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Open Source Linux

MeeGo 1.2 Released 76

Posted by Soulskill from the plowing-ahead dept.
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."
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MeeGo 1.2 Released More

MeeGo 1.2 Released

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  • With sadness we note that this will probably be the last release [thenokiablog.com] of a doomed (Microsoft killed) project.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hazydave ( 96747 )

      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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mmlado ( 1576943 )
      MeeGo was a joint venture between Intel and Nokia. Even if Nokia abandons it's development, Intel will step up.

      • 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

        • I've moved on and am now using Android and so should Intel.

          Yeah, nothing quite as awesome as adopting a platform wholly controlled by another company.

          Android might not be everything that Maemo was in those regards, but it is still most of those things that I care about.

          Isolated, insular, and unhelpful to the greater open source community?

          And when you look at alternatives like iOS and the BB OS, the differences between Maemo and Android seem absolutely tiny.

          But on a moment's notice, everything but a handful

          • 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.

        • Re:With% sadness... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by the linux geek ( 799780 ) on Friday May 20, 2011 @12:57PM (#36193798)
          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.

          • 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.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by flibby ( 928270 )
            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.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by horza ( 87255 )

          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?

      • 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

        • 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 [slashdot.org]. 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.

    • With sadness we note that this will probably be the last release [thenokiablog.com] of a doomed (Microsoft killed) project.

      ...because open source projects never make any releases, do they?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • 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.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        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...

        • Re:With sadness... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Ami Ganguli ( 921 ) on Friday May 20, 2011 @01:09PM (#36193880) Homepage

          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.

    • 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:

      Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later thi

    • 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.

    • I clicked the link you provided and it does not look as bad as you say:

      Under the new strategy, MeeGo becomes an open-source, mobile operating system project. MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices, platforms and user experiences. Nokia still plans to ship a MeeGo-related product later this year.

      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.

  • 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]

    • 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?

      There was never a 1.4 release. In fact, they only just released 1.2.

      I really liked MeeGo's interface on my netbook but the styling is kind of childish.

      All of MeeGo's user interfaces are merely references, intended to be augmented or replaced outright by 3rd parties that use the distribution.

      The other downside is the lack of applications offered an

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        A full distribution would need to adopt MeeGo as their base and build a full and proper repository for it (similar to Linux Mint basing itself off Ubuntu), same for 3rd party audio as MeeGo's kernel is absolutely stock upstream from kernel.org

        Only in a absolutely vague sense. The reference kernel is upstream with small patches.

        The 'adaptation' kernels have a bunch of patches applied.

        For example the moorestown kernel (tablet form factor):
        http://build.meego.com/package/files?package=kernel-adaptation-mrst&project=devel%3Akernel

        Especially the ac patchsets are quite large.

        • The patches have to be accepted upstream before they are allowed to be backported to the reference kernel. So while they may be patches to a kernel, the code has been pushed upstream and a newer kernel could be used.

          The fact that things are getting pushed upstream at all is amazing. The dearth upstream activity from pretty much all Android vendors makes life hell for themselves and anyone interested in their hardware.

  • Ahh, MeeGo... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

    • It's the cheering from the Google crowd, over the fact that they have managed to derail other non-Google, truly open projects in favor of theirs that they have shown willing to close completely on a whim (which they defend with pathetic, stupid arguments) while treating the open source community that has grown up around it as second class.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Desler ( 1608317 )

        while treating the open source community that has grown up around it as second class.

        The open source community was always second-class when it came to Android. Android was and always has been "open source" for the benefit of the OHA and the phone manufacturers. That you people still fail to realize this is rather amusing. It's amusing that Google is so worshipped as an "open source friendly" company because they will occasionally throw a bone and some scraps out yet the vast majority of their software and revenue generating products are proprietary.

      • It's the cheering from the Google crowd, over the fact that they have managed to derail other non-Google, truly open projects in favor of theirs

        They haven't derailed anything. The beauty of open source is that if it's worth continuing development on then that is what will happen, if Meego fails then all it proves is that it wasn't good enough.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Tiua4BNQo [youtube.com]
    This is running MeeGo, and we were able to confirm the screen is 720p [maemo.org] and has a 12MP camera. So, that's pretty exciting...

    • I should mention that this is the "developer device", there's another one without keyboard that is faster or something. Nokia employees are hinting like crazy.
      It could be the one [nokiagadgets.com] from the Red Steel trailer.

    • Is that MeeGo, or Maemo 6/Harmattan? My understanding was that M6 wouldn't be built on a MeeGo core, but would just offer a degree of API compatibility.
  • 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...

    • I just assumed that was deliberate. I mean the symbol for BSD is a Devil after all, why not make an OS named after a Lovecraftian monster?

      I use EasyPeasy though. Maybe I'll switch.

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