Here's the explanation offered on the Meego homepage: ---
What's Next for MeeGo Submitted by Imad Sousou on 27 September, 2011 - 21:01 By now, you may have read that The Linux Foundation, with the support of several other companies, announced a new project, Tizen, to build a new operating system for devices. This new project is first and foremost open source, and based on Linux. So it begs the question: why not just evolve MeeGo? We believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5. Shifting to HTML5 doesn't just mean slapping a web runtime on an existing Linux, even one aimed at mobile, as MeeGo has been. Emphasizing HTML5 means that APIs not visible to HTML5 programmers need not be as rigid, and can evolve with platform technology and can vary by market segment. Granted, this is a judgment on our part on which reasonable people could disagree, but that's the conclusion I came to. But in the new project, a lot of things will be the same as they were in the MeeGo project. The Tizen project will reside within the Linux Foundation, will be governed by a Technical Steering Group, and will be developed openly with familiar and improved infrastructure. Much like MeeGo, the Tizen project will support multiple device categories, including Tablets, Netbooks, Handsets, Smart TV, and In-Vehicle Infotainment systems. Over the next couple of months, we will be working very hard to make sure that users of MeeGo can easily transition to Tizen, and I will be working even harder to make sure that developers of MeeGo can also transition to Tizen. I want to personally thank everyone who has participated in MeeGo over the past year and a half, and I encourage you to join us at Tizen.org. We hope to use what we learned from the MeeGo project to make Tizen successful, and I hope to see you participating in Tizen! https://meego.com/ --- Quick observations 1) The tl;dr appears to be "Sorry QT, MeeGo + LiMo + HTML5 = Tizen" 2) All of the language suggests that the key players are billing Tizen as the chosen successor to MeeGo: "Thank everyone who has participated" ... "hope to use what we learned" ... "in the new project," etc... What's tricky about selling people on "Tizen" is that the MeeGo project has seemed to struggle with market penetration and brand recognition. If I were to walk outside and ask 100 people on the street what "MeeGo" was, probably all of them would have no idea. If I were to ask them about Android, iOS/iPhones, or even another handheld like the Nook or a "TomTom" GPS device, over half would probably have at least a vague idea of the brand. I'm curious how Tizen is going to make a name for itself. 3) MeeGo launched as (LF + Nokia + Intel). Tizen is launching as (LF + Samsung + Intel) Intel seems to be in this for the long haul. It will be interesting to see how invested Samsung is in the project, what kind of resources they will throw at it, and how soon they plan to ship devices running it. Meego was started in Feb of 2010 as the merger of Maemo and Moblin, switching from GTK to QT. Now that it's being retired after 20 months to make room for a new MeeGo + LiMo mash-up, again switching APIs from QT to HTML5, I forsee some trepidation on the part of companies, mobile developers, and other project contributors to switch to the new project and invest their time and energy. Will Tizen be able to learn from MeeGo, hit the ground running, and ship products to consumers within a year? Or will we merely see it merge with another mobile-linux project, switch APIs, rebrand, and relaunch? In any case, keep your fingers crossed. I'd still like to see some competition to Android in the linux-on-mobile market. --R _______________________________________________ MeeGo-community mailing list MeeGo-community@meego.com http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-community http://wiki.meego.com/Mailing_list_guidelines
