Intel and the Open Ecosystem

I have a confession to make that might not sit well in the AppUp World:

I’m a longtime AMD system builder.

I have to qualify that though.  Eons ago, when I first started assembling my own personal computers, CPU competition was fairly open.  Intel could not keep up with the demand at the time, so they licensed x86 production to various foundries– many that aren’t even around now.  I was a hardware opportunist, scavenging and cannibalizing and repurposing any part I could.  So it didn’t matter if a CPU was made by Intel or AMD or Cyrix or whoever… as long as I could use it, I did.

But over time competitors died or withdrew from that business, and for a while it was pretty much an Intel and AMD world for desktops.  

Blogging at AppUp, too

Intel’s ever-popular Bob Duffy asked me to do some blogging for their AppUp community and even as busy as I am lately, I could not turn down the opportunity.   As I say in my intro there:

Here I’ll narrow it down to mostly MeeGo-specific stuff with some general software development along with relevant hardware topics.  Just about everything will have a heavy community slant.

Bob was gracious enough to let me echo articles over here.   When I do so, I’ll wait a day or so after initially publishing there before republishing here, and also include a reference to the original post.  Note that most of my writing will continue to originate here.

It’s actually funny that I’m doing this for Intel, given that I have been a largely AMD customer for years.  More on that in a future article.

Oh, and Cosimo Kroll has also started writing at AppUp, too, so make sure to check him out as well!

Seeding MeeGo

Propagating a novel operating system (OS) can often be a frustrating chicken-vs-egg scenario, as many abandoned platforms and even current ones like Linux can demonstrate.  An OS won’t gain many converts without a reasonable stream of ready-made applications as well as the necessary ecosystem support (especially device drivers).  In open source contexts, this is compounded by Digital Rights Management (DRM) and similar sticky, usually legal, bogeys.

Maintaining a compelling closed ecosystem, such as Apple has chosen with its various OS offerings, certainly goes a long way toward solving those hurdles.  On the other hand, Google’s breadth of services, brand recognition and sheer size have quickly carved out secure toeholds for the more open Android and undoubtedly Chrome OS.  And there are already several well-established (although shrinking) platforms occupying the rest of the market slots… so where’s the space for upstart MeeGo?

The recent article here rhetorically asked Why MeeGo and that’s not the point today.  Rather, I want to cover what’s going on in porting and packaging, and what that might mean for MeeGo’s possibilities.  

Why MeeGo?

There was a time when cell phone operating system Symbian was on a roll. Utilized by numerous device providers and championed by global giant Nokia, it provided the basis for a smartphone revolution.  And appeared unstoppable.

But Symbian had its roots in traditional user experience, and its proponents seemed surprisingly blindsided by the explosive growth of touch devices in the late 2000s.  With its laser focus on the trend-setting demographic, Apple managed to quickly lay waste to the cell phone status quo with its now-iconic touchscreen iPhone.  A victim of its own success, Symbian has since struggled to find its way and shows signs of having peaked in global share.  

My Time at the MeeGo Conference 2010

I’ve had a few days now since the first-ever MeeGo Conference ended to jettison the jet lag and sort my thoughts, so it’s time to run through experiences there.  This will come from a purely personal viewpoint; later I’ll do a more objective analysis of the event.  Apologies in advance for the epic length.

Preparation

I had a “Birds of a Feather” (BoF) workshop scheduled as well as a lightning talk, so there was obvious work involved for the presentations.  The lightning talk, an introduction to MeeGo Greeters, was easy to work up.  The BoF on user engagement was more difficult, as I had never conducted one before at the conference level.  After kicking ideas around I decided to wait until arriving in Dublin and draw out the thoughts of friends and especially my two co-panelists Timo and Leinir.  Since this was meant as a brainstorm I figured it might not even hurt to completely wing it.  Barring, though, a frustrating tendency to occasionally freeze into a mute on stage or fail to edit a long talk down to lightning class.

But most of my time beforehand was spent drawing requested custom characters for the MeeGo community.  Dubbed “Meegons“, the little things turned out to be immensely popular, particularly the week before I had to leave.  I had decided to create badge and device stickers of them for as many people as I could.  As luck would have it, high humidity made printing a real pain just prior to my flight out, but by some miracle I got everything done that I could.  

Nokia and the Art of Fulfillment

The current analytical buzz about Nokia’s mind and market share issues tends to be pessimistic, presupposing that the company has no chance of reclaiming its former glory days due to the unwitting tag-team onslaught of Apple and Android.  But this negative assumption arises from ignorance and forgetfulness.

It’s certainly true that customers have a stubborn inclination toward brand loyalty that can be difficult to unseat.  But Nokia was once on the positive side of that equation in areas where it now struggles (or has given up altogether).  What could keep it from returning to that former glory?

Nothing, actually.