MeeGo: Nokia and Intel merge Maemo and Moblin
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted February 15th 2010 5:52AM
posted February 15th 2010 5:52AM
Intel and Nokia Merge Software Platforms for Future Computing Devices MeeGo* enables an open ecosystem for rapid development of exciting new user experiences
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS:
• Global leaders Intel Corporation and Nokia merge Moblin and Maemo to create MeeGo*, a Linux-based software platform that will support multiple hardware architectures across the broadest range of device segments, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems.
• MeeGo offers the Qt application development environment, and builds on the Moblin core operating system and reference user experiences. Using Qt, developers can write once to create applications for a variety of devices and platforms, and market them through Nokia's Ovi Store and Intel AppUpSM Center.
• MeeGo will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and governed using the best practices of the open source development model. The first release of MeeGo is expected in the second quarter of 2010 with devices launching later in the year.
• Nokia and Intel expect MeeGo to be adopted widely by global device manufacturers, network operators, semiconductor companies, software vendors and developers.
ESPOO, FINLAND, and SANTA CLARA, CALIF., Feb. 15, 2010 – In a significant development in the convergence of communications and computing, Intel Corporation and Nokia are merging their popular Moblin and Maemo software platforms. This will create a unified Linux-based platform that will run on multiple hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Called MeeGo, the open software platform will accelerate industry innovation and time-to-market for a wealth of new Internet-based applications and services and exciting user experiences. MeeGo-based devices from Nokia and other manufacturers are expected to be launched later this year.
This announcement strengthens the Nokia and Intel relationship, and builds on the companies' broad strategic collaboration announced in June 2009. Intel and Nokia now invite participation in MeeGo from existing Maemo and Moblin global communities and across the communications and computing industries.
"Our vision for seamlessly communicating between computing devices from the home, auto, office or your pocket is taking a big step forward today with the introduction of MeeGo," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "This is a foundational step in our evolving relationship with Nokia. The merging of these two important assets into an open source platform is critical toward providing a terrific experience across a variety of devices and gaining cross- industry support."
"MeeGo will drive an even wider range of Internet computing and communication experiences for consumers, on new types of mobile devices," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia. "Through open innovation, MeeGo will create an ecosystem that is second to none, drawing in players from different industries. It will support a range of business models across the value chain, building on the experience and expertise of Nokia, Intel and all those who will join us. Simply put, MeeGo heralds a new era of mobile computing."
MeeGo blends the best of Maemo with the best of Moblin to create an open platform for multiple processor architectures. MeeGo builds on the capabilities of the Moblin core OS and its support for a wide range of device types and reference user experiences, combined with the momentum of Maemo in the mobile industry and the broadly adopted Qt application and UI framework for software developers.
MeeGo also unites the robust worldwide Maemo and Moblin applications ecosystems and open source communities. For developers, MeeGo extends the range of target device segments for their applications. Using Qt for application development means that they can write applications once and easily deploy them on MeeGo and across other platforms, for example, on Symbian.
The Ovi Store will be the channel to market for apps and content for all Nokia devices, including MeeGo and Symbian-based, with Forum Nokia providing developer support across all Nokia device platforms. The Intel AppUpSM Center will be the path to market for Intel-based MeeGo devices from other device manufacturers, with the Intel® AtomTM Developer Program providing support for applications targeting devices in a variety of categories.
The MeeGo software platform, running on high-performance devices, will deliver a range of Internet, computing and communication experiences, with visually rich graphics, multitasking and multimedia capabilities and the best application performance. Since MeeGo runs on multiple device types, people can keep their favorite applications when they change devices, so they are not locked into one kind of device or those from any individual manufacturer.
MeeGo Hosted by the Linux Foundation
The MeeGo software platform will be hosted by the Linux Foundation as a fully open source project, encouraging community participation in line with the best practices of the open source development model. Intel and Nokia invite the respective members of Maemo.org and Moblin.org to join the combined community at MeeGo.com, as well as encouraging wider participation from the communications, computing and related industries. Developers can begin writing applications for MeeGo in Qt immediately. The first release of MeeGo is targeted for the second quarter of this year.
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS:
• Global leaders Intel Corporation and Nokia merge Moblin and Maemo to create MeeGo*, a Linux-based software platform that will support multiple hardware architectures across the broadest range of device segments, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems.
• MeeGo offers the Qt application development environment, and builds on the Moblin core operating system and reference user experiences. Using Qt, developers can write once to create applications for a variety of devices and platforms, and market them through Nokia's Ovi Store and Intel AppUpSM Center.
• MeeGo will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and governed using the best practices of the open source development model. The first release of MeeGo is expected in the second quarter of 2010 with devices launching later in the year.
• Nokia and Intel expect MeeGo to be adopted widely by global device manufacturers, network operators, semiconductor companies, software vendors and developers.
ESPOO, FINLAND, and SANTA CLARA, CALIF., Feb. 15, 2010 – In a significant development in the convergence of communications and computing, Intel Corporation and Nokia are merging their popular Moblin and Maemo software platforms. This will create a unified Linux-based platform that will run on multiple hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Called MeeGo, the open software platform will accelerate industry innovation and time-to-market for a wealth of new Internet-based applications and services and exciting user experiences. MeeGo-based devices from Nokia and other manufacturers are expected to be launched later this year.
This announcement strengthens the Nokia and Intel relationship, and builds on the companies' broad strategic collaboration announced in June 2009. Intel and Nokia now invite participation in MeeGo from existing Maemo and Moblin global communities and across the communications and computing industries.
"Our vision for seamlessly communicating between computing devices from the home, auto, office or your pocket is taking a big step forward today with the introduction of MeeGo," said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. "This is a foundational step in our evolving relationship with Nokia. The merging of these two important assets into an open source platform is critical toward providing a terrific experience across a variety of devices and gaining cross- industry support."
"MeeGo will drive an even wider range of Internet computing and communication experiences for consumers, on new types of mobile devices," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia. "Through open innovation, MeeGo will create an ecosystem that is second to none, drawing in players from different industries. It will support a range of business models across the value chain, building on the experience and expertise of Nokia, Intel and all those who will join us. Simply put, MeeGo heralds a new era of mobile computing."
MeeGo blends the best of Maemo with the best of Moblin to create an open platform for multiple processor architectures. MeeGo builds on the capabilities of the Moblin core OS and its support for a wide range of device types and reference user experiences, combined with the momentum of Maemo in the mobile industry and the broadly adopted Qt application and UI framework for software developers.
MeeGo also unites the robust worldwide Maemo and Moblin applications ecosystems and open source communities. For developers, MeeGo extends the range of target device segments for their applications. Using Qt for application development means that they can write applications once and easily deploy them on MeeGo and across other platforms, for example, on Symbian.
The Ovi Store will be the channel to market for apps and content for all Nokia devices, including MeeGo and Symbian-based, with Forum Nokia providing developer support across all Nokia device platforms. The Intel AppUpSM Center will be the path to market for Intel-based MeeGo devices from other device manufacturers, with the Intel® AtomTM Developer Program providing support for applications targeting devices in a variety of categories.
The MeeGo software platform, running on high-performance devices, will deliver a range of Internet, computing and communication experiences, with visually rich graphics, multitasking and multimedia capabilities and the best application performance. Since MeeGo runs on multiple device types, people can keep their favorite applications when they change devices, so they are not locked into one kind of device or those from any individual manufacturer.
MeeGo Hosted by the Linux Foundation
The MeeGo software platform will be hosted by the Linux Foundation as a fully open source project, encouraging community participation in line with the best practices of the open source development model. Intel and Nokia invite the respective members of Maemo.org and Moblin.org to join the combined community at MeeGo.com, as well as encouraging wider participation from the communications, computing and related industries. Developers can begin writing applications for MeeGo in Qt immediately. The first release of MeeGo is targeted for the second quarter of this year.
Mmmm, naked fruit.
Classic Engadget propaganda once again....
"Today Nokia announced a rather bizarre partnership with Intel. Namely, the two companies are merging their odd, half-finished, Linux-based OSs into one crazy little package called... MeeGo."
This is great news for Intel and Nokia. Maemo is an great OS and hopefully this will only strenghten it. Not sure about the name change but I'm looking forward to this.
If this had been Apple and Intel anouncement this would have been the holy grail of news...
@anttimonty There is no way that Nokia will ever appease the fanboyism of Engadget bloggers...
Thankfully Nokia is back on track (not thanks to Engadget). I just do not understand why Nokia insists in quoting Engadget as something good and reputable.
@Mr w00t
Maybe because, if obviously biased Engadget doesn't bash a Nokia product, then it's success is obviously indeniable.
I'm mixed. Politically it makes sense since Intel now has their fingers in a semi-major (or potentially major) mobile OS, while Nokia has another company to trumpet their OS to other companies. But I'm a little worried the two projects colliding will be more like a train wreck than a great OS. People have been pinning Maemo 6 as the point it would be ready for mainstream, but this pushes that behind.
@MrPointedHelix
as long as it all stays QT based, we're all good :D. developers can make one app and just recompile it to run on linux, s60, and s^3.
so this is great news! not only will we get the best of both worlds (moblin had a lot of promising stuff and maemo is amazing), we'll also see it in all kinds of devices (and hopefully better processors)
some people are regretting their n900 purchases after hearing about this, but im not. and no one else should be either. when you want to roll with the latest and greatest, then you should already expect to be replacing your handset after 6 - 9 months (and have budgeted accordingly).
it will be at least that long before we start to see any devices actually get shown with this tech, and in the meantime i really do enjoy every single day on my n900. the conversations integration, multitasking, interface, web browsing, and especially the community are all the best ive ever experienced.
i dont know what is supposedly so half-baked about maemo. i do things with it that i have never been able to do with a phone before. i noticed a sharp decrease in the time i have spent using my laptop because i can do most things on my phone. i primarily use the dashboard screen because i can have youtube auto-playlists, a speedometer, maps, the fm transmitter, conversations, and whatever else i want all open at the same time and all windows updating live. and in the rare event that i think of something else i wish the phone could do but it cant, someone else from the community has also thought of it and has a program available to make it do that.
oh, and i almost forgot, ive seen it run just about every os i can think of. windows, nt, os x, android, dos, (and game emulators too). so im pretty confident that even without nokia's help, i'll be able to get this device up and running with the next os. if im wrong, well, thats the name of the game as i already mentioned... i'll have gotten my 9 months out of this device (which i also got with my 5800, and in retrospect do not regret a bit), and it'll be time to move on to the next "must have."
Can't wait!
This is great news; merging Open Source Projects is always a benifit for others. (o: Maybe this will bring new ideas to other platforms like Android.
This is probably a really, really good thing. I wanted Maemo to replace S60, and this only makes things better for sure.
@giggig well I meant really for their smart phones, although the S^3 might have changed my mind about using S60 as a base and just improving the UI. I just hate the stupid signature crap that has to be done with S60 and would love for them to get rid of that garbage, otherwise my N95 8GB is the best.
@giggig
And if they make future Symbian apps compatible with Maemo (QT), everybody wins.
Can't wait till this comes alive. 2H 2010!!
@Alexandertron .. you really are an embarrassment to your fellow Nokia fanbois. I think this is a great and smart move for Intel/Nokia but the fact is nothing has been released. So perhaps you should wait until something has been released.
And you have two of the biggest players as your competitors: Google with both Android and Chrome OS as well as Apple. They aren't going to just sit back and do nothing.
This is the best news ever!!
Too late. The Booklet 3G should have been running a large-screen experience of Maemo from the start instead of being just another Win7Starter. And as for some other special Intel chip special device down the pike, merging the code may work, but I'm frightened to see Moblin and Maemo UIes mixed. Hopefully the Moblin UI goes bye-bye.
waiting for t-mobile to try and sue both intel and nokia for using their colours
This is pretty huge. The great thing about Maemo is that it could easily handle mobiles and tablets, booklets etc. Getting something like it on a larger range of devices sounds great.
Haven't really had much contact with Moblin, so I'm just hoping Meego isn't missing any of the great features of Maemo.
Both Intel and Nokia behind a single platform that is so close to Debian sounds pretty great for Linux in general too.
I knew it since I heard they were doing a joint press conference, doesn't make sense to introduce moblin to compete with maemo and further divide their market of early adopters. Should be very interesting to see what comes of this as by all accounts maemo is already a great platform.
WAIT A FREAKIN SECOND!!!!!!
None of us should be acting so surprised! All of us (including Joshua) just haven't been paying attention!
Although the name "MeeGo" might be new, they have been working on this since May last year, as reported by Engadget!
Nilay said, "We don't know many details, but the project seems to be pulling people from both Intel's Moblin initiative and Nokia's Maemo project..."
Read it here...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/15/nokia-and-intel-collaborating-on-new-linux-based-phone-os-called/
@Robbie Hottie
oFono is only the telephony part, I think. So oFono is a component of MeeGo, but could also have been used in both Maemo and Moblin even if they didn't merge.
Great move, shitty name though, and I Wish they had some kind of demo device -- it's clear a lot of work needs to be done before we will see any of these devices ready for consumers.
Will it use RPM or DEB? These two distros seem completely incompatible.. i'm guessing there will be no backward compatibility with older apps.
@JLIT99 they think they'll gowith RPM.
But at this point I would consider that an unfortunate initial mid-management decision. The whole project is nothing more than wapor-ware at this stage, unlike Maemo 6
I hope this is not indicative of Nokia: make n770, abandon its users, make n880, abandon its users, make n900, abandon it's users and developers, make Maemo 6, abandon its users and developers, make MeeGo, ... see the pattern?
So far if you want to get a expensive, high-end smartphone and keep using it for 3-4 years and still get the latest software, Nokia would not be the place to go to.
RPM
As long as the keep the N900's browser.
Honestly? This has desperation written all over it.
Nokia is leading in market share now, but as of the Windows Phone intro, their future is as a simple phone OEM, i.e. they'll be the Dell of the phone business.
interesting. Moblin is now GTK+ based. It's a good move for intel to switch to a Qt based platform. It's a more complete/modern application framework. Also, having a UI that 'scales' from a 3-4' to 10' or more is the way to go. You should be able to connect your mobile phone to a big screen and get an appropriate UI and vice versa (have a remote view/access of your desktop on your phone, as a thin client, but with an appropriate UI)
Still waiting for ovimaps for the n900.
I wonder if this will get the full version of ovimaps?
@look a cow Either you are lying/trolling saying that N900 does not have a full Ovi Maps or you are just incapable of accessing it.
I even installed Maps for entire Europe on it.
@Mr w00t there is no turn-by-turn navigation version of Ovi Maps for n900
@(Unverified) Did he say turn-by-turn? Neither did I...
Hrm, I really don't like the name but this sounds interesting. I hope Maemo programs will work on Meego.
I dont know much about moblin.. please lil help here.
So MeeGo is an OS? for phone,mid,tablet,netbook with brand new UI ??
and Nokia soon will run this like maemo?
what about symbian^3/Symbian^4 ?? N,E series phones will run symbian?
THANKS!!
They must really like Android to try and copy it like this. It's nice to see Nokia moving to open source all of its operating systems.
@Student Driver
The "netbooks, tablets, connected TVs" part is plain and simple: MeeGo:x86 is what Android:ARM, period. The vagueness about support of platform is deliberate - Nokia and Intel seem to know where they are headed and thats Nokia devices, powered by Intel processors running MeeGo. Nokia gains from Intel's muscle on suppliers, OEMs and ODMs whereas Intel gains from Nokia's reputation in mobile and its solid devices R&D and world class sales channels.
I hopes operating systems for mobiles turn out like computer ones in the near future.
We would be able to pick what OS we want on our smartphones.
Anyone else find it odd that the partnership with the Linux foundation is not being discussed?
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/lp/page/meego
Excuse me, does anyone know if this is it for Nokia at MWC ?
No new phones and such?
bared fruit?!?! how risque!
Looks like anything non pc will be linux . I better start and practicing my linux commands ...ls...sudo...aptget...
So, iPhone OS and Android, have tremendous velocity in terms of user mind share, developer mind share, App Stores and application diversity/volume.
Nokia's response to a confusing series of FAILED (by the above criteria) OS is.....drum roll.....YET ANOTHER OS????!!!!!
Wait. No.
It is YET ANOTHER POWERPOINT ABOUT ANOTHER OS.
When is this OS going to be available?
When will it have a fully functioning App Store?
When will it hit 150,000 apps that iPhone OS has after 2 years or the 15,000 Apps the Android has after 1/2 year?
Can you imagine what the world will be like, with iPhone OS and Android 4.0 or 5.0 plus the hundreds of thousands of Apps they'll have by then?
Nokia is like a deer caught in the headlights of the iPhone/Android. Intel is like a mouse caught in the same headlights. The fact that the mouse jumped on the deer's back changes nothing - except that it will delay them even further.
Ranked by the relevant criteria of App availability and user/developer mindshare, it will be:
iPhone
Android
RIM/Windows Phone 7
WebOS
MeeGo - until it gets dumped/cancelled
Uh oh... nobody has pointed out that they are using T-mobile Magenta!!
I am concerned about this.... I am not very trusting of Intel... I was really hoping for ARM/Maemo to push forward the next generation of Linux computing.
Is that it for NOKIA? no more press event?
No announcement of new phones coming out soon?!
Meego and S^3 UI preview... and that was it!? wow!
Well, as a developer, I'm really hoping this takes off. Only time will tell how it will play out in the marketplace, but I really like it - I joined the web site / developer mailing list less than an hour after seeing the announcement.
http://borasky-research.net/2010/02/16/i-go-with-meego/