Moblin->Meego->LiMo->Tizen

Operating systems and the user interface and application structure is a very volatile area on mobile devices. A few of them have come and gone.

Now let's see, I think Intel backed Moblin, which became Meego. Hewlett Packard was backing WebOS, then recently dumped it. Some of these are also intended to work on desktop systems. Then there's Google's Android.

Anyway, the latest news is that Intel is dropping Meego, in favour of Tizen. Yes, yet another one! Tizen apparently, is intended to run on anything from mobile phones to netbooks.

Now, Tizen seems to actually be based on LiMo (though it looks like bits of Meego will be in it also), and one of the LiMo executives described it thus:

LiMo 4, under LiMo’s proven collaborative governance model, enables flexible disaggregation of the device platform and the service propositions such that operators and device manufacturers can more freely shape attractive user propositions and secure sustainable long-term value

...hmmmm

Here are links:
https://www.tizen.org/
http://limofoundation.org/

I have been trying to find technical details. Very few, but allied to Gnome -- that means GTK, good, I wouldn't like it if they had gone for Qt as that tends to lock developers into coding in C++.

Interesting bunch of companies backing LiMo:
http://limofoundation.org/component/option,com_limomembers/Itemid,134/

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Comments

Tizen vs LiMo vs Meego
Username: BarryK
More snippets of information: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/240804/meego_and_tizen_will_have_some_interoperability.html http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/blogs/browse/2011/09/welcome-tizen-linux-foundation http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/240750/tizen_a_viable_android_alternative_at_last.html

Android licenses
Username: BarryK
"That last link is very interesting. Microsoft is picking off the Android vendors one by one, basically demanding royalty payments or they will sue for patent infringement. Those of us who have watched Microsoft for a long time know that right or wrong doesn't come into it, Microsoft will take legal action and beat a small company to its knees. Remember Lindows? If Tizen is setup such that all the vendors are united and cannot be picked off individually, then Tizen may have a good chance of supplanting Android. If they can come up with real software in a reasonable time-frame of course, for now it seems to be vapourware.

Mobile market an OSes
Username: Sage
"Couple of items: The Nokia N9 will use MeeGo. Reviews reckon it is extremely good. However, a straw poll amongst my younger friends confirm that they would never ever use a Nokia with the Devil's OS. It's uncool to use anything except Android and they're the folks with dosh (or their parents!). Nokia will die. Report on TheRegister yesterday confirms that M$ employees also hate B*llm*r. Recorded repeatedly are his nasty temper and his company's unacceptable business practices, inter alia. This is a behemoth that needs to be destroyed - possibly the greatest challenge the world will ever face? At least until the 2036 meteorite arrives, or we run out of effective antibiotics, or the new Russian rifle arrives, or...

MeeGo
Username: Dougal
"Barry, there's a reason for this mess: - Nokia had Maemo, Intel Moblin, so they teemed up to make it MeeGo. - Microsoft exec became Nokia CEO --> Nokia abandoned MeeGo for Windows Mobile (which no one else was interested in...). - Meego was left in an awkward position, people thought it was dead... so I guess teaming up with Samsung (which uses Android, but also its own Bada OS, and have been sponsoring the development of Enlightenment 17) makes sense, as it always seemed strange that there were both LiMo and MeeGo. (What's up with the stupid name, though? What on earth is "Tizen" supposed to be??) As for WebOS, note that it's not dead yet: the idiot CEO at HP decided to get rid of the hardware division, but not of WebOS... and now he's been kicked out and a new (dubious) CEO has been appointed, so she might decide to go back...

HP WebOS
Username: GCMartin
"Sources tell me that WebOS is apparently still a part of HP's future. Was and is, still, a very adaptable OS. But industry and consumer (developers) will decide direction. Seen a lot of very good products lose because it was not the "style people decided to wear". You probably have too. Hope this helps

Mobile Dvice OS - TIZEN
Username: tronkel
"I have Motorola Defy running Android at the moment. For my next android smartphone upgrade I would have considered buying a Samsung-manufactured Google Nexus S phone. But since Samsung now cough up a sales tax to Microsoft for every device sold, there is no way I'm buying a Nexus S. Pay Microsoft? - you must be joking! This is (was) supposed to be a pure Google phone. What a piece of nonsense. I might buy another pure Google android Smartphone if Googorola produces one as a pure Google phone and with no MS hidden tax. But this TIZEN OS seems to be the one for me. I'll hang off and see what happens with this.

Tags: general