MeeGo 1.2 Released
jrepin sends word that the Meego project has announced the release of version 1.2:
"This release provides a solid baseline for device vendors and developers to start creating software for various device categories on Intel Atom and ARMv7 architectures. This release also includes the following: Netbook UX, In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) UX, Tablet Developer Preview and MeeGo SDK."
Sure looks like a Nokia-killed project. And Intel, I guess, as they were partners with Nokia in this, and certainly have the funds to keep it alive indefinitely if they choose to.
-Dave Haynie
MeeGo was a joint venture between Intel and Nokia. Even if Nokia abandons it's development, Intel will step up.
With sadness we note that this will probably be the last release of a doomed (Microsoft killed) project.
...because open source projects never make any releases, do they?
Meego is not meant only for mobile phones and several other companies are already committed to using Meego on tablets and in-vehicle devices. The claim "OMG Meego is dead because Microsoft controls Nokia!" is usually found in fora where people have no idea what Meego is.
I am a little confused. I have a netbook with version 1.4. Have they decided to just call all versions 1.2 or just the core, especially since the netbook page no longer lists 1.4 updates?
I really liked MeeGo's interface on my netbook but the styling is kind of childish. The other downside is the lack of applications offered and 3rd party audio support.
[J]
You must be out of the loop: Intel and MeeGo. Hopefully this release will be well received and Intel will continue their work. Also note, all of the tablet developer preview in this release was totally Intel's doing.
I hope so as well.
However, after the leaked? teaser of the N9?, maybe it will never be a official version for n900.
Just couple days ago a representative of Intel talked of "hiring 100-200 developers, initially" for Finnish offices (Nvidia is competing for these people, obviously with an Android slant), of which a vast majority MeeGo related. That is a considerable commitment, and potentially quite efficient after getting rid of awful amount of bureaucratic inertia of Nokia...
Meego is meant for hardware more powerful than the N900's, which was already rather antiquated at the time of its release. While Meego can be installed on an N900, it's only meant for developers to try out Meego handset software on. As a user, you're better off installing the Maemo Community SSU if you want to see further bug fixes and new functionality for your N900.
Today, I would not recommend it. In fact, it stands clearly as a Developer Version.
If you want to 'upgrade' your n900, I'd recommend you to try CSSU. Maybe you have already.
An "official" version for the N900 was never promised. It has always been simply a developmental target, with a bit more effort put into the DE version.
As a former Intel employee, I can assure you that the ground-level people at Intel think MeeGo is a fair target for any and all off-campus, lunchtime humor.
I'm sure that all three people who still care about MeeGo were really excited about this.
Intel would be silly to 'step up'.
Progress was slow even with Nokia giving it their full backing, but with Nokia effectively dropping it, this thing is dead as a mainstream, competitive smartphone OS.
Don't get me wrong - I was it weren't true. I wrote code for the original Nokia 770 and its successors would have preferred to see Maemo (or Meego) succeed instead of Android, but I've moved on and am now using Android and so should Intel.
And, speaking as someone who cares about the success and health of Linux, open-source, and the many other forms of openness, I guess I shouldn't be picky. Android might not be everything that Maemo was in those regards, but it is still most of those things that I care about. And when you look at alternatives like iOS and the BB OS, the differences between Maemo and Android seem absolutely tiny.
So, instead of lamenting the slow death of Maemo, we should probably be celebrating the fact that this truly is the year of Linux on the client (a.k.a. desktop), as demonstrated by the figures released yesterday for worldwide unit smartphone sales in 2011 Q1 which showed Android with a decisive lead of 36% compared to iOS and BB at 17% and 13%.
Arrrrgh...just saw the link. Frak me.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Wow, even the About page on their website barely tells you what it's for, what with all the marketing-speak and fuzzy, warm feeling. *stops responding to self*
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Yeah, nothing quite as awesome as adopting a platform wholly controlled by another company.
Isolated, insular, and unhelpful to the greater open source community?
But on a moment's notice, everything but a handful of packages in Android could be closed up as tight as iOS whereas MeeGo cannot.
I see people virtually cheering for some terrible fate to befall MeeGo, in favor of an OS that absorbs effort from outside but benefits no one but Google and can be closed up tight on a whim (with actions to show they can and are willing to!)
At this point I'm convinced that you're illiterate.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The link to that old blog post is very mis-leading, which was written at the height of the Nokia/Microsoft announcement, when the partners really really wanted to hype WP7. Let me quote the relevant text from the whole piece right here:
Okay Slashdotters, what is wrong with this? What better option are you suggesting, if you really like the idea of an open, linux phone? The timing of the Meego announcement today has everything to do with the upcoming Meego conference in a few days' time in San Francisco, where in all likelihood the Nokia N950 will be revealed. I saw the teaser video before YouTube pulled it and it looks sweet. What is not to like, other than Nokia dedicating less resources than before? They are NOT ending their Meego support, but they are looking for Slashdotting-type Devs to enbrace their new "elegant, Developer-focused" N950 hardware, along with Meego 1.2 available today for a range of mobile devices.
No, I'm actually very conservative. *rimshot*
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
MeeGo was a joint venture between Intel and Nokia. Even if Nokia abandons it's development, Intel will step up.
Intel makes and sells chips, they do not sell operating systems, or devices which directly need operating systems. This was a gambit by them to promote the use of Atom and try to get some leverage in the mobile OS market. Without Nokia they have no horse in this race and no reason to continue supporting Meego, and even if they did try to, they have no OS expertise, no direct channel to market, and no real business reason to continue funding it. So it will die.
Development choices are often political (like it or not), and as with QT, this project sadly will have no future because the former backers have no financial interest in continuing to promote development, and no interest in seeing that it becomes a healthy standalone OS project either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Tiua4BNQo
This is running MeeGo, and we were able to confirm the screen is 720p and has a 12MP camera. So, that's pretty exciting...
As others already said it's meant for more powerful hardware.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go
>^_^< I can't help but smile when people choose names that are already associated with something else, even if they vary the spelling. (When the Teabaggers hit the new a few years ago I roflmao'd till I turned blue!) You know folks, you can Google this stuff before you publicize your chosen names...
From the linked announcement, which you obviously didn't bother to read:
MeeGo development continues forward on a six-month cadence, with MeeGo 1.3 scheduled to be released in October, 2011.
This was a gambit by them to promote the use of Atom and try to get some leverage in the mobile OS market. Without Nokia they have no horse in this race and no reason to continue supporting Meego...
Perhaps you haven't been paying attention to what Intel's been saying. I'm not sure they'll be successful, but if continued work on Meego is part of their plan, I'm glad to see them try.
At least from a developer perspective, Android seems a lot closer to BB OS than Maemo/MeeGo. It uses a bytecode interpreter, a non-X GUI, and a Java SDK with libraries that are highly reminiscent of J2ME.
On the other hand, Maemo doesn't look deader now than it has at any time over the last five years - a new device (the N950) is coming out with a new Maemo version, Maemo 6. I'm cautiously optimistic that it will continue to fill the power-user niche that it does now.
The GPL? Virtually all of the software is under GPLv2, barring a few non-critical bits.
Well yes, when you hype it up, throw money at it, and convince people that you are the open mobile OS (but only for mobile handset vendors and carriers) then you'll get attention.
Repeating a point made in ignorance doesn't make it true.
I am concerned with the movement of open source mobile OSes, and Android is completely detached from everything that exists already. On top of that, it's held almost entirely by Google who have show no hesitation to close the source when they saw it fit.
But hey, rant with more bad information more.
Yup, this is happening.
I live in Finland and have friends/contacts/etc. who are involved in MeeGo both professionally and as a hobby.
Shortly after the Microsoft announcement, Intel spread the work among Nokia MeeGo people, and held a huge recruiting event. In the meantime, third-party subcontractors who were doing a lot of MeeGo work for Nokia are now getting contracts from Intel.
It makes sense, if you think about it. Intel desparately needs to make inroads into the mobile market. MeeGo was a part of that strategy, and suddenly it was undercut by Nokia. Hiring a few hundred developers to keep that strategy alive is peanuts for a company the size of Intel, and well worth the investment.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
I clicked the link you provided and it does not look as bad as you say:
I didn't see anything that explicitly said the Nokia was abandoning MeeGo. I did see that Symbian will be killed in favor of Windows Phone.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
By antiquated you surely mean more powerful in both cpu and gpu than any iOS or Android phone?
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
I was thinking mostly of the lack of RAM. As for the GPU, aren't those drivers closed to Meego?
Agree that Intel have little incentive now. Before it made sense to hedge their bets when the OS of their main partner Microsoft had been a dismal failure and one of the largest mobile handset manufacturers in the world had thrown their weight behind Meego. Even at the risk of raising the ire of one of their best partners in the previous couple of decades, the volume of Nokia sales was too hard to ignore.
Now with the only mobile manufacturer committed to MeeGo paid off to kill it, why would Intel continue? They don't make phones. They certainly aren't a software company set up to compete with Google and its Android OS. The fastest rising star in mobile phones Samsung is committed to Bada and Android. Blackberry have committed to QNX.
Seems pretty dead to me. Shame as I wanted one.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
And BTW this is not new. MS did something similar with Corel more than a decade ago:
http://www.geek.com/articles/news/microsoft-buys-into-corel-2000103/
http://www.forbes.com/2000/10/03/1003corel.html
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/news2/details-of-corel-microsoft-deal-revealed
It uses a bytecode interpreter
JIT compiler, since 2.2.
And, of course, native SDK is available since 1.5. These days they even provide handy C wrappers for UI-related Java stuff, so you can really and truly write the whole thing in native code, including event handler entrypoints.
a Java SDK with libraries that are highly reminiscent of J2ME.
I wouldn't say that Android libraries are reminiscent of J2ME, to be honest, aside from the fact that they're also written in Java.
Are you sure about the N950 having Maemo 6? Everything I've read said that Maemo 6 became MeeGo and that any new devices will be running that.
But on a moment's notice, everything but a handful of packages in Android could be closed up as tight as iOS whereas MeeGo cannot.
The core os uses the licenses of upstream projects (which aren't all copyleft licenses) and UX components are generally permissive OSS licenses.
In any case the idea that it couldn't be 'closed up' is silly anyway, in both projects the open source code exists, if either project turned to proprietary replacements for those open components (be it different software or a proprietary fork) it's likely development of those open components would continue via OSS forks anyway.