If you remember, Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin project recently merged to make a Linux operating system optimized for netbooks, phones, and other internet-connected devices like tablet computers. The result of the merger was MeeGo Linux. Since Maemo is set to replace Symbian in Nokia’s N-Series and Moblin has one of the prettiest interfaces in Linux computing, expectations for this project are understandably high – for example, I was impressed with Maemo and I found Moblin neat.
The MeeGo team has reached a milestone. They were able to release MeeGo 1.0 for netbooks, and you can easily install it on your computer. Brasd of Liliputing has done a Live USB test, and this is what he has to say about the release:
The operating system is fairly stable at this point and it offers a few features that might make it worth checking out if you’re a netbook users. First, it’s fast. I mean, really, really fast. I tested MeeGo on an MSI Wind U135 with an Intel Atom N450 processor. It’s not the fastest machine in the world, but it booted the operating system in XX seconds and switching between windows was ridiculously fast — although it sometimes took a few seconds to actually launch an application. I should point out that I was running MeeGo from a USB flash drive. It’s possible the OS could be even more responsive if you install it to your computer’s hard drive.
He also notes that since the operating system is new, there aren’t too many apps out there. But now that version 1.0 has been released, we can expect more apps to be developed in the future. Download MeeGo here.
