Watch out Android! You’re not the only big boy in town with an open-source mobile operating system. Meego, a joint effort by Nokia and Intel, is trying to shake up the mobile community yet again.
Known as the “Moblin/Maemo” platform, Meego’s infrastructure is Linux-based and targeted to all developers as a true open-source system, just like Google’s Android OS. And Android’s done alright for itself so far.
On Wednesday, Nokia and Intel made an initial version of Meego available to developers. It is currently compatible with Nokia’s N900 phone as well as the “Atom” line of computers.
At the moment, this rudimentary version of the software is completely focused on the back-end, development tools, so there is no front-end user interface yet. Thus anyone who is not intimately familiar with the Linux kernel will have no use for the OS code that was released. For the community that is interested, though, it is available to boot from a USB stick or directly from the device.
Meego’s Imad Sousou described today’s release as follows:
“The MeeGo common core includes the various key subsystems including the core operating system libraries, the comms and telephony services, internet and social networking services, visual services, media services, data management, device services, and personal services.”
A full release build of the OS is due out some time in May. Stay tuned.
