Rough Draft Of MeeGo Is Ready [Intel-Nokia Release First Public MeeGo Images, Linux Mobile OS To Run On Netbooks, Mobile Phones, MIDs]

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While all eyes may be on another mobile OS today, Nokia and Intel made some news with their Linux-based operating system a few days ago. Although it’s just a very early version of the mobile OS, the MeeGo development team has released the very first public build of their operating system. MeeGo is being developed by a joint team from Intel and Nokia who merged their Linux-based Maemo and Moblin efforts.

Each of the key platforms for MeeGo (the Nokia N900, Atom netbooks and Atom-powered MIDs) have been supplied their own distribution of the operating system. The distros being supplied today are strictly the core of the new OS. No graphic user interface is being included today – meaning if you flash the MeeGo to your Nokia N900, you’ll find yourself staring at a command line.

Still, it looks like MeeGo is moving along nicely – and Nokia-Intel is probably trying to get a build out as quickly as possible to give developers time to start creating apps. Although – it’s worth noting at MeeGo will use Nokia’s Qt development platform, so some apps will already run on MeeGo.

For those who don’t know, MeeGo is a combination effort between Nokia and Intel. They each had their own Linux-based mobile OS projects (Nokia – Maemo, Intel – Moblin) and decided to (for all intensive purposes) ‘merge’ them into a single one. Although both Maemo and Moblin have been around in one form or another longer than Android, I can’t help but believe that the two companies new focus on MeeGo is a reaction to Android’s growing popularity.

I’m pretty keen on MeeGo. The core of the OS will built on Intel’s Moblin, but it will have support for Nokia’s Qt development framework. A MeeGo system will be able to run apps from both Intel’s AppUp Store and Nokia’s Ovi Store.

For those of you who aren’t keen on using a command line, Intel-Nokia originally said you can expect some devices shipping with MeeGo by the end of the year.