marcin.soltysiak

MeeGo Localization Team is using a web based, automated and robust tool called Transifex. It provides and interface between versioning control system that coders use for development (Gitorious) and translators league who very often are not technical guys. Thanks to the backend, translators can seamlessly work on translation files using their favorite tools, including a web based one bundled into Transifex. Translated files are then uploaded to the repository by a scheduled job run on Trasifex server. The web interface is simple and intuitive. Even non-techies can work with it to give localization project a boost.

The team itself consist of 39 language teams led by Margie Foster acting also as an interface between translators and core team & developers. Previously, Margie was leading (among others) a Moblin licalization effort within Intel's Moblin project. The Transifex is maintained by its creator and lead developer - Dimitris Glezos. Dimitris is also responsible for MeeGo Trasifex Hub and is a main driver for adjusting the tool to project needs. Those days we are all waiting for a new Trasifex release with a native support for Qt's .TS files.

First MeeGo release (1.0 netbook) was born with the core & interface translated to 16, so called 'priority' languages. After the release there were new languages added and eventualy we have 19 languages complete in 90%+ including not only the popular ones but also those limited to smaller areas. Among them we have Asturian, Persian, Galician, Japanese & Chinese and 34 other languages complete in 50%+. Simultanously, the Localization team is working on development release that eventually will become MeeGo 1.1. In this area we have 21 languages complete in 90%+ and 58(!) in 50%+. The complete list of languages contains 88 items.

In the team we are very open for any newcomers and all who want to contribute, so next time when you think "What does it mean? Who, the heck, made this translation." don't hesitate and join the force - we want you for your translations!

Partitioning

Usually, you get your device preinstalled by OEM and this means you have whole disk space dedicated to your WinXP. If you don't intend to erase it, you need to make some space for your new MeeGo installation.

In order to repartition the disk, we need a fancy tool that is capable of looseless partition operations. I decided to use EASEUS Partition Master because i) I found it and ii) it was free. If you have some LiveCD versions of, say, Ubuntu or Fedora you can also boot it and use GParted shipped. The idea remains the same - to move all existing data into one space and cut out some free space for new, unallocated area. With EASEUS it was fairly easy.

First, you'd better defragment your disk so you're sure no data left in the physical area of the disk you will cut. It usually takes some time, so once you hit OK go and get your coffee.

Next go to 'Move/Resize' and define a new size of your Win partition. You can put numbers or move the slider. I suggest to allocate at least 8G for MeeGo, however if memory servers, the installer will go on with 4.2G at least.

If you forgot to defragment the drive, no worries - it'll do it anyway.

Installation

Once repartitioning is complete just reboot the device from your USB key. In case you don't have booting key, please refer to MeeGo release page to learn how to do it.

Installation process looks quite generic. Next, next, next, and when you get to partitioning screen let the installer use remaining disk space and proceed. Never mind boot settings as installer shamelessly ignores your settings anyway.

Booting and post install

First time boot has to be completed in MeeGo to let you access fully operating system. Once it's done go to Applications -> Terminal:

$ sudo vi /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

prompt 0

timeout 5

To have some time for the decission before it boots.

#menu hidden

To show the boot menu

label meego
        menu label MeeGo (2.6.33.3-11.1-netbook)
        kernel vmlinuz-2.6.33.3-11.1-netbook
        append ro root=/dev/sda3 quiet vga=current
label Other
        menu label Windows
        kernel chain.c32
        append boot 1
        menu default

Put menu default for your OS that you want to boot automatically and save&exit. From now on every time you boot you have a choice of OS to start.

In terms of system and/or application development I am no more than a user with a bit extended view & experience in Linux systems, so I guess my testings are not infected with too much geek'ism and will trurly show what statistical device fan could feel taking first steps into MeeGo.

Downloading & preparation.

OK, that's easy. Community released two USB images with Chrome and Chromium browsers respectively. I took Chromium version - one click less to get it and besides, this image was available from official MeeGo repository so I could avoid huge traffic at downloads site. Clever, huh?

Installation instructions are pretty clear to newbies, even for Linux they noticed not every Linux user knows how to use 'dd' command. After few minutes I had my USB key ready with bootable MeeGo Live. Next step:

Installation.

That hurt a bit. But mostly because I tried to be smart and didn't want to wait until get home to play with my testing laptop. Instead I downloaded Virtual Box and quickly prepare a VM. Installation went smooth and even after first boot I got into post-install settings wizard, but that was the end of story since every subsequent reboot ended with blank screen. Referring to the source one can find:

System Requirements

 * CPU: Intel Atom or Intel Core 2 CPU (support for SSSE3)

    Note: MeeGo will not work on non-SSSE3 CPUs

 * Platforms with the GMA-500, Nvidia, or ATI Graphics chipset are not supported.

OK. I got Dell D630 and perfectly fill both conditions, so what the heck? Never mind... let's try VMWare. Another couple of hours to download and install VM (including few Windows reboots) and another MeeGo installation and yet another boot up fail. Arrrrrghhhh... Apparently MeeGo wants to be the only known system that won't work under VM.

I was so desperate, that I quickly downloaded some tools and repartitioned my Windows laptop to have some spare Gigs so I could install MeeGo in a traditional way (I posted short how to on http://forum.meego.com). Boot from USB, install, reboot, post-install and "Houston, we got MeeeGo".

Usability.

First impressions? Sweet, even sweeter. Nice and fast UI animations, lightweight icons and clean interface gives very nice feeling of mobile system designed for web-mostly usage. After few minutes I had it configured for my GMail account and was already browsing the web. Funny, but I had a feeleing that first couple of minutes playing with Chromium showed the browser is quite unstable. Display was getting frozen intermittently and browser stopped responding. After some time it just started working properly.

What else do we get? The main entry point int MeeGo is called Myzone. It stands for a desktop place with shortcuts to most fresh calendar & tasks items, with unread main notifier, few icons for most used application like browser, mail client and eventually list of thumbnails from recent activity. By activity I mean recent pages viewed or twitter updates and other live feed coming from 'status' panel. The latter is a command center for all live feeds associated with internet presence of a user. At the moment we have Twitter and Last.FM, however I couldn't log on to Last FM using my account.

Next to Myzone, there is a 'zones' panel. Briefly, it works like multiple desktops in every regular Linux environment. You can place and arrange open application to bring some order to you device. Then there come 'applications' panel containing several games, simple editor tool, multimedia player and some system tools. The third is 'status' panel I already mentioned, followed by 'persons' - a place you can add you IM accounts to have your contacts displayed and to start chatting in an easy way.

Multimedia, the next panel, is somewhat tricky. Upon some unknown rules it displays mutimedia you can run in a player. It also shows current player queue and give the opportunity ti launch Banshee - MeeGo multimedia player. Banshee seems to be working fine, however again, I couldn't run any last.fm content although I logged in and it showed my favorites and stations. Surprisingly, it doesn't play MP3 on DivX and similar formats. This comes (I think) from MeeGo policy of being open source and supporting open source only technologies and formats. This was also the cause that my WiFi didn't start - I have Broadcom wireless card that shipd only closed driver binary.

Of course, you can download and compile drivers, codecs and whatever comes as closed, but for typical end user this may be a job too big. Although I totally agree with open source ideas, I don't think MeeGo is best counterpart to fight against closed formats, especially most popular ones like MP3 and position that OEM will provide whatever their device need (drivers, codecs, tools) closes they way for repurposing harware people already have. I believe there should be some kind of extras or non-free repository, that users CAN CHOOSE from.

Other panel or desktop icons contain shortcuts to device manager (storage, battery, sound volume), gadgets (errrm... this I think doesn't work yet) and Bluetooth and network connections.

MeeGo 1.0 was released with localizations to a great number of languages (including full Polish translation I am proud to be part of) so it is already prepared to conquer the Wolrd.

Conclusion?

Well.. I loved the idea at very fisrt glance, so I keep standing that this is it. A versatile OS for mobile computing, web & communication oriented system facilitating daily routines. Enriched with telephony, GPS maps or DVB-T software will make other than computers devices like phones, navi or TV sets more friendly and funny.

I realize version 1.0 is not perfect and can't wait to see more.