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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet computers, mobile computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, SmartTV

Meet MeeGo

Android might get all the headlines, but MeeGo, the little Linux that could, may yet become an important Linux for your phones, netbooks, tablets, and cars.

I always liked Moblin, Intel’s embedded Linux, and I thought that Nokia’s Maemo was interesting, but really did the world need yet another embedded Linux operating system? I thought not, and neither did they. The two technology giants, with the help of the Linux Foundation, merged the two together to create MeeGo.
At this point, you might be wondering, “What about Android?” You know, the number one with a bullet embedded Linux that is now selling faster than Apple’s iOS devices and eating RIM’s Blackberry for lunch? Well, yes, there is that, but there just might be enough room for two important Linux distributions for devices. At least, MeeGo’s supporters are certainly hoping that’s the case.

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Meet MeeGo

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http://www.smart-developer.com/Magazine/Archives/2011/01/Meet-MeeGo

MeeGo

MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet computers, mobile computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, SmartTV /

I'm thinking that this OS may work on Older Laptops too...

Don

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the mobile operating system, for other uses see Meego
MeeGo
MeeGo logo.svg
Notebook Edition
Company / developer Linux Foundation, Intel, Nokia, Novell, Meego community
Programmed in C++
OS family Linux
Working state Current
Initial release 26 May 2010 (2010-05-26)
Latest stable release 1.1 / 28 October 2010; 25 days ago (2010-10-28)
Marketing target Mobile
Package manager RPM Package Manager
Supported platforms ARM and x86
Kernel type Monolithic (Linux)
Official website meego.com/

MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project.[1] Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances in the consumer electronics market, MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet computers, mobile computing and communications devices, in-vehicle infotainment devices, SmartTV / ConnectedTV, IPTV-boxes, smart phones, and other embedded systems.[2] MeeGo is today hosted by the Linux Foundation.[3]

It was first announced at Mobile World Congress in February 2010 by Intel and Nokia in a joint press conference, with the started aim is to merge the efforts of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo former projects into one new common project. According to Intel, MeeGo was developed because Microsoft did not offer comprehensive Windows 7 support for the Atom processor.[4] Novell also plays a large part in the MeeGo effort, working with the Linux Foundation on their build infrastructure and official MeeGo products, and MeeGo is increasingly using more of Novell's technology that was originally developed for openSUSE, (including openSUSE Build Service, ZYpp for package management, and other system management tools).[2][5] In November 2010, AMD also joined the alliance of companies that are actively developing MeeGo.[6]

Harmattan, originally slated to become Maemo 6, is now considered to be a MeeGo instance (though not a MeeGo product), and Nokia is giving up the Maemo branding for Harmattan and beyond (Maemo 5, aka Fremantle, and previous versions will still be referred to as Maemo).[7]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Overview

MeeGo is intended to run on a variety of hardware platforms including handhelds, in-car devices, netbooks and televisions.[8] All platforms share the MeeGo core, with different “User Experience” (“UX”) layers for each type of device.

[edit] System requirements

MeeGo provides support for both ARM and Intel x86 processors with SSSE3 enabled [9] and uses btrfs as the default file system.[10]

[edit] User interfaces

Screenshot of MeeGo’s Netbook UX

Within the MeeGo project there are several graphical user interfaces – internally called User Experiences (“UX”).

[edit] Netbook

The Netbook UX is a continuation of the Moblin interface. It is written using the Clutter-based Mx toolkit.

MeeGo’s netbook version uses several Linux applications in the background, such as Evolution (Email, calendar), Empathy (instant messaging), Gwibber (microblogging), Chromium (web browser), and Banshee (multimedia player), all integrated into the graphical user interface.

[edit] Handset

Handset UX from MeeGo 1.1 “Day 1”

The Handset UX is based on Qt, but GTK+ and Clutter will be included to provide compatibility for Moblin applications.[9] To support the hundreds of Hildon based Maemo applications, users have to install the Hildon library ported by the maemo.org community. Depending on the device, applications will be provided from either the Intel AppUp or the Nokia Ovi digital software distribution systems.[11]

The MeeGo Handset UX’s “Day 1” prerelease was on June 30, 2010. The preview was initially available for the Aava Mobile Intel Moorestown platform, and a ‘kickstart’ file provided for developers to build an image for the Nokia N900.[12][13]

[edit] Tablet

MeeGo’s Tablet UX as a pre-alpha version

Intel demonstrated the Tablet UX on a Moorestown-based tablet PC at COMPUTEX Taipei in early June 2010.

Since then some information appeared on MeeGo website indicating there will be a Tablet UX part of the MeeGo project, but it is not known if this UX will be the one demonstrated by Intel. This Tablet UX will be fully open source like the rest of the MeeGo project and will be coded with Qt and the MeeGo Touch Framework.[14] Intel has revealed interest in combining Qt with Wayland display server instead of the often seen Qt/X11 combination in MeeGo Touch in order to utilize the latest graphics technologies supported by Linux kernel, which should improve user experiences and reduce system complexity.[15][16]

Minimum hardware requirements are currently unknown.

The WeTab runs MeeGo and is available since September 2010[17]

[edit] In-Vehicle Infotainment

MeeGo’s IVI UX as shipped with MeeGo 1.1

The GENIVI Alliance, a consortium of several car makers and their industry partners, uses Moblin with Qt as base for its 'GENIVI 1.0 Reference Platform' for In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) and automotive navigation system as a uniformed mobile computing platform. Graham Smethurst of GENIVI Alliance and BMW Group announced in April 2010 the switch from Moblin to MeeGo.[18][19]

[edit] License

MeeGo is a complex project that involves many vendors and organizations. Its license policy is mainly documented at the “MeeGo License Policy”[20] page. Considering the nature of MeeGo’s targeting markets – the mobile and handset sectors – which, unlike the desktop software market that tends to adopt one or two major software vendor’s operating systems, is highly diversified and hence differentiation is taken as of vital importance by both device makers and software vendors. Therefore MeeGo’s license policy is, at one hand, trying to encourage the fostering of derivative work while at the same time, keep the project as open as possible.

From the distribution point of view, MeeGo is a collection of open source software, which are distributed conforming to their respective licenses.

From the development point of view, which mainly address the way of adopting software from the free software community on account of license, MeeGo software can be classified into two categories: the Operating System (OS) software and User Experience (UX) software. The OS software should mainly be using a copyleft license to ensure the openness of the underlying system, while the UX software should be dominantly of BSD-style licenses, which do not preclude proprietary development and thus encourage device makers and OS vendors to make derivative work and differentiate their respective products.[20]

The licenses of MeeGo developed technologies, such as fast-boot, power and speed optimizations are of interest to derivative products and projects. Those technologies spread among the system and can’t be easily isolated out. For example, the fast-boot technology consists mainly of the fast and small Syslinux bootloader[21], a new system service and software launcher called "uxlaunch", the optimized read-ahead component, little tweaking and tuning among many software services. The license policy is that these changes should follow the base work’s license upon which they are made, that is to say, the corresponding upstream project’s license policy. For example, MeeGo’s work on the Linux kernel is available under the license of the Linux kernel.

[edit] Technical foundations

[edit] Core OS

The MeeGo Core operating system is a Linux distribution, drawing on Nokia’s Debian-based Maemo and Intel’s Fedora-based Moblin.[22] MeeGo is one of the first Linux distributions to use the Btrfs file system as default, and uses RPM repositories.

[edit] Software development

The officially endorsed way to develop MeeGo applications is to use the Qt framework and Qt Creator as development environment, but writing GTK applications is also supported.[23]

openSUSE’s Build Service is used to compile the applications.[24]

[edit] Derivatives

As with Moblin before, MeeGo also serves as a technology pool that software vendors can access to build their products from. So far only ports of the graphical user interfaces to other Linux distributions have been announced.

[edit] MeeGo/Harmattan

Even though MeeGo was initiated as collaboration between Nokia and Intel, the collaboration was formed when Nokia was already developing the next incarnation of its Maemo Linux distribution. As a result, the Maemo 6 base operating system will be kept intact while the Handset UX will be shared, with the name changed to “MeeGo/Harmattan”.[7]

[edit] SUSE and Smeegol Linux

Novell has recently announced that they will soon ship a SUSE Linux incarnation with MeeGo’s Netbook UX (MeeGo User Experience) graphical user interface.[25]

An MeeGo-based Linux distribution with this user interface is already available from openSUSE's Goblin Team under the name Smeegol Linux, this project combines MeeGo with openSUSE to get a new netbook-designed Linux distribution. What makes Smeegol Linux unique when compared to the upstream MeeGo or openSUSE is that this distribution is at its core based on openSUSE but has the MeeGo User Experience as well as a few other changes such as adding the Mono-based Banshee media player, NetworkManager-powered network configuration, a newer version of Evolution Express, and more. Any end-users can also build their own customized Smeegol Linux OS using SUSE Studio.[26][5]

[edit] Fedora

Version 14 of Fedora, scheduled to be released on 2 November 2010, will also use the MeeGo Netbook UX for a “spin”.[27]

[edit] Linpus

Linpus Technologies is working on bringing their services on top of MeeGo Netbook and MeeGo Tablet.[28][29]

[edit] Splashtop

The latest version of the instant-on OS Splashtop-platform (by Splashtop Inc. which was previously named DeviceVM Inc.) is compliant with MeeGo, and future version of Splashtop will be based on MeeGo and will be available for commercial use in the first half of 2011.[30][31]

[edit] Release Schedule

It was announced at the Intel Developer Forum 2010 that MeeGo would follow a six month release schedule. Version 1.0 for Atom netbooks and a code drop for the Nokia N900 became available for download as of Wednesday, 26 May 2010.


Version Kernel version Release date Notes Devices Supported (Netbooks) Devices Supported (Handsets)
MeeGo 1.0 2.6.33[32] 26 May 2010[33] Primarily a Netbook release; only a code drop was released for mobile devices (the Nokia N900). Asus EeePC 901, 1000H, 1001P, 1005HA, 1005PE, 1008HA, Eeetop ET1602, Dell mini10v, Inspiron Mini 1012, Acer Aspire One D250, AO532-21S, Revo GN40, Aspire 5740-6025, Lenovo S10, MSI U100, U130, AE1900, HP mini 210-1044, Toshiba NB302. Nokia N900 (No handset UX).
1.01 2.6.33.5[34] July 2010[34] Update to MeeGo 1.0; Kernel updated to 2.6.33.5, USB device loading time improved, improved 3D performance, browser enhancements, resolved multiple e-mail client issue, enhanced netbook window manager, improved visuals, full support for GNOME proxy configuration in the media player, more control over DNS settings.[34] All Netbooks supported by MeeGo 1.0; see above. None
1.02 2.6.33.5[35] 9 August 2010[35] Update to MeeGo 1.0; X-Server Update, Connection Manager Update, Package Manager UI Update, Perl Update and several more.[35] All Netbooks supported by MeeGo 1.0; see above. None
1.03 2.6.33.5[36] 10 September 2010[36] Update to MeeGo 1.0; several Updates, e.g. Chromium browser, Connection Manager[36] All Netbooks supported by MeeGo 1.0; see above. None
1.04 2.6.33.5[37] 12 October 2010[37] Update to MeeGo 1.0; several security updates, better support for Lenovo S10-3 , ...[37] All Netbooks supported by MeeGo 1.0; see above. None
1.1 2.6.35[38] 28 October 2010[39] Touch-based devices support proposed with the Handset UX [40] Unknown Aava and Nokia N900
1.2 TBA H1 2011[33]
Unknown

[edit] Launch

MeeGo phones will not be available until the 1st half of 2011.[41]

[edit] Phones

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Grabham, Dan (2010-02-15). "Intel and Nokia merge Moblin and Maemo to form MeeGo". techradar.com. http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/intel-and-nokia-merge-moblin-and-maemo-to-form-meego-670302. Retrieved 15 February 2010. 
  2. ^ a b "openSUSE News - Announcing Smeegol 1.0". http://news.opensuse.org/2010/10/06/announcing-smeegol-1-0/. Retrieved 2010-10-06. 
  3. ^ http://meego.com/about/faq, FAQ on MeeGo website, retrieved 29 May 2010
  4. ^ "Intel: MeeGo exists because Microsoft let us down". TechRadar. 20 April 2010. http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/processors/intel-meego-exists-because-microsoft-let-us-down-684665. 
  5. ^ a b "openSUSE Releases MeeGo-based Smeegol Linux". http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODY1Ng. Retrieved 2010-10-06. 
  6. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/15/amd-will-contribute-engineering-expertise-to-meego-development/
  7. ^ a b ""maemo.org - Talk - Renaming Maemo 6 to MeeGo/Harmattan"". http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=529073&postcount=14. Retrieved 2010-02-27. 
  8. ^ http://meego.com/devices
  9. ^ a b "MeeGo FAQ". http://meego.com/about/faq. Retrieved 2010-02-15. 
  10. ^ "MeeGo project chooses Btrfs as standard file system". The H. 12 May 2010. http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/MeeGo-project-chooses-Btrfs-as-standard-file-system-999051.html. 
  11. ^ "MeeGo Press Release". http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100215corp.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-15. 
  12. ^ "MeeGo Handset UX Day 1 Blog Post". http://meego.com/community/blogs/valhalla/2010/meego-handset-project-day-1-here. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
  13. ^ "MeeGo Handset UX Developer Preview". http://meego.com/downloads/releases/1.0.80.8/meego-handset-day1-developer-preview. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
  14. ^ "MeeGo tablet UX". http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=1281. Retrieved 2010-08-31. 
  15. ^ Michael Larabel (September 16, 2010). "Where Wayland May First Appear In Use By A Distro". Phoronix. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODYwMQ. Retrieved 11 October 2010. 
  16. ^ Michael Larabel (September 21, 2010). "Qt Is Now Drawing On Wayland". Phoronix. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODYyNQ. Retrieved 11 October 2010. 
  17. ^ "WeTab is based on MeeGo". The H. October 13, 2010. http://wetab.mobi/en/faqsen. 
  18. ^ http://linux-foundation.org/weblogs/press/2010/04/12/public-support-for-the-meego-project/
  19. ^ http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Genivi-selects-MeeGo/ Genivi Alliance selects MeeGo for automotive infotainment (eWEEK LinuxDevices.com)
  20. ^ a b "MeeGo License Policy". http://meego.com/about/licensing-policy. Retrieved 2010-07-07. 
  21. ^ http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/The_Syslinux_Project
  22. ^ "Intel switches from Ubuntu to Fedora for Mobile Linux". http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Intel-switches-from-Ubuntu-to-Fedora-for-Mobile-Linux-736599.html. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
  23. ^ http://wiki.meego.com/MeeGo_Netbook_and_GTK
  24. ^ http://wiki.meego.com/Build_Infrastructure
  25. ^ "Novell Announces Support for MeeGo". http://www.novell.com/news/press/novell-announces-support-for-meego. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
  26. ^ "openSUSE MeeGo repo". http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Meego:/. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
  27. ^ FedoraProject: Features/MeeGo 1.0
  28. ^ "Linpus Lite for MeeGo". http://www.linpus.com/news/2010/08/31.html. Retrieved 2010-08-31. 
  29. ^ "Slides about Linpus Lite MeeGo". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-_uwrhFIAA. Retrieved 2010-08-31. 
  30. ^ "DeviceVM Goes MeeGo-Compliant with Splashtop Product". http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100914005686/en. Retrieved 2010-09-14. 
  31. ^ http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODczNw Remember SplashTop? Here's An Update On Them
  32. ^ "Intel and Nokia release MeeGo v1.0", The H, 27 May 2010, http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Intel-and-Nokia-release-MeeGo-v1-0-1008900.html .
  33. ^ a b "MeeGo at IDF. Netbook and Handheld Eye Candy, Chrome, Fennec and Lots of Developer Details", Carrypad, 13 April 2010, http://carrypad.com/2010/04/13/meego-at-idf-netbook-and-handheld-eye-candy-chrome-fennec-and-lots-of-developer-details/ .
  34. ^ a b c "MeeGo 1.01 for Netbooks update", All About MeeGo, July 12, 2010, http://www.allaboutmeego.com/news/item/11800_MeeGo_101_for_Netbooks_update_.php .
  35. ^ a b c MeeGo v1.0.2 Core Update, September 21, 2010, http://meego.com/downloads/releases/updates/meego-v1.0.2-core-update .
  36. ^ a b c MeeGo v1.0.3 Core Update, September 21, 2010, http://meego.com/downloads/releases/updates/meego-v1.0.3-core-update .
  37. ^ a b c MeeGo v1.0.4 Core Update, October 19, 2010, http://meego.com/downloads/releases/updates/meego-v1.0.4-core-update .
  38. ^ "MeeGo project releases preview source code", The Tech Journal, July 2, 2010, http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/tablet/meego-project-releases-early-handset-code.xhtml .
  39. ^ "MeeGo 1.1 Release". MeeGo.com. October 28, 2010. http://meego.com/community/blogs/valhalla/2010/meego-1.1-release. 
  40. ^ MeeGo v1.0 Core Software Platform & Netbook User Experience project release
  41. ^ http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/home-it/42365-intelnokia-meego-phones-are-no-go-until-1st-half-of-2011

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