MeeGo or Maemo grown up February 15, 2010
Posted by Florian in kernel concepts, Linux, LinuxToGo, Maemo, MeeGo.trackback
Wee..! Big news – Intel and Nokia joining their open source software platforms Maemo and Moblin into a single one: Meego
So what does this mean for developers and device manufacturers? One thing is for sure: The new platform will become the “grown up” version of Maemo and Moblin. Especially for the Maemo part this means that the focus will change from targeting a very few devices and a quite well-defined software stack to a more generic way to support multiple hard- and software environments. And this is good – only a portable and easy to support platform is attractive for the device makers while the availability of multiple devices is important for its attractively among software developers.
It looks like we have interesting times ahead…
Handhelds, Linux and Heroes 
Qt trumps my toolkit of choice a second time in the mobile arena.
I’d appreciate non-sugar coated commentary about Gtk+’s failed efforts here. Sigh.
Especially since GTK+/Clutter are still in the game :
http://meego.com/developers/meego-architecture
Actually clutter should replace QT and GTK once it has a world class UI widgets
QT and GTK are old and well past their sell by date and cannot compete with the OpenGL powered scene/graph animation thats needed to compete with iPhone/iPad
umm.. Qt has had OpenGL powered scene/graph functionality for almost 2 years and already has a robust built in animation framework in 4.6.
jim – look up QGraphicsView. It has been around for a few years so it’s pretty mature.
Also, Qt is spelled Qt. QT is QuickTime.
Looks like GTK/Clutter is not only optional but nothing builds up on it in the diagram.
A lot of the problem for Gtk+ is a failure of the Gnome Board and community to look at taking Gnome beyond the desktop (yes there has been lots of talk at time, but it seems the only action by the community is to convert Mono apps to C). Red Hat simply isn’t interested in the mobile market, and they are the biggest (only?) funder of Gtk+ work.
Having said that, I don’t think this is a bad thing for Gtk+ per say given that Moblin seemed to be going nowhere due to Intel’s inability to deliver a low power chip, and Maemo seems to be stuck as well given the apparent lack of interest in the N900 outside of Europe.
For better or worse the future seems to be iPhone OS (now also on a tablet) and Android (also coming on tablets as well as phone), with Blackberry a distant third. The interesting one to watch will be MS, a reason for Intel dumping Moblin might be something coming soon from MS (speculation on my part).
so there’s no reason to buy an N900 now, right?
Well, i’m still thinking on buying a N900 and just updating the firmware :D
Stupid pr move if you ask me :/