Maemo, the Linux that runs on the N Series Internet Tablets and more recently the N900 will merge with Moblin, to create MeeGo according to information coming out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  Moblin was a Linux desktop that was started by Intel and targeted at Tablet devices.

This is what Moblin 2.1 looks like.

PC Mag reports that the new OS will be based on some of the same technology that the KDE Desktop Environment uses today, called Qt.

Nokia also will be laying off 285 people in Finland that may be due to this merger of Operating Systems.

“With MeeGo, you have the world’s leader in computing – Intel – uniting with the world’s leader in communications – Nokia – in a true open source project hosted at the Linux Foundation,” Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation, said in a separate statement. “MeeGo has been built from the ground up for rich, mobile devices and will deliver choice to consumers without lock-in. For developers, they will have the power of the Qt platform across a multitude of devices and architectures giving them an incredible opportunity to innovate and reach users.”

This is kind of unfortunate for those still hanging on to the N800/N810 devices, but the writing seemed to be on the wall for Maemo since Android took off.  Android has been successful while Nokia sat by and kind of wasted an opportunity, in my opinion.  I hope MeeGo can give Android some competition in the Linux mobile phone space.

What are your thoughts?  Have you used Maemo?  How about Moblin?  Is this a good move for Nokia?