The first day of Mobile World Congress marked a big step for Nokia, with the company announcing a collaboration with Intel and the merging of its excellent Maemo operating system with the Moblin operating system. MeeGo is the result – an Open Source OS aimed at connected devices. Is it any good though? To find out what those in the know think, read on after the break…
We’ve only known about it for one day, and already MeeGo is dividing opinion. We think it has a lot of potential, as Maemo proved to be one of the most intuitive yet versatile operating systems currently available. However, we’ve been looking round the other sites on the internet to gauge the reaction of the collaboration.
Engadget didn’t seem too enthusiastic about the announcement, pointing out that Intel and Nokia are “merging their odd, half-finished, Linux-based OSs into one crazy little package”. They went on to further dampen the spirit by writing: “why the two monoliths have decided to pair up on these decidedly niche platforms rather than focusing energies on their front and center [sic] products is anyone’s guess”.
Reg Hardware also appeared underwhelmed at the announcement, pointing out that MeeGo “will undoubtedly be satirised as ‘MeeToo’, given its clear intention to fight the rise of Android and the iPhone”.
Thankfully, not everybody sees the collaboration as a negative thing, with Linux.com seeing the potential that MeeGo clearly has to offer: “With MeeGo you have the world’s largest chip manufacturer and the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturer joining forces to create an incredible opportunity for developers who want to reach millions of users with innovative technology.”
“MeeGo is a next generation mobile operating system designed for the next generation of mobile phones”, said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation.
Florian Boor, from Swik also recognised that MeeGo has a lot to offer, stating “In my opinion there is a lot of potential in MeeGo”, before going on to point out that in order to become an Android killer the OS “needs to focus on different things Maemo did so far”. Boor finished by saying that he’s “pretty sure ‘The Big Merge’ is going to cause quite some movement in the mobile device landscape”.
Being an Open Source operating system, there’s no reason MeeGo shouldn’t be able to match the standards set by the Maemo 5 OS found on the Nokia N900 – a handset that has proved one of the most popular devices of 2009. With extra backing from Intel to go along with Nokia’s excellent track record, we’re certainly excited.