The key difference with MeeGo is that technically it’s more bottom-up (as opposed to Google’ top-down approach). This is also reflected by the supporters - for now, you will see mostly system-level/firmware companies in there. This is natural, there is little for the top-level folks currently. In this sense it’s a ’build it and they will come’ philosophy.

As for the list of companies, I wouldn’t read too much into it, this is all standard marketing stuff without any tangible commitment (though if all those Linux vendors in there provide not just lip-service but really adopt MeeGo and its upstream-first policy, this could easily be the biggest Linux offensive on the mobile market, ever). What I personally found interesting in the list is the relatively high number of companies from the far east - you’ve got a whole lot of China/Korea/Taiwan/Japan in there (and I’m not talking about just companies operating from there, but also in those markets).