I just wonder if anybody will be surprised if this happens to MeeGo Harmattan?

The last 7 weeks have been hell for HP and the TouchPad. I took full advantage of buying one for $299, even somehow got the original $50 off, so a tablet that was once $499, I got it for $249 alongside 50gb of space via Box.net - supposedly for the life of the tablet (we'll see).

But as it stands, HP might still license WebOS. Whereas Nokia has no intention whatsoever to release any of the Harmattan UI code - it's closed source and zero mention of licensing. Nor does it seem like they're willing to commit to MeeGo despite being the only confirmed handset developer.

So could this happen to Nokia's MeeGo endeavors? Yep. If more announcements beside OEM announcements don't come out from Intel, hell, they might shutter the MeeGo from a public facing, Linux Foundation backed OS to a more embedded, OEM friendly OS instead that still has Intel's backing.

Nokia's announcement of the N9 and subsequent announcements about where it will (and ultimately will not be directly) shipping has caused Intel a bit of grief, I'm willing to bet.

Oh well. Funny part? WebOS on a tablet is how it should have been. Great multi-tasking, a browser that defaulted to desktop, a rather update SDK and free-to-join dev program that was not so exclusive that you felt like you were going to get left out and a device that actually shipped.

Can't say the same about MeeGo for this dev at the moment. No N950, no N9, Aegis looks to be a hindrance and Elop at the helm seems hellbent in making this fail and no other handset has come forward with MeeGo on it.

Hmm.