Intel, Nokia partner to create MeeGo mobile platform

[Matthew DeCarlo]

What do you get when the world's largest chipmaker and cell phone manufacturer shake hands? A peculiarly named operating system that can power virtually any mobile device. Intel and Nokia have agreed to merge their mobile operating systems, Moblin and Maemo, to forge a new software platform called MeeGo.

The Linux-based OS will run on a variety of hardware including mediaphones, pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, connected TVs, and in-car infotainment systems. MeeGo will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and will be entirely open source to encourage community participation. Developers can begin writing applications in Qt immediately, and the operating system should debut in the second quarter of this year.

Weird name or not, MeeGo could take off. Manufacturers often tweak existing operating systems to fit new roles -- iPhone OS on the iPad and Windows 7 Starter on netbooks and tablets for example. Others create their own software, such as Lenovo and its Skylight UI. The greatest competition for MeeGo will likely be Google's Android and Chrome OS -- the latter of which will arrive in the same timeframe, so it should be an interesting bout.

Will MeeGo fill a void, or is it just another contender in an increasingly cluttered mobile OS market?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37925-intel-nokia-partner-to-create-meego-mobile-platform.html

 

[Clrabbit]

You know.... I don't care how good it is with a Name like MeeGo I refuse to use it. That is the lamest name for a OS yet...

 

[Regenweald]

This is exciting news to me and I hope that the Moblin/Maemo hybrid really takes off, although I'm confused as to whether the Clutter toolkit is being abandoned for QT or if it will somehow be integrated. I also hope Intel won't restrict MeeGo to it's own x86 mobile platform as it did with Moblin and contributes to another powerhouse for the ARM platform. Great news.

 

[emzdhr]

Android rules.

 

[Guest]

@ regenweald
MeeGo will support clutter, but I think the main development framework will be Qt.*
It will also be available on both ARM and Intel architectures.*

As a user of Maemo 5 on the N900, I think that MeeGo has a lot of potential. Intel and Nokia can take advantage of the best parts of both platforms as well as the large, active communities.
Something I hope either Intel and Nokia, or the community do is make MeeGo available for the N900. I only recently bought mine and I won't be buying another expensive device any time soon.

I don't think MeeGo will really compete with other mobile operating systems because it's based around bringing a desktop experience to a pocketable device, with an optimised user interface and phone functionality. Other powerful smartphone devices are mainly phones with some computer functionality. Instead, I think MeeGo will fill the gap between netbooks and smartphones.

*http://meego.com/about/faq

 

[Punkid]

two of the greatest partnering up