MeeGo前途未卜，或在车载电子大显身手

约1,200名开发者注册参加本周的MeeGo大会，MeeGo是英特尔(Intel)开发的一种移动Linux变体，但该OS的未来尚不明朗。 对MeeGo社区来说，这是个“特别尴尬的时刻”，因为MeeGo早已蓄势待发，但那些采用它的产品却迟迟不出货。英特尔的MeeGo社区组织者Dawn Foster说。“很多公司正在努力将设备推向市场，但他们都不愿意谈论这些，”她在这次大会一个现场直播的访谈中表示。 “当某款产品在市场上不够流行时，人们大都不愿意花时间学习这些新的软件开发工具（SDK）和应用程序界面（API），”她补充说。 英特尔约在两年前就开始了代号为“Moblin”的移动Linux研究工作。在英特尔与诺基亚(Nokia)一道合作开发智能手机后，这两家公司将各自的移动Linux环境合二为一，并更名为MeeGo。 但诺基亚的新CEO在今年早些时候决定，采用Microsoft Windows Phone作为诺基亚的首要智能手机平台，并结束了与英特尔的合作。与此同时，英特尔将MeeGo的管理移交给Linux基金会。此后，一个汽车车载信息娱乐（IVI）标准的行业组织，重新“拾起”了MeeGo。 “手机市场已经饱和，所以我不认为MeeGo会对智能手机和平板电脑产生重大影响，” 咨询机构PTR Group的首席技术官Michael Anderson在四月召开的嵌入式系统大会上在谈及有关MeeGo的议题时指出。 但随着诸如博世等公司将在预计于2012-13年推出的产品中采用MeeGo，MeeGo将在车载信息娱乐领域（IVI）有强势表现，Anderson说。 Foster介绍，约有23,000人注册了MeeGo网上社区，但以月为时间单位看来，活跃用户只有约800-1,000人。MeeGo社区在10月份成立了一个IVI工作组，开始针对汽车公司服务。 随后，MeeGo社区又成立了手机和智能电视工作组，并正考虑设立上网本和平板电脑工作组。 MeeGo的支持者认为这些工作组是他们开发供应商、推广这种操作系统的最佳工具之一，Foster说。 此外，MeeGo的支持者们正张罗一个计划，旨在使开发者能拿到MeeGo硬件。该组织有约150台XO笔记本电脑，均由“每个孩子一台笔记本电脑”计划提供。德州仪器(TI)还承诺每月提供一到两块Panda板。开发人员必须通过提交在线表格，说明他们的开发项目，以申请硬件。 开发人员一直缺乏测试MeeGo应用软件和代码的硬件，特别是对IVI领域来说， MeeGo的一位参与者说。 与目前领先的移动Linux版本Google Android相比，MeeGo有若干优势。MeeGo环境更接近于常规（straight）Linux，而Android使用的是Dalvik虚拟机，Anderson说。 开发人员可在MeeGo环境使用诸如Python等流行语言，而Android不行。此外，任何愿意向Linux基金支付99美元年费的会员，都拥有对MeeGo未来的平等表决权。相比之下， Android的未来主要被大型手机制造商掌控，Anderson说。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Mixed signals for MeeGo at dev con , by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Mixed signals for MeeGo at dev con Rick Merritt About 1,200 developers signed up for this week's MeeGo conference on Intel's mobile Linux variant, but the future of the OS is unclear. It's "a particularly awkward time" for the MeeGo community because the software is ready but no mainstream products using it have shipped yet, said Dawn Foster, a MeeGo community organizer at Intel. "A lot of companies are working on bringing devices to market, but they are not willing to talk about them yet," she said in a talk streamed live from the event. "People aren’t willing to spend a lot of time learning a new SDK and APIs when there aren’t a lot of devices in the market," she added. Intel started work on a mobile Linux variant called Moblin about two years ago. When it struck a partnership to develop smartphones with Nokia, the two companies merged their separate mobile Linux environments and renamed it MeeGo. However, Nokia's new chief executive decided earlier this year to make Microsoft Windows Phone the company's primary smartphone platform, ending work with Intel. In the meantime, Intel turned over management of MeeGo to the Linux Foundation. Separately, an industry group defining in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) standards for cars adopted MeeGo. "The handset market is saturated, so I don’t think MeeGo can make a significant impact on smartphones and tablets," said Michael Anderson, chief technology officer at consulting firm PTR Group, in a talk on MeeGo at the Embedded Systems Conference in April. MeeGo could see significant penetration in IVI, however with companies such as Bosch and others expected to incorporate MeeGo into 2012-13 products, Anderson said. Foster said about 23,000 people have signed up to participate in the online MeeGo community, however only about 800-1,000 are active on a monthly basis. The MeeGo community kicked off in October an IVI working group to hear requirements from automotive companies. More recently it launched handset and smart TV working groups, and is considering working groups for netbooks and tablets. MeeGo backers see the work groups as one of their best tools for engaging vendors and helping drive the OS into shipping products, Foster said. Separately, proponents are gearing up a program to get MeeGo hardware in the hands of developers. The group has about 150 XO notebooks from the One Laptop Per Child program and a commitment to one or two Panda boards per month from Texas Instruments. Developers must describe their project in an online form to apply for the hardware. Developers have lacked hardware for testing MeeGo apps and code, especially for the IVI sector, said one MeeGo participant. MeeGo has a handful of advantages over Google Android, by far the leading version of mobile Linux to date. The MeeGo environment is more similar to straight Linux than Android which uses the Dalvik virtual machine, Anderson said. Developers can use popular languages such as Python with MeeGo, but not with Android. In addition, anyone willing to pay a $99 annual membership to the Linux Foundation has an equal vote on MeeGo futures. By contrast, Android is perceived as being run mainly by large handset makers, Anderson said.