Yesterday Intel announced it was reducing (rather than “ditching”) support for MeeGo, a failed Linux collaboration with Nokia, in favor of an open-source Linux build called Tizen that it is developing with Samsung.
So does that spell the end of MeeGo-equipped devices? Absolutely not, said an executive from Asus.
“We will continue to ship MeeGo products and look forward to Tizen,” Gary Key, Asus technical marketing manager, told PCMag. In May, Asus resuscitated MeeGo by announcing the Asus EeePC X101 at Computex in May. Click on the slideshow below for a hands on.
In fact, Asus expects Intel to release MeeGo v.1.3 any day now and “hopefully hardware accelerated Flash in the near future.” In February, Intel announced that MeeGo v.1.3, a followup to v.1.2, would be released in October 2011.
Key sees the Tizen OS as a natural progression of MeeGo, one that could improve processing speeds with HTML5 extensions and add full support for native Linux applications (so anything that runs on MeeGo today will run on Tizen, too). Key expects a public launch of Tizen in the summer of 2012.
“I actually think it is a good thing as there are some real positives with MeeGo, especially for its intended audience, but with full support from the two Linux foundations [non-profit groups The LiMo Foundation and The Linux Foundation] and additional technical support from the Hardware Council, it should be a very viable player in the sub-$200 market next year,” Key said.
Furthermore Key said he doesn’t expect the Tizen OS to hit devices until next summer.
Other manufacturers, like Lenovo, Samsung and Fujitsu also make MeeGo laptops.
Source Pcmag.Com
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