After having used the 1.0 release of MeeGo that is targeted for netbook devices I really must say: I'm really not impressed.
Late last year I did a review of Intel's Moblin Linux 2.0 and this MeeGo 1.0 release is so similar to Moblin that is really doesn't even feel like a different distro. Don't believe me? Well lets start with the interface, this first screen shot is Moblin 2.0:
This second screen shot is MeeGo 1.0:
See what I mean? Now don't get me wrong, I don't think MeeGo is a poor distro - in fact all the positive things I said about Moblin also still apply here. The only issue is most of the negative things also still apply.
Software:
MeeGo fails to ship with an Office Suite still and the software selection from their package manager is still decently limited. Two things that are improvements in MeeGo are the default webrowser and media player. For all your media needs Banshee is at your service. Banshee is a full featured, matured, media player with plenty of features that should keep most all users happy. In terms of webrowsing, MeeGo ships two different .img files - the first uses the open source Chromium as the stock browser, the second requires you to agree to an EULA as it uses Google's Chrome browser.
Customization:
Another nice addition is the ability to customize the top bar where you switch between your different applications and zones. A piece of customization that is still lacking however is the ability to change which messaging client is integrated with the operating system (empathy is alright, but I am a die hard pidgin user and prefer to use it whenever possible).
Socialization:
MeeGo still integrates well with twitter (just as Moblin did), but unlike the latest Ubuntu release (which has Gwibber), MeeGo still lacks Facebook integration. As I mentioned above empathy is still the default messaging client and it does support facebook chat by default.
Issues:
The only real issue I had with MeeGo was the fact that it's network manager was unable to connect to my WPA encrypted network. It did connect to un-encrypted and WEP encrypted networks without a hitch though.
Usage:
The MeeGo desktop, just like the Moblin desktop, is snappy and responsive (just as much as lightweight desktop environments such as LXDE or E17). The operating system boots slightly faster than Ubuntu 10.04 does on my hardware (7 seconds versus 9 seconds). Over all MeeGo makes for a great "webrowsing" operating system, but for anything beyond this I would recommend something else.
Final Thoughts:
One of the reasons I was so excited about MeeGo was because it was the merging of Moblin with Maemo. I have been using Maemo on my N900 for over six months and I must say, I can't find a trace of Maemo anywhere in the MeeGo 1.0 release. Now, perhaps there is some of the Maemo core hiding behind the scenes in the MeeGo code, but personally I am just hoping Moblin did not simply swallow up Maemo.
Honestly while I am hopping the MeeGo project takes off (especially as a competitor to Android), at the same time I have to wonder what this could do to the public opinion of what Linux is. I say this because the way MeeGo is designed it does not feel like a full blown operating system as distros like Ubuntu or Fedora do (or Windows does). I would hate to see the general opinion of Linux become the idea that the operating system is limited to netbooks and hand held devices and not for "real" work/computers.
~Jeff Hoogland
Your not on your own there, what a letdown it's turned out to be, what a wast of a time downloading it and the wasting of a cd,
ReplyDeleteI found Peppermint, Puppy Linux, 5, Quimo 4 kids and ForMaxTux out shine MeGoo, I wont be installing Megoo thats for sure, I want to impress not depress people
That is because Meego 1.0 is in fact moblin 2.3 which was re-branded Meego 1.0. Just like maemo6, meego 1.0 is still just meego in name but moblin in codes. The real meego release would replace the GTK/Clutter UI with something based on Qt and hence completely different from the Present UI of "meego 1"
ReplyDeleteMeego 1.0 is the merging of the core components(the underlying libraries) of Moblin and Maemo. The interface(the user experience as they call it) is different for different types of devices. At this point only the netbook user experience was released(the mobile interface coming in October) and if you search youtube for Meego+tablet+computex you will find a completely different interface(user experience).
ReplyDeleteAlso take in consideration that it will have an app store and the user experiences will probably be available in several distros in the future(my base for that statement is Mandriva 2010.0 has Moblin packaged in their repos).
'till now, all I can see is a pile of .net courtesy of Microsoft through Novell. If that's what they want to deliver - it won't go anywhere near any of my devices. Ever.
ReplyDeleteBigBrovar, you're always beating me to the comments on this sort of thing... in case others missed it, bigbrovar is exactly right. If you expect MeeGo to be a dramatic UI change compared to Maemo, or Moblin in version 1.0, you're sadly mistaken.
ReplyDelete"when a new netbook focused distro comes to maturity"
ReplyDeleteThis where you get it wrong : MeeGo 1.0, contrary to what its name seems to indicate is a developer version. Nobody is going to ship it (free software enthousiasts will try it, but it is a different story).
As bigbrovar said, the future of this netbook UI is in question : Nokia is pushing Qt in the upper part of the software stack. The new handset UI will use Qt. It is really unsure this netbook UI will still be there in a few version, since it is in GKT/clutter...
I recently tried MeeGo on my MSI Wind netbook, and was disappointed when the Wifi didn't work, since it worked fine on the same laptop with Moblin last year.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm too quite unimpressed with the development since the last Moblin release, almost looks like they beefed up the UI, without adding any functionality...