
Intel reportedly plans to back off MeeGo OS - ssclafani
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110901PD217.html
======
cookiecaper
This is an unsubstantiated rumor.

I don't know if anyone here actually read the article, but it's just a couple
paragraphs that say Intel will be releasing an Android or Windows phone in the
near future and that they've "temporarily" put MeeGo on hold due to lack of
interest.

Quoted immediately after this is an Intel statement asserting that "[Intel]
remains committed to MeeGo..."

~~~
beagle3
Which is PR speak for "we're killing it but not yet confirming".

MeeGo is way behind Android with much less to offer, and much less investment.
If it's not dead yet, it will be because of this "temporary" hold, which
Android (which is just as cheap for manufacturers) continues to make huge
leaps.

Sadly, Intel would be better off scrapping MeeGo and the Itanium - but for
now, they don't officially do either.

~~~
cookiecaper
MeeGo also has a much broader set of target platforms along with some other
fundamental philosophical differences. Android is exclusively a mobile OS and
it diverges significantly from a typical Linux install, whereas MeeGo is much
more standard and can run normal applications without too much trickery, as I
understand it.

MeeGo could be very interesting. Every distribution doesn't need to have the
goal of "crush Android, become #1 marketshare". MeeGo could even get there
eventually, but I don't think that's ever been a priority for the Intel/Nokia
team.

And let's not forget that MeeGo was formed by combining Maemo and Moblin; both
Intel and Nokia were working on the software independently before Elop sold
out to his buddies at Microsoft, so there's not necessarily a reason to
believe that Intel doesn't have an interest in continuing the project
independently.

There is still a lot of hope for MeeGo as far as I'm concerned. It'd be a
shame if Intel dropped it merely because Nokia has become a Microsoft pawn and
Android is going on to (at least short-term) dominance of the mobile phone
market.

~~~
beagle3
It's a question of cost vs. benefits. I know how Google benefits from Android;
I know how Nokia was planning to benefit from Maemo/Meego before Elop
happened.

I have no idea how Intel is planning to benefit from MeeGo. And talking to one
of the MeeGo program guys a few months ago, I'm not sure Intel does either --
it's not keeping anyone an Intel customer, with ARMs eating their lunch on
every device other than the extended PC family (laptops, netbooks, desktops,
servers) - and of these, the cheaper two are already showing nontrivial signs
of ARM presence, through keyboard-docked-tablets like the Iconia and
Transformer.

------
MatthewPhillips
Strange that they say this now, there have recently been a few Meego OS based
netbooks come out. I believe the Asus was even a top seller on Amazon for a
short time.

~~~
lambda_cube
They (as in Intel) don't say that, it was a rumour from "industry sources".
Intel say that ``it remains committed to MeeGo''.

------
yuvipanda
A dead OS is finally buried.

~~~
rbanffy
Open source never dies. It may lie dormant until someone decides to resurrect
it. It may die when the last copy of its source is erased. That's not likely
to happen, as most of it is already scattered around dozens of source-control
repos.

~~~
ilikepi
> Open source never dies.

Your assertion immediately led me to try to come up with a counter-example,
and the first candidate that popped into my head was FVWM95[1]. This was a
dumb choice of course, as it was a popular package in its day, and it's not
_that_ old in the grand scheme of things. I suppose there's a decent chance
that a few people out there still run it on old machines, perhaps even just
for the novelty. In fact, the shot of the full desktop[2] reminds me that I
still occasionally use xcalc, partly because of its light weight and partly I
suppose for the nostalgia of it.

To your point, I'm sure there are plenty of software projects whose last
remnants exist only on dusty tape cartridges in the basements of university
computer science departments. For practical purposes, it seems reasonable to
call these "dead". I'd bet there are many more projects in this state than
there are people willing to resurrect them. It's safe to say though that MeeGo
has a ways to go before it reaches this point.

[1] <http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/>

[2] <http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/screenshot-full.gif>

~~~
MatthewPhillips
Isn't Enlightenment a fork of that?

------
cletus
Isn't this akin to pulling the plug on a brain-dead patient?

Also in breaking news: Fusion Garage cancels plans for a JooJoo 2. Film at 11.

~~~
firefoxman1
Certainly not the same as killing WebOS, but MeeGo was a nice OS.

------
mdg
Does anyone know what effect this will have on the clutter project?

~~~
pavlov
MeeGo uses Qt rather than Clutter, so probably not much.

~~~
nedrichards
[n.b. I work for Intel on MeeGo]

MeeGo Netbook uses Clutter. It also supports Qt applications. Other products
from our partners have used Clutter and I would expect them to use Clutter in
the future.

~~~
pavlov
Thanks for the correction.

I had been under the assumption that switching all the various GUIs over to Qt
was part of the reason why MeeGo came to be in the first place... That is, the
point was to harmonize mobile Linux by settling on common components even if
that means abandoning some work (e.g. rpm packages instead of Maemo's apt, Qt
instead of GTK+).

If MeeGo didn't even accomplish that, I have to question why Maemo and Moblin
were ever merged. The two projects would have probably fared better on their
own, without the uncertainty of the MeeGo reset. Now both lost their momentum
and have been painted as part of the "MeeGo flop", undeservedly or not.

