Intel Drops MeeGo 121
PolygamousRanchKid writes with an article in CNet about yet more dismal news for MeeGo. Quoting the article: "Like the Moblin operating system before it, Linux-based MeeGo will will be merged out of existence. MeeGo will become Tizen, Intel said today. 'Intel joined Linux Foundation and LiMo Foundation in support of Tizen, a new Linux-based open source software platform for multiple device categories,' the company said in a statement. 'Tizen builds upon the strengths of both LiMo and MeeGo and Intel will be working with our MeeGo partners to help them transition to Tizen,' Intel said. The initial release of Tizen is expected in Q1 2012, enabling the first devices in the market mid-2012..."
PolygamousRanchKid adds "It seems one of those strengths is not actually making it into a product on the market yet." This on the heels of Nokia shipping the N9 (which is actually running a weird Maemo/Meego hybrid).
Interesting move. (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't help but notice that Samsung is a partner. Could this be the OS we kept hearing rumors about? You know the one where Samsung is nervous about Google's purchase of Motorola and needs to hedge its bets by having their own OS.
I would love to see Meego/Tizen continue to exist. I'm glad Samsung is stepping up to replace Nokia that went to Microsoft.
.deb and Qt, please (Score:5, Interesting)
Now if only they will bring back Maemo's Debian-based package management and properly maintained Qt support to their native applications, and it will be back to the direction where Maemo was supposed to be heading before Nokia fucked up.
Making it possible to merge at least some things that are now maintained in Maemo Community SSU [maemo.org] (last updated September 7 2011 if anyone did not notice), would be nice, too, however there certainly will be incompatibility with that.
Re:Misleading title (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure I'll get hate for pointing this out, but maybe all these projects are dying because they are pointless? Apple rules the tablet, MSFT the desktop, and the phone is split between Apple and Google. So where is the market they were going to capture?
Of course, if everybody thought like that, Apple would never have gone on to rule the tablet, nor MSFT the desktop, and neither Apple nor Google would be in the phone market. All of these segments were dominated by other vendors before.
So, far from being pointless, projects like Maemo are very interesting, because they have the potential to bring something new (and, in this case, more standard and open) to the scene. That's why it is so sad they have been going nowhere, and that is why we have this story on Slashdot. If it wasn't for that, Meego would just be another unpopular project that nobody cared about. It is interesting because, at least in theory, it could break the grasp of the major vendors.