MeeGo is designed to unify devices. That is to say, it is an embedded OS which enables software to run on any MeeGo device – TV, mobile phone, laptop, car, etc. That is quite an ambition. You could argue that Debian has already done this with its ‘Universal OS’ and I wouldn’t disagree with you, but the commercial support for MeeGo along with its broad ambitions means that MeeGo is the only OS of its class to address such a large market in a unified way.

This is also why the compliance policy and trademark policy is so contentious – commercial support for Linux does not come for free. But this is a bit of pioneering work, not a lot of existing trademark case law address trademarks in conjunction with Free Software. While I too am critical of some of the moves made, nothing is yet written in stone and I think that there is considerable flexibility in the compliance and trademark policies. Let’s not forget that Ubuntu is going to do the same thing and in fact already has a fairly nasty copyright contribution policy so they are not really yet as open as MeeGo. The good thing about the process is that we can iterate and refine it.

As far as products are concerned, I’d wait until after CES and MWC before we complain about the lack of MeeGo devices. :-)

Lastly, community is very, very hard to get right. Debian can do it because it doesn’t introduce money into the equation, everyone in Debian is a volunteer. Can you re-create a community like Debian’s by paying people? I sincerely doubt it. This is not to say that Linux developers shouldn’t get paid, its just that the interests of great hackers and corporations are not always aligned; money is not always the most important thing to hackers. Once Nokia, Intel, and even to some degree the Linux Foundation itself understands this, MeeGo will fly.

Did you read the article? ;-) Yes, MeeGo has some differences compared to Debian, Fedora, etc. So what? Right is right. The bottom line, I’m not hearing anybody that’s pleased with MeeGo’s community right now. Community isn’t something you can bolt on or address when the corporate powers that be are finally where they want to be with a product. It has to be done right in conjunction with other development goals.

“As far as products are concerned, I’d wait until after CES and MWC before we complain about the lack of MeeGo devices. :-)”

Um, no. :-) MeeGo missed a crucial holiday sales period. Yeah, Nokia and others will trot out some goodies at CES – so what? They missed the 2010 holiday boat. Apple will have the iPad 2.0 out on display soon, Android 3.0 devices are around the corner – MeeGo is going to be trailing badly with first-gen devices.

“Lastly, community is very, very hard to get right”

I don’t disagree – but that’s not an excuse.

“Let’s not forget that Ubuntu is going to do the same thing and in fact already has a fairly nasty copyright contribution policy so they are not really yet as open as MeeGo.”

Project A doing something similar does not excuse Project B’s poor behavior or governance. I’ve also criticized Canonical where I’ve felt necessary – I’m not exactly cutting them slack.

Look – Intel and Nokia had existing communities before MeeGo. The “we’re just getting started” excuse is no defense. It’s not easy for companies of their size to work with communities, but that’s not an excuse not to do better.

Packaging is something hardware vendors do. The Community is for providing unpaid development staff for infrastructure projects and for somehow magically creating a thriving app ecosystem which will make your company’s devices suddenly competitive with Apple and Google when they ship two years from now.