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MeeGo + LiMo = Tizen

by Scott Bicheno on 28 September 2011, 09:47

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Linux, Samsung (005935.KS)

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The two biggest open source mobile platform projects have bowed to the inevitable and decided to join forces under a new name.

Intel-owned Meego and LiMo, for which Samsung has been the biggest driver, are now merging their operations to develop an open source Linux-based device platform called Tizen, which will focus on mobile and embedded environments. The Linux Foundation will host the project, but the technical steering team will be headed-up by Intel and Samsung.

"LiMo Foundation views Tizen as a well-timed step change which unites major mobile Linux proponents within a renewed ecosystem with an open web vision of application development which will help device vendors to innovate through software and liberalize access to consumers for developers and service providers," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo.

There will certainly be a wealth of material available to the Tizen team. As well as all the LiMo and Linux Foundation goodness, MeeGo features contributions from Nokia (Maemo) and, presumably, a big chunk of Wind River - the embedded software giant Intel acquired back in 2009. Samsung has its own mobile platform - Bada - which while not Linux-based, will presumably contribute too. And LiMo counts a bunch of other heavy-hitters among its members.

So Tizen has the potential to be a pretty decent platform, but the question remains: who will use it? LiMo has been around for ages and the public rejection of MeeGo by Nokia is well documented. It's hard to see Tizen become a high-end smartphone platform capable of taking on the big four, but maybe it will be used for a lower tier in the way Samsung currently uses Bada. There seems to be a lot more potential on the embedded side of things.

That's not to denigrate Linux, which you do on this site at your peril, and there will always be support for truly open platforms. Tizen combines an HTML 5 application environment with the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), which aims to standardize app development. It's first release is expected early next year, with devices following later in the year.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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As a day to day user of the KDE desktop one of the key things that made nokia/meego interesting was its use and promotion of QT, if Tizen doesn’t use that then it lessens my interest in exactly the same way as Nokia downplaying “linux” in its QT marketed handsets.

I also doubt the capability of Tizen to be anything more than still-born if it doesn’t use a decent mobile focussed UI toolkit like Qt.

I have seen too many of these mobile linux partnerships come and go to no real effect, at the end of the day nokia is on its fifth generation of mobile linux products, that is at least a real track record to place some trust in.

I’m all for meego being folded into Tizen, and wishing it every success, but without nokia and Qt i remain sceptical, and quite happy to continue with an N9 for the next couple of years.
I used MeeGo on my netbook - dual-booting with Ubuntu - and I've got to say that I was actually quite impressed. On the (Atom-powered) netbook it not only booted faster than any other distro I tried on the same hardware, but also felt a heck of a lot snappier in use - even against the most modern Ubuntu.

The only issue I had with it was around applying updates - especially with the “enhanced” release that included Chrome - where it was a lottery whether the update worked, or failed with one of a variety of strange error messages. Can't help thinking that this wouldn't have been an issue if they'd gone with real rpm/yum or deb's, rather than this “zypper” nonsense.

Much as I'd like to see it continue - e.g. for netbooks, or even better for low-cost tablets - I think this latest announcement is yet another step towards the grave.
How are we supposed to pronounce “Tizen”? I am compelled to look at it with a German slant, effectively putting a ‘t’ before the ‘z’.

TITZEN!
Steve
How are we supposed to pronounce “Tizen”? I am compelled to look at it with a German slant, effectively putting a ‘t’ before the ‘z’.

TITZEN!

What, as in “it's now all titzen up!” :mrgreen:

According to the podcasts I've listened to it's TeeZen.