MeeGo is a Linux-based operating system for portable devices. It’s the product of a partnership between Nokia and Intel which brings together Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin environment. This operating system could power your smart phone and your netbook as well as other devices you might not consider like a vehicle or an embedded system.
Since it popped up back in February, MeeGo has gained some steam and has recently picked up quite a few partnerships with both hardware and software companies. MeeGo competes directly with Android and, by default, against the iPhone OS. It remains to be seen if the Open Source OS will be able to gain traction, but this latest news seems to indicate that it does have a chance.
As far as netbooks go, Intel has some specs available for the MeeGo-powered devices. Firefox has been taken out of the picture and replaced with Google Chrome (or, more likely the open source Chromium based on the same code).
For mobile devices, Fennec will be the web browser of choice. This browser is from Mozilla and does actually support Flash. VOIP and Instant Messaging are included. Also, social networking is integrated and GPS should be supported for the location-based app lovers out there. The potential interfaces for mobile are below and quite compelling.
The MeeGo product release schedule shows version 1.0 coming out some time next month. 1.1 should be released during the 4th quarter of this year, and v1.2 should be available during the 1st quarter of next year. Developers can download MeeGo and start developing applications for it now. Some of the basic features of the environment include:
- Performance optimizations and features which enable rich computational and graphically oriented applications and connected services development
- No-compromise Internet standards support delivering the best web experiences
- Easy to use, flexible and powerful UI/app development environment based on Qt
- Open source project organization managed by the Linux Foundation
- State of the Art Linux stack optimized for the size and capabilities of small footprint platforms and mobile devices, but delivering broad Linux software application compatibility
It remains to be seed how and if MeeGo will have any major effect on the mobile device market as it relates to Android and the iPhone , but a little competition can only make sure end users get the best product possible.
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