Intel reportedly plans to back off MeeGo OS
digitimes.com
digitimes.com
I don't know if anyone here actually read the article, but it's just a couple paragraphs that say Intel will be releasing an Android or Windows phone in the near future and that they've "temporarily" put MeeGo on hold due to lack of interest.
Quoted immediately after this is an Intel statement asserting that "[Intel] remains committed to MeeGo..."
Microsoft reportedly plans to temporarily discontinue development of its Windows OS due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform from handset and tablet PC vendors. Instead, Microsoft will focus on hardware products, with its handset platforms to be paired with either MeeGo or Android Phone in 2012, according to industry sources.
In response, Microsoft said it does not comment on industry speculation or rumor. The company did say it remains committed to Windows and will continue to work with the community to develop and help meet the needs of customers and end users.
MeeGo is way behind Android with much less to offer, and much less investment. If it's not dead yet, it will be because of this "temporary" hold, which Android (which is just as cheap for manufacturers) continues to make huge leaps.
Sadly, Intel would be better off scrapping MeeGo and the Itanium - but for now, they don't officially do either.
MeeGo could be very interesting. Every distribution doesn't need to have the goal of "crush Android, become #1 marketshare". MeeGo could even get there eventually, but I don't think that's ever been a priority for the Intel/Nokia team.
And let's not forget that MeeGo was formed by combining Maemo and Moblin; both Intel and Nokia were working on the software independently before Elop sold out to his buddies at Microsoft, so there's not necessarily a reason to believe that Intel doesn't have an interest in continuing the project independently.
There is still a lot of hope for MeeGo as far as I'm concerned. It'd be a shame if Intel dropped it merely because Nokia has become a Microsoft pawn and Android is going on to (at least short-term) dominance of the mobile phone market.
I have no idea how Intel is planning to benefit from MeeGo. And talking to one of the MeeGo program guys a few months ago, I'm not sure Intel does either -- it's not keeping anyone an Intel customer, with ARMs eating their lunch on every device other than the extended PC family (laptops, netbooks, desktops, servers) - and of these, the cheaper two are already showing nontrivial signs of ARM presence, through keyboard-docked-tablets like the Iconia and Transformer.
Your assertion immediately led me to try to come up with a counter-example, and the first candidate that popped into my head was FVWM95[1]. This was a dumb choice of course, as it was a popular package in its day, and it's not that old in the grand scheme of things. I suppose there's a decent chance that a few people out there still run it on old machines, perhaps even just for the novelty. In fact, the shot of the full desktop[2] reminds me that I still occasionally use xcalc, partly because of its light weight and partly I suppose for the nostalgia of it.
To your point, I'm sure there are plenty of software projects whose last remnants exist only on dusty tape cartridges in the basements of university computer science departments. For practical purposes, it seems reasonable to call these "dead". I'd bet there are many more projects in this state than there are people willing to resurrect them. It's safe to say though that MeeGo has a ways to go before it reaches this point.
Also in breaking news: Fusion Garage cancels plans for a JooJoo 2. Film at 11.
MeeGo Netbook uses Clutter. It also supports Qt applications. Other products from our partners have used Clutter and I would expect them to use Clutter in the future.
I had been under the assumption that switching all the various GUIs over to Qt was part of the reason why MeeGo came to be in the first place... That is, the point was to harmonize mobile Linux by settling on common components even if that means abandoning some work (e.g. rpm packages instead of Maemo's apt, Qt instead of GTK+).
If MeeGo didn't even accomplish that, I have to question why Maemo and Moblin were ever merged. The two projects would have probably fared better on their own, without the uncertainty of the MeeGo reset. Now both lost their momentum and have been painted as part of the "MeeGo flop", undeservedly or not.