5 ms·

Intel reportedly plans to back off MeeGo OS

18 points by ssclafani 15y ago

yuvipanda 15y ago
A dead OS is finally buried.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    > 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/ http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/ [2] http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/screenshot-full.gif http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/screenshot-full.gif
    - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
      Isn't Enlightenment a fork of that?
- daliusd 15y ago
  It would be sad day because I really love my Nokia N950.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
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 15y ago
  They (as in Intel) don't say that, it was a rumour from "industry sources". Intel say that ``it remains committed to MeeGo''.
cletus 15y ago
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 15y ago
  Certainly not the same as killing WebOS, but MeeGo was a nice OS.
cookiecaper 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    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 15y ago
      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.
mdg 15y ago
Does anyone know what effect this will have on the clutter project?
- pavlov 15y ago
  MeeGo uses Qt rather than Clutter, so probably not much.
  - nedrichards 15y ago
    [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.
    - mdg 15y ago
      I know you cant speak on behalf on Intel, but pretty much the "is supported by the open source community. Its development is sponsored by Intel." on http://clutter-project.org http://clutter-project.org still stands ?
    - pavlov 15y ago
      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.

18 points by ssclafani 15y ago

yuvipanda 15y ago

A dead OS is finally buried.

rbanffy 15y ago
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 15y ago
  > 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/ http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/ [2] http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/screenshot-full.gif http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/screenshot-full.gif
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Isn't Enlightenment a fork of that?
daliusd 15y ago
It would be sad day because I really love my Nokia N950.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

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 15y ago
They (as in Intel) don't say that, it was a rumour from "industry sources". Intel say that ``it remains committed to MeeGo''.

cletus 15y ago

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 15y ago
Certainly not the same as killing WebOS, but MeeGo was a nice OS.

cookiecaper 15y ago

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 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    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.

mdg 15y ago

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

pavlov 15y ago
MeeGo uses Qt rather than Clutter, so probably not much.
- nedrichards 15y ago
  [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.
  - mdg 15y ago
    I know you cant speak on behalf on Intel, but pretty much the "is supported by the open source community. Its development is sponsored by Intel." on http://clutter-project.org http://clutter-project.org still stands ?
  - pavlov 15y ago
    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.