The greatest opportunity for Linux developers-meego

The current operating system environment is changing with each passing day. This article will briefly introduce a rising star, meego.

Meego has become the biggest opportunity for Linux developers. It has rapidly emerged in the blue ocean of Internet computing in recent months.

In May February, The meego Linux platform integrated with Intel moblin and Nokia maemo was released. The two companies hope to improve the unity of the ecosystem and win-win cooperation, and develop meego into an industry-standard mobile Linux platform, supports multiple terminal devices and processor platforms. Intel and Nokia have cooperated with the Linux Foundation to maintain vendor neutrality and build a broader camp.

In May March, Intel released the first meego Operating System Development version to developers. One version is used to configure the netbook of the Intel Atom processor, and the other is used for Nokia's N900 smartphone. Doug Fisher, vice president of Intel Software and Services, said meego is a cross-domain Linux operating system platform and an open-source Linux-based software platform for the next generation of computing devices, applicable to smart phones, netbooks, tablets, online TVs, multimedia phones, and on-board Entertainment Information Systems

In August April, Intel's 2010 Beijing Information Technology Summit (idf2010) demonstrated future applications of multiple screens such as meego smartphones, netbooks, and online TVs. Idf2010's meego lecture venue in Beijing is crowded and enthusiastic. During the Q & A session of each lecture, on-site Linux developers are very well asked, many technical staff have been involved in Linux's many years of project talents and programming experts.

In May, the official meego 1.0 version was released and available for download. The meego 1.0 released includes two parts: the complete meego 1.0 netbook user experience, and the support for the Intel Atom processor-based meego 1.0 and N900 core meego 1.0 software platforms.

In just over three months, open source players have made some achievements or are ready to move. In idf2010, The meego 1.0 test version officially appeared on the IDF theme podium on the intel N450 processor's Acer Aspire One battery. Meego is becoming the biggest playground for Linux open-source operating systems. Application developers can write a program at one time to use it on smart phones, netbooks, tablets, online TVs, multimedia phones, on-board entertainment information systems, and other application hardware platforms, this is meego's commitment and strategic development direction, and is also an increasingly popular competitive strategy in the smartphone field.

 

What developers expect is meego1.0

In April 6, it was the first day of meego development to be open to the outside world. This is the last step for maemo and moblin to be fully integrated. Imad sousou, head of Intel open-source technology center and Co-Chairman of meego TSG, wrote in his blog, "Nokia and Intel's teams all over the world are working to share the meego operating system code with the open-source community, and we are glad to open these databases and open the development progress process, as we did in the beginning." In the early days, the provision of some critical meego source code meant that the project was indeed as committed, and development was very transparent and open. He said there is still much work to be done before releasing the platform to consumers. The official release of meego 1.0 will be July middle May.

What is meego open? Sousou said, including meego distributed infrastructure, Linux core operating system infrastructure, OS infrastructure, and middleware layer. The meego infrastructure is based on a Common Core and uses different utilization modes, such as netbooks, portable laptops, on-board devices, and online TVs. The meego shared core includes different key sub-service systems, such as core operating system library, communication and telephone services, Internet and social services, video services, media services, data management, device services and personal services.

There are three architectures in the meego code repository, each supporting different hardware platforms: atom-based netbooks, ARM-based Nokia N900, and atom-based portable devices (moorestown ). One developer said in the log, "I see that the entire model is similar to that of apple. I use the same iPhone OS on three mobile devices, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, nokia and Intel are developing a mobile platform that is attractive to both consumers and developers and can run on different hardware. It is too early to assert what they are doing, but I will certainly track their progress ."

The developer also mentioned that when I first saw moblin on a netbook, it impressed me with an early architecture. Maemo also provides other positive experiences, especially those related to browsing and voice communication. Therefore, I can't wait to see the combination of these two operating systems.

 

Why developers love meego

"The meego project received enthusiastic support from industry vendors and developers, hoping to seize the market opportunities brought by the next generation of computing devices. With the help of common tools and open-source technology, meego developers will be able to easily develop suitable products to meet a wide range of market demands and gain the largest market share ." Said Jim zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation.

According to Intel, meego is strategically positioned to span multiple fields of interconnected computing applications. As an open-source software platform, meego can help reduce market segmentation and complexity and promote industry development and innovation, shorten the time to market for next-generation devices.

The above is from the official information. So what benefits does meego bring to developers? On the meego.com official website of meego, the talented Linux enthusiast M. Edward (ed) borasky, a computer programmer, gives meego four comparative advantages, which are quite representative:

First, meego is a fully open-source platform. In contrast, Apple is mostly not open. Although Android is mostly open, Chrome OS is only open on the device layer, while actual applications are running under Google's internal operations. Second, meego is a single operating system platform that supports different devices, such as handheld devices and netbooks. Apple has a platform for iPhone/iPad and a platform for laptops/desktops, but it does not support netbooks. Google has two system platforms, one for handheld devices and the other for netbooks. Third, the meego device can run almost any Linux application with sufficient Ram and processor support. For Apple, most of its open-source applications can run on MacOS X Laptops and Desktops, but applications running on iPhone/iPad need to be specially developed for the platform. Similarly, Android applications need to be specially developed for the platform. Chrome OS netbooks cannot run any applications at all, but only support browsers.

In addition, it is very easy for developers to use meego to work. "Although Linux accounts for only 1% of the desktop/notebook market, my personal situation is very different. Linux accounts for 99% of my attention, another 1% is Windows Vista weekly virus scan and system upgrade."

 

Widely supported QT development tools

Some may ask why meego evolved from moblin to QT instead of GTK/clutter? Is it because of cooperation with Nokia? "Undoubtedly, cooperation with Nokia is an important reason," said Jiang Ping, an Application Engineer of Intel software and service department, in his blog, however, QT, as the most important development platform in Linux, has the following reasons."

First of all, QT is a widely supported platform, and many release versions have preferred KDE (QT-based Window Manager), such as kubuntu and opensuse. Compared with Gnome, GTK uses C language and QT uses C ++, which is the simplest difference. Therefore, the development program is relatively more efficient than the GTK program, the QT program development environment is mature, efficient, code reuse is high, and maintenance is convenient. Second, QT has a complete development tool: Compared with GTK, the most commercial version, its development tool interface is more complete, more comprehensive functions, qt ui Designer, although I do not use much, but I still feel like a very good tool. In addition, from the perspective of technical support, QT, as a dual-authorized middleware, can provide sufficient technical support when the customer needs it.

Si jiangping also said, "As a technician, I personally think it is very important to select a good tool, but it is more important to develop a good product with a tool ."

As one developer said, users are not really concerned about underlying hardware, operating systems, UIS, and other issues. What they need is: easy to use and easy to operate, more and more diversified application demands include surfing the Internet, listening to music, watching movies, accessing QQ, and playing games. The rapid establishment of the application ecosystem has become a top priority. At present, the progress of meego is still quite optimistic. The industry and developers will wait and see for the future development.

 

Link: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_60c11a490100m63c.html