Seeding Meego with Oaktrail Products

August 2, 2011, Posted by chippy at 1:50 pm

Over at sister-site UMPCPortal we’ve been tracking a number of Intel Oaktrail based devices recently. Oaktrail is a traditional PC platform from Intel with a few silicon tricks up its sleave and it’s this combination of the traditional PC platform and the special features that makes the platform interesting for Meego product development and for operating system vendors using Meego.

While I do appreciate the ARM-based solutions offer some real advantages with battery life, there are issues that prevent independent solution vendors moving forward quickly and openly with these platforms. A lot of the driver development is proprietary (Marvel’s open source drivers are an exception) which makes developing generic software solutions more difficult. There’s also the issue of porting existing Linux-based apps, achieving PC-like features like USB host, PC-like processing capability and application stores. Currently AppUp is the best application store for MeeGo and it’s only available on the Intel platforms.

There’s also the fact that most Linux operating system vendors and application developers are working in the X86 world. That might change over time though.

If you’re an operating System vendor planning a generic Meego operating operating system, you need to know that target hardware is going to be in the market.  Fortunately, Oaktrail could be an easy route to hardware solutions because of its traditional PC architecture. It has the unique advantage of being able to run Windows 7,  Ubuntu, Android (X86 build) and other operating systems. Even Windows 8 should be supported which should ensure that it remains an interesting platform for device designers.

Finally, there’s an interesting advantage to be had in the special power-saving hardware features, the future Intel roadmap, Intel’s marketing budget and Intel’s work on Android Honeycomb for the Oaktrail, Moorestown and Medfield platforms. The power-saving features will work best with the Intel-optimised code found in their MeeGo and Android builds.

So keep an eye on products like the EKing H9, The Lenovo Ideapad P1 Slate and of course the recently announced Acer Iconia Pad M500 and keep another eye on the operating System vendor Linpus. They’ve already delivered generic X86 Meego operating systems and special builds for the likes of Acer. They’ve also demonstrated touch user interfaces and talked about further development of that platform.

Oaktrail is a great multi-OS ‘bridge’ platform for Meego and I hope to see Intel promoting Oaktrail solutions for Meego at IDF in September.

  • Wilma Flintstone

    This is an interesting article.  So they are basically putting Meego and Oaktrail together now.  That could be very interesting indeed.  I wonder when manufacturers will start mass producing these Meego devices and getting some over here to the USA for consumers?  I’d love one of those Meego Tablets.

  • Wilma Flintstone

    @Chippy:disqus  @Dhruv_Bhutani:disqus @Steve_Chippy:disqus
    Hey guys, got some news for you, Here’s the articles:

    1. blog.gsmarena.com/asus-x101-ultra-thin-meego-netbook-is-up-for-pre-order-goes-easy-on-your-budget/
    $227 for a Meego Netbook is a great price.

    2. blog.gsmarena.com/intel-hasnt-given-up-on-meego-looking-for-a-partner-in-developing-the-os/

    Hopefully Intel can find a good partner that wont quit.  I prefer LG, not to sure about Panasonic or Huawei as I’ve never owned or demoed one of their devices but LG usually have some pretty solid builds.  I just wish that they’d come out with that GW990 Meego phone.  I really liked how that device was turning out.

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