Linux Foundation releases Meego for developers

THE LINUX FOUNDATION has released a "Day 1" version of the Meego handset distribution.

Meego is the Linux based operating system being championed by Intel and Nokia for mobile devices including phones and tablets. It has recently been chosen by Nokia to replace its aging Symbian OS on the firm's high end N-series mobile phones. This release is likely to pave the way for other handsets to run the operating system.

The release is not meant for production environments, rather the team is calling it a window into the "current works in progress" and how "applications will start to come together for our upcoming MeeGo 1.1 release". Compared to its rivals, the Meego's development release has a somewhat spartan feature list with the release notes saying that "a dialer, sms, photo viewer, browser and personal connection management applications" are included.

At present the team is providing ISO CD images for Intel's Moorestown hardware but offers extensive instructions for those who want to build an image to load onto Nokia's N900 tablet.

Since its announcement at Mobile World Congress, Meego has shown promise but little else. With Nokia's Symbian operating system seemingly unable to compete with Apple's Iphone OS and Google's Android, Meego is the best hope for the leading mobile phone handset manufacturer, which has lagged behind in the smartphone market.

The release should drum up more interest for Meego among handset developers, and both Nokia and Intel surely will be hoping that it can challenge Apple and Google. µ