Following the demise of the MeeGo mobile operating system, which was set for a big debut on Nokia’s limited release N9 mobile handset, its co-founder company Linux has announced a new OS project named Tizen.
The Nokia N9 was launched today to a much smaller demographic than was originally planned. Many countries were set to experience the first and only MeeGo mobile smartphone, including the United Kingdom and United States, but the decision was made by Nokia late in the promotional stages to drop the software and presumably focus on providing host technology for the more appealing and highly-anticipated Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) instead.
Looking to the future, it was suggested that Linux’s involvement in MeeGo would someday be revived, but the OS was officially killed off today in a post on the Linux Foundation Blog by Executive Director Jim Zemlin, which reveals that MeeGo’s code and principles will be transformed into the new ‘Tizen’ software.
Intel, Vodafone, Samsung and Panasonic are amongst tech and communications companies palling up with Linux on the project. Combined, they form the LiMo Foundation which has seen minimal success with previous products. With hope, any future Tizen project will fare better, but with Nokia ditching the OS and Window Phone 7.5 arriving to cast a shadow over the mobile OS market from today, it’ll be a fight.
From what we saw of the Nokia N9 there was a lot of potential, only for it to be thrown away, and it’s believed that even Nokia pulled out from using MeeGo for a much wider distribution because it thought its Linux software could threaten Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 – And that’s clearly not a partnership you’d want to jeopardise.
But Linux are not shy when it comes to their own ambitions and Tizen is a platform which is aimed at a much wider spectrum than simply Nokia mobiles. Zemlin expresses interest in claiming tablets, TV’s and in-car technology as another playground for the next generation Linux OS.
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