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Friday, May 28, 2010

Nokia and Intel birth mobile Linux baby

Fast march on Android
Intel and Nokia have released the first code from their joint mobile Linux project, MeeGo, an effort to challenge Google's Android.

Three months after the project was announced, the two companies have delivered MeeGo 1.0. Intel said it provides a stable core foundation for application development and a "rich user experience" on netbooks. MeeGo for touch-based handsets, tablets, and in-car systems is due to appear in June. MeeGo 1.1, which will combine code for netbooks and touch-based devices, is scheduled for October.

Such is the desire to beat Google's Android, which is now moving from smartphones onto other mobile computing devices.

Mobile Linux efforts come and go, but Intel and Nokia are determined to make sure that MeeGo sticks around. MeeGo aims to be mutually rewarding, to create a viable mobile Linux for Intel's new Atom processor that attracts developers, while giving Nokia an open-source option for smart devices that these same devs are actually interested in.

Announced in February, MeeGo combined the companies' respective Moblin and Maemo Linux mobile projects. They've transferred stewardship to the Linux Foundation so MeeGo doesn't die a death in some corporate backroom. And they're talking tough on patents in Linux - Microsoft's favorite bogeyman - saying they'll go toe-to-toe against Microsoft or anyone else over patents by defending MeeGo with their own, huge portfolios.

MeeGo 1.0 is based on the 2.6.33 Linux kernel, features the next-generation BTRFS file system, Nokia's Qt 4.6 SDK, and what Intel called "various other operating system tools."

Intel called out a "fast and rich" internet experience using Google Chrome but also highlighted support for the open-source Google Chromium, while saying the planned MeeGo Handset edition will use Mozilla Foundation's Fennec browser.

You can read more here. ®

By Gavin Clarke in San FranciscoGet more from this author
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