablet device and I was taken aback at how atrocious the feedback was on the touchscreen. I thought the iPad was horrible with being responsive to touch/slides but wow. Is that Google/Android's fault? No, it's the touchscreen manufacturer's fault.

    No so. Linux is a terminal emulator that has migrated not just to desktops and servers, but practically every other kind of machine that can think, with the possible exception of pen clocks.

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  55. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

    Maybe AMD is getting involved because one, it can. It's pretty much the only real open source project for mobile that is being worked on.

    Wow, mod insightful! Indeed, because of open source AMD can invite itself to the party. It's amazing how open source can get the bitterest enemies to cooperate. This also happens in the film business where the competing studios all contribute to key production tools running linux. And incidentally, also run Linux on their IT servers and artists desktops (PHBs still run window$).

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  56. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by idontgno · · Score: 1

    No so. Linux is a terminal emulator that has migrated not just to desktops and servers, but practically every other kind of machine that can think, with the possible exception of pen clocks.

    Good point. I guess that's one market space NetBSD still owns. That and toasters.

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  57. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

    You've never had to scroll through a poorly thought out webform drop down list with 300 elements have you?

    Kinetic scrolling at that point made absolutely perfect sense.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  58. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, it is. My wife has used my N900 a bit since last Christmas - to text and call while traveling, to play Angry Birds, etc. Last night she updated her Motorola Cliq to from Android 1.6 to 2.1, and her first comment was, "Oh, look! I can put useful widgets on my desktop now, too!" And not long after, "Hey! I can play Angry Birds on my own phone now!"

    Give them time, and they'll catch up to Maemo... :-D

  59. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by BitZtream · · Score: 1

    So we know that Nokia's version of MeeGo is going to have an absolutely shitty UI ... Useful info.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  60. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by BitZtream · · Score: 1

    Wonder when you'll realize that 'four desktops' on a 'phone' is retarded.

    Its not target at the general market because no normal intelligent person would try to do the things you think makes the N900 rock on a phone, they'd use a full size device.

    Stop thinking the way to win the phone/tablet wars is to make a fully functional desktop computer out of them and realize that they have a place beside the desktop, not in place of the desktop.

    Why the fuck would I want to work on a 2-3" or 10" screen when I have a laptop that bearly consumes any more space than a tablet and is actually a real machine with a real OS that doesn't have to run cut down versions of apps.

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    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  61. A phone should be a "computer" by Yfrwlf · · Score: 1

    I'm all for getting rid of x86 if it is a poor, power-hungry standard, but standards are still very relevant. When I can go download Meego or Android from their website for say ARM or whatever other major arches there are out there, and install it on a wide variety of device models and types, let me know, because waiting for a specific build for a specific device is ridiculous and should not be needed. Normal Linux distros do a great job of detecting existing hardware and having drivers for everything, so this desperately needs to occur on smaller devices like "phones".

    --
    Promote true freedom - support standards and interoperability.
  62. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by exomondo · · Score: 1

    Linux is a server OS that has been migrated to desktops, cell phones, set-top boxes, and tons of other devices.

    Linux is just an operating system kernel, it is often customised for the target platform. It is not explicitly for Servers, Desktops, Mobile or Embedded devices.

  63. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by exomondo · · Score: 1

    From what it sounds like, MeeGo might be a less than stellar MID or phone OS compared to say, Android,

    If MeeGo can match or beat its predecessor, it will be better than Android.

    - Maemo user

    MeeGo needs to improve upon Maemo's basic functionality of supporting applications. Modest is just not good and the Application Manager is WAY too slow. I really like Maemo but the fact that some basic functionality lacks polish means widespread adoption is difficult to achieve.

  64. TDP isn't important by symbolset · · Score: 1

    TDP isn't a great metric unless your power budget is 4 watts. And then every solution that doesn't run in 4 watts is out of scope.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  65. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 1

    Android is a mobile phone OS that runs partly on Linux, partly on Dalvik (Java)

    Linux works fine on Tablets - Android does not ...

    --
    Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  66. Re:Desktop dinosaurs realize mobile cannibalizatio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't KDE built on qt? It sure counts as "tried" and many will call it decent.