What is MeeGo?

MeeGo

• MeeGo is opensource linux based mobile operating system.
• MeeGo was announced in Febraury2010.
• MeeGo is based on Linux and X11.
• MeeGo is backed up intel and nokia,hosted by non profilt consortium promoting Linux.
• MeeGo is intended to run on devices including handhelds,netbooks,in-car devices,televisions.
• Different userinterfaces tailored to each type of device support for x86 and ARM processors.
• MeeGo is not a product it is a platform for OEM's to build products on.

Why the necessity came for another embedded platform.

• since 2005 nokia has developed the linux based maemo platform for smart phones and tablets.
• since 2007 intel has developed linux based Moblin platform MID's,netbooks,nettops,and embedded devices.
• Both platform are Linux based and aimed at similar markets.
• Here the duplication of effort occurs.
• Even Nokia and Intel wont compete with each other "directly".(phones versus chips)
• It made sense to merge and work together.

Maemo & Moblin the differences

• Processor-Maemo used Atom processors where as Moblin used intel's X86 processers.
• In MeeGo both architectures are supported.
• Packaging-Moblin is based on Fedora core which uses [rpm] package format whereas Maemo is based on Debian which used debian package management system.[apt/deb]
• MeeGo decided to use rpm package format.

Pros and cons of MeeGo

pros

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• MeeGo is built on two existing and proven platforms.
• Most components are opensource.
• MeeGo has backing of large two companies.
• MeeGo is'nt owned or controlled by any one vendor.
• Core OS developement tools are free.
• Its easier to migrate for Maemo and Moblin developers.

cons

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• Risks of any new platform
• Not clear which devices will run it.
• MeeGO is not yet directly supported by Nokia Qt SDK.
• only X86 and ARM processors can be used.
• some components are not yet released.
• switch to Qt is new,significant change to GTK + developers.

MeeGo Components

OS Base , Middle-Ware,UX(Experience) Layers

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OS Base

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Here the Linux kernal and core services are present.

BootLoader,XDriver,Modem Support,Media Codecs.(Hardware adoption sw)

MiddleWare

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Hardware and usage model independent API for native and webbased application.

Qt plays crucial role here.

QtMobility component also exposes some middle level components for mobile devices.

UX (Experience)

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• This layer provides different UIs for different devices.all the UI's are based on Qt.
• MeeGO is required for Handheld embedded devices,in-car components,so the UX is easy to design in Qt.