It has not been even six months since work on MeeGo started, which implies (well, three) things:

1. You can't make an OS in 6 months, even if you're not starting from scratch (surprise). This was true for Android, too.

2. Nokia and Intel will be the first. Companies outside those two won't really be willing to experiment with ANY OS until they see what comes of it, so don't expect (other) big players in the first wave. Again, this was the same with Android.

3. MeeGo is not supporting anyone per se, whoever sticks it on their devices, supports it. Nokia (or Intel) won't be doing (nor preventing !) support for any other manufacturer. Ditto for Android.

3a. There is currently one known MeeGo compatible ARM device - the N900.

I am hoping specifically that some Asian manufacturer will bust the prevailing tablet makers and come out with Internet tablets far more open sourced than anything yet seen. I just can't visualize it being done in the US or European legal environments. My impression is that the wind of hope blows from the Orient. The manufacturers there seem to be in an anarchistic struggle for profits that might impel someone to try it. I don't have much faith in any manufacturer I have heard of.

Note: strange, my Thanks option disappeared after message #10 above. I wanted to thank ysss.

Rest assured I am extremely well aware of the difference between individuals, peoples and their governments/regimes.

By referring to Chinese state corporatism I thought it was clear and certainly without xenophobia (!?) that I meant the state-corporations symbiosis in China and not the people. Most of my Chinese friends actually agree with that point, although some are also beneficiaries of it while others are involved in improving labour and democratic rights.

Thanks for explaining your reading-between-the-lines and I hope we cleared up any misunderstanding.

The only difference between "Chinese state corporatism" and "governments being in the pockets of big business in 'Western' market economies" is that in the former the relationship is transparent

There's this device out at the moment which is doing pretty well but people say its weak and unoriginal : Consumer Tablet

Compared to what?

This is a bit of a non-starter as DRM is explicitly designed to defeat interoperability, and can't be maintained in an open source context. And proprietary software makes you dependent on the vendor's whims, possibly leaving us in the lurch like we have been for Flash 10.

Please accept my apologies for adding to this old thread. This seems like the correct place to post this, rather than starting a new thread on a similar topic

I like the x86 computer paradigm where you buy the box with hardware and then select the OS to load on it. I also like the x86 paradigm of replaceable, upgradeable, comes with a driver add-ons. Soundcards, modems, video cards, what-have-you all plug into slots. Your device could evolve to meet changing needs or, as hardware improved, better meet the same needs.

This is the direction, admittedly it is 'backward', I'd love to see taken in the high end phone/tablet market. The idea of being able to upgrade the RAM, on-board storage, camera, microphone, and display of an E7-like or Playbook-like device is very appealing. These could run Linux, Android, WebOS, Windows etc. and serve the needs of everyone except those who really do not want to get into the guts of their machine. The iPadx would be for them.