First cut of MeeGo available today for N900 and Atom devices

While making it crystal clear that this is only intended for developers that want a mega-early look at the platform, Intel and Nokia's MeeGo team has just announced that the very first cut of the melded Moblin / Maemo mobile platform is available for download. Specifically, users of N900s, Atom notebooks, and Atom-powered Moorestown MIDs have all been gifted with their own distributions, which will boot off a USB stick or directly on the devices themselves. Sadly, the MeeGo user experience -- the good stuff, that is -- isn't included here, so if you flash your N900 you're going to end up booting into a terminal console, but hey, some of you sickos are into that sort of thing, aren't you? Next up for the team is a release billed 1.0 that will come in May, and we're told details on the road to that version will be unveiled over the coming days. Take care of yourselves if you go for it, alright?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Skinksallad Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:13PM]

This will create a lot of happiness, but also a lot of *Carefaces*....

[ARKB Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:15PM]

@Skinksallad
good release early release often

[cocopuffs Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:34PM]

@Skinksallad i wanna c an android nokia phone lol

[Oli D Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:45PM]

@cocopuffs I wanna c some proper spelling

[filjosh Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:53PM]

@cocopuffs Nokia please by Palm and save the WebOS also. Palm is lacking this kinda openness.

[ChazClout Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:54PM]

@Oli D
I wanna b a fish in the c.

[cocopuffs Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:19PM]

@Oli D how about u learn how ppl in the internet talk before u ask about proper spelling -_- most these ppl here dont give a s**t about spelling lol and its kind of hypercritical of u to say that specialy if u wanna mock me :p

[Broderbund Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:28PM]

@cocopuffs
If you think that's how people talk on the internet you need to stop spending so much time on Myspace.

[draftdubya Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:53PM]

@cocopuffs
LOL Whut

[williamlau05 Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:20PM]

@cocopuffs

why don't you learn to spell hypocritical properly first before accusing someone else of being one? Hypocrite!

[Edwards Sisters Hands Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:55PM]

@williamlau05 Hypercritical was perfectly acceptable.

[Exbloder Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:20PM]

*Scared face*

[dtakias Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:21PM]

Can't test yet, as my N900 is having it's micro usb repaired by Nokia! Come on Nokia! And get gold plated connector on the N900 successor!

[N900 Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:28PM]

@dtakias In my defense, you party too hard. =D

[From My Cube Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:32PM]

@dtakias

Monster cable approves of your complaint

[dtakias Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:47PM]

@N900

I actually do! But I am scared and always get my N95 on them!

[dtakias Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:49PM]

@From My Cube

Haha, I am sure they do!

[JonHolstein Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:26PM]

@dtakias
Why gold, gold is a soft metal, and actually not even the best metal for digital transfer...
But sure, you can complain an say that they should do it more sturdy, but then gold is not the way to go.

[MarkAnderson Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:24PM]

I like what they're doing - get the tech crowd engaged, get them to test the software and improve it then release it in a sexier shell to the mass consumer.

Genius.

[Leo Posted Apr 1st 2010 12:39AM]

@MarkAnderson
And that's the way it should be done! Public beta testing is really good. Look at Windows 7, huge public beta testing campaign and an extremely successful OS. Here's for N900 and Maemo/Meego!

[Tammacho Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:41PM]

So much for trying this out today. The repository site is slammed.

[Oli D Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:44PM]

Eugh enough terminal for me, I've just spent the last 2 hours trying to remember my way around DOS...

[DegreeThis Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:56PM]

@Oli D deltree /y c:\*.*
Sit back and relax!

[thenutty1 Posted Mar 31st 2010 7:47PM]

@Oli D
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[BergerFan Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:56PM]

You'd think that the industry leader(in units sold worldwide), who's been in the game since at least the very early '90's, would have enough wherewithal, to not have to let the public do their beta testing for them?

[ror Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:59PM]

@(Unverified)

Microsoft had 8 million beta testers for Windows 7.

[naashak Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:08PM]

@BergerFan

Its called open source and promoting a developer community around it.

[Flix C Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:21PM]

@BergerFan
yeah !!
Come on Nokia & Intel ! How dare you give a snapshot of your current work (on an open-source project which implies that you give your code away in exchange for community support and development)

You should hide it and never show or test it on real consumers before it's perfectly stable and has 0 security flaws (oh wait ...) like real companies do !

Like for instance Google who didn't publish 99% of their product in beta (Gmail, Maps, Google calendar, wave, buzz etc.. most are still in beta right now)
Or Microsoft.
Or blizzard !
Or any Linux based project (that's a lot so i'm not gonna list them..)

(for info : Meego is a Linux distribution, remember)

[JFH Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:07PM]

@BergerFan

Idiot

[christexaport Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:39PM]

FlixC said:

"Come on Nokia & Intel ! How dare you give a snapshot of your current work (on an open-source project which implies that you give your code away in exchange for community support and development)

You should hide it and never show or test it on real consumers before it's perfectly stable and has 0 security flaws (oh wait ...) like real companies do !"

Maybe you forget that this is an open source initiative, and development and input comes FROM the public, not done totally oblivious to them. And I wouldn't consider making the repository accessible to the public via an announcement from a developer site and the Maemo forums a consumer level offering. If Engadget hadn't mentioned it, you'd probably know nothing about it, but every Maemo.org and MeeGo.com member was aware long before this post.

By the way, the components are tried and true open source projects as well, and there should already be relative stability at this point. Its not much different from Maemo as is, just stripped of its UI. Its like most other Gnu Linux builds in that respect.

"Like for instance Google who didn't publish 99% of their product in beta (Gmail, Maps, Google calendar, wave, buzz etc.. most are still in beta right now)"

You pretty much contradict yourself, since Google's apps, though NOT open source, were tested on consumers as perpetual betas, and most are pretty successful. I think Nokia and Intel's way will be the way most large projects are done in the future. It saves US money, and gives us input into the future of the software, unlike what Microsoft and Apple typically do.

[Goc Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:43PM]

@christexaport
I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic.

[Hung Posted Mar 31st 2010 7:27PM]

@christexaport

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[Atlantian Posted Mar 31st 2010 10:20PM]

@ror thats beta this is Alpha

[Jacob1 Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:59PM]

"but hey, some of you sickos are into that sort of thing, aren't you? "

Don't judge me.

:)

[elhumano Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:06PM]

No need to flash it you can make a chroot,
http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/Meego_chroot_install_on_N900
You can use any ARM based Linux on this phone, like Ubuntu, Debian, Meego...

[EverythingBlaxx Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:09PM]

I would recommend that you guys refrain from installing this, it's really only for expert developers and it doesn't even have a GUI. It's just the kernal and a few gnu tools. Head over to talk.maemo.org if you want to see screenshots (it's just an x-terminal window)

[Ariel Bender Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:53PM]

Wow. To think that those 500,000+ iPad buyers this weekend should have held out for MeeNo.

Keep up the great job, Nokia. You too, Intel. Always remember that the future is uncertain, and the end is always near. For you, anyway.

[JFH Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:05PM]

@Ariel Bender

Wow. To think there is something beyond Apple. Keep up the great job, Ariel.

[WickedEast Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:22PM]

@Ariel Bender

Were you one of those 'tards who claimed the end was near for Linux when it came out too?

[JFH Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:03PM]

YES!!!

[johdaxx Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:15PM]

Ahh! An X-terminal window! The next big thing! Ah, sure will save on battery life...

[Atlantian Posted Mar 31st 2010 10:23PM]

@johdaxx don't be so sure this build has no battery management and a warning it could ruin your battery and device

[buntaicho Posted Mar 31st 2010 7:31PM]

I feel like this is the mobile equivalent of "roughing it in the wild." Such practices are reserved for people with survival skills and big furry beards.

[retarded commenter Posted Mar 31st 2010 8:25PM]

@buntaicho They're called neckbeards

[kingu Posted Mar 31st 2010 9:25PM]

Finally, my download started. :)

[Robbie Hottie Posted Mar 31st 2010 10:00PM]

*grabs his n900*
*runs and hides from MeeGo .0000000001*

[barry99705 Posted Mar 31st 2010 10:32PM]

Command line only at the moment for the netbooks.....

[HellFlyer Posted Apr 1st 2010 2:06AM]

Enjoy :D

http://www.students.tut.fi/~haapasa4/n900_meego.jpg