MeeGo, a Linux Foundation effort to provide a mobile version of Linux, moves on Wednesday to “Day 1” of the MeeGo Handset User Experience project, with developers able to access handset baseline source code and leverage touch capabilities, MeeGo representatives said.
The code is primarily intended for platform developers, handset vendors, and operators. Accessible at MeeGo’s website, developers can preview the code and try it out on the Aava Mobile or Nokia N900 as development reference hardware.
Intel and Nokia have been the primary drivers of Meego, which combines the Intel Moblin and Nokia Maemo platforms. MeeGo is intended for systems ranging from netbooks and media phones to handheld computing devices, in-vehicle infotainment systems, and connected TVs.
“Today, the MeeGo project marks Day 1 for the MeeGo Handset User Experience project. Beginning today, handset-specific source code currently under development toward the MeeGo v1.1 for Handsets release (expected Q4 2010) will be opened to the developer community to access, contribute to and participate in,” said Nokia representative Karen Lachtanski. “This move illustrates continued MeeGo momentum and marks the first MeeGo code supporting a touch environment.”
“The MeeGo Handset Day 1 image is provided as a community developer preview, and we are in a very early and active development state. While we don’t recommend installing it on your primary phone just yet, we invite all developers who are interested to have an early look using a development device,” said Valtteri Halla and Imad Sousou, of the MeeGo Technical Steering Group, in a blog post.
The MeeGo team also is opening Wednesday the MeeGo Build Infrastructure, serving as an automated system for building software packages, developer collaboration, release management, and maintenance. The build infrastructure is an upstream project of OpenSuse Build Service,
MeeGo Handset Day 1 includes APIs, a subset of the handset reference UI and applications, the core OS and hardware adaptation support for an Intel Atom-based handset and the ARM-based Nokia N900.
MeeGo would compete in a crowded field that also includes technologies from such companies as Google, Apple and Microsoft.