Overview of MeeGo 1.0

    Six months ago, I wrote about Moblin and specifically about Ubuntu Moblin Remix (RIP). As it turned out, a bright netbook future led by Moblin never came and will not come. A new project is entering the arena - MeeGo, created on the basis of Moblin and Maemo.
    The developers promised to release the first release in the second quarter of 2010, and they fulfilled their promise.

    image

    So what did they do?

    First, a few words about what MeeGo is.
    According to the developers themselves, “MeeGo combines the best of Moblin and Maemo in a multi-architecture platform covering an impressive portion of a variety of (mobile) devices.” It is also indicated that MeeGo is a completely independent system built from scratch. Nevertheless, a more detailed study points to the roots of the good old Fedora (on which Moblin was once based), but more on that later.
    MeeGo architecture is clearly represented in the following picture:
    image

    release schedule of new releases is similar to the output of Ubuntu releases - every 6 months, and releases planned to be divided into three issues:
    • the Intel: Atom-based the netbooks
    • on ARM-based the Nokia the N900
    • the Intel: Atom-based in-the vehicle

    On in fact, each option consists of a main platformand the so-called User Experience (UX), which is a special desktop environment and a set of software tailored to it.
    Yes, by the way, MeeGo is rpm-based and, unfortunately, it will scare many people off in advance.
    It is also interesting that btrfs was selected as the default file system . I personally see this choice as somewhat strange, because the FS is still under development.

    Only the first option has been officially released for today , for netbooks, and I, as not the happy owner of the Lenovo S10, settled on it.
    It turned out that the netbook distribution is also presented in two variations - with the Chromium browser and with the Chrome browser. I didn’t see much difference (only the fact is mentioned that in the distribution kit with Chrome you have to agree with EULA from Google), but I decided to download the release with Chromeium.
    When I wrote a review of moblin, many reproached me for my limitations and unwillingness to deal with the existing problems, while I just wanted to show the general unpreparedness of the distribution for the average user. But so be it - in this review I will try to solve all possible problems with MeeGo. In general, I did not doubt their availability even before installation.

    Installation


    Everything is quite simple here. Download the image from here , write to the USB flash drive or disk (yes, this is also possible) and install it, or immediately download MeeGo. Detailed instructions can be found here .
    MeeGo is loaded even from a flash drive just instantly, this is undoubtedly a huge plus. Installation is very simple and clear, no difficulties, so I will not dwell on it in more detail. I note only a very funny design and incomplete translation into Russian (we’ll justify it for the first time).

    Customization


    Installed (that is, pierced "Next"), booted, answered a few simple questions and in theory you can work. Aw, there’s no wifi. But how is it, because my netbook is on the list of tested iron ? Well, broadcom-chips and Linux are a separate topic for discussion. We fall into the console by ctrl-alt-f1, log in and immediately see the ears, talons and tails of Fedora / RHEL / CentOS sticking out from everywhere. The fact that the distribution is based on Fedor does not cause me any doubt. Sysconfig, yum, utility utilities system-config- * - everything is in place, everything is very familiar.
    Okay, compared to moblin now at least the wired connection is working fine. And even the connection settings can be driven with pens. Wonderful. However, you can’t switch tabs between parameters yet. Probably this feature is planned for MeeGo 2.0. Yes, and also, the local Connection Manager, even in the case of manual configuration, does not allow you to specify the DNS server. No problem. We stomp into the console and ... Well, here we are on the Internet, we must somehow try to make wifi.
    image

    echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" >> /etc/resolv.conf

    It’s necessary, but how? For yum, MeeGo uses its own repositories, which at the time of my picking with the netbook did not work. And here I was simply shocked by the absence of wget. Fortunately, curl was left in the system from the gentleman’s shoulder, however, how can the driver be installed with broken turnips? Ndiswrapper? Download different rpmki and try to screw it to the system? Build a b43-fwcutter? Build b43 driver? But as? Give me the kernel headers, give me gcc, give me at least something!
    Okay, we’ll do without Wi-Fi, probably so conceived.
    What we have there next ... Oh yes, the gps modem. I insert my old Cingular ExpressCard modem and wait ... You can wait indefinitely, nothing will change, the modem will not appear in the system. I don’t even know from which side to tackle this problem - I never had problems with this modem.
    And yet ... There are so-called “Parameters” in the system ( Applications > Standard > Parameters ) - never go there, it is fraught with unpleasant consequences. For example, turning on / off the notification area puts the system tightly and completely (it does not always work, but often). Nevertheless, the functionality is certainly impressive. For example, in the “Screen” section, you can configure displays and spotlights. This is certainly not such a big flaw, but in the light of the general condition of MeeGo, it only adds fun.
    For the sake of fairness, it is worth noting that all the function keys and sound work perfectly, which can not be said about everything else.
    Nevertheless, we are still on the Internet. Compared to Moblin, this is a huge leap forward, now there is a chance to appreciate all the bells and whistles, without exception. Let's get started.

    Using


    I will not dwell on the interface in detail, since it exactly repeats the functionality of the moblin. But what there, this is moblin! Only the icons are replaced, which even now personally I almost do not cause any associations with executable functions (except, perhaps, the bluetooth icon - it is quite recognizable). However, this is all a matter of habit and remembering. Also removed some openly meaningless functions such as tabs with the contents of the clipboard. Supported services, as before, feature only last.fm and twitter. I don’t use Twitter, so the last option I need is last.fm. We hammer in the username and password, poke "Login" ... III ... Deafly. No error messages, nothing at all.
    image


    Okay, I’m registering an account on Twitter, I’ll hammer in the username and password ... Yeah ... "I can’t log in to Twitter." I check my login and password, go to twitter through a browser - everything is fine. Well, apparently not fate. The IM client is represented by the usual Empathy, I think you should not dwell on it, I can only say that it works (it was probably too difficult to break it). The same can be said about the built-in Chromium. The audio-video player is pretty good and perfectly integrated into the system, but it can’t read either mp3 or movies in any format (except for a specific one, in which a rather original presentation of MeeGo is recorded). The last nail in the lid of the coffin for me personally was the lack of support for flash drives with ntfs (fat32 is supported, but who needs it today?).
    image




    conclusions


    So what do we have in the end? The standard disregard for iron support, broken integration even with the two services that are presented, a lot of minor flaws in the system and interface and general incompleteness that immediately catches your eye.
    On the other hand - a great interface, very high download / work speed and the fact that the general concept is really ideal for netbooks and laptops.

    No, you can’t use it, don’t even try. In five or two years, by MeeGo 6.0 it will probably become magnificent (if it does not degenerate into some other, no less ambitious project).
    I will never believe that Intel and Nokia togetherI didn’t have the strength and money to make a really good OS for mobile devices. This is very sad and has no excuse.

    PS Nevertheless, I decided to hold MeeGo on my netbook for some more time. Maybe the repositories will work, maybe some bugs will be fixed, maybe they will give me the opportunity to build drivers for Wi-Fi. With this, one could somehow live.

    UPD1: Answer for Sergius about keyboard layouts. The only way to look at them and change them is to turn on the “notification area” (yes, the one that can hang the system).

    UPD2: Solution for installing wifi , for the link thanks dzeban

    UPD3: Turnips have earned, now you can install wget and even all kinds of dev-tools, including kernel sources. Nevertheless, there are very few things in turnips, many of the necessary things are missing, however, given the Fedor’s roots, I think you can safely put packages from Fedor 10-12. With the integration of services it is still deaf, I managed to partially make last.fm work, on the Status tab it is still written that the services are not configured, but my friends’s last listening is displayed in myzone.

    UPD4: A manual has already appeared on the official forum describing the addition of crutches for playing videos. While this is probably all, we will wait for updates.

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