Playing with MeeGo 1.0

“The MeeGo project – the result of the merger between Moblin and
Maemo – released version 1.0 of its core platform on May 25,
accompanied by the first iteration of its “Netbook user
experience.” Your editor, who happens to have a netbook system
sitting around, decided to give this release a try to see what has
happened since the Moblin review written last November. While the
overall feel of the system is quite similar, there has also been
some real progress; MeeGo feels more like a finished product than
Moblin did.

“The overall user interface concepts laid out by Moblin have not
changed much in the merger with Maemo. There is still a home screen
meant to provide access to recently-used activities, be they web
pages or communications with others. The line of icons at the top
still shows what the MeeGo developers think people will want to do
with netbooks: talk to people, browse web pages, play music, etc.
The quality of the graphics and animation have improved somewhat,
but the basic interaction model is what Moblin had before.

“There is an interesting distinction between running an activity
from the top icon bar and running an application. Applications run
in “zones,” which are essentially virtual desktops which hold one
window each.”

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