The MeeGo Linux operating system for mobile devices gained software support at the Computex show this week in Taiwan. Novell and Linpus both announced MeeGo-based netbook distributions, Movial announced a "MeeGo Services" development suite, and Telefonica has weighed in with support for the open source platform.

The MeeGo project was launched earlier this year when Intel and Nokia brought together their respective mobile Linux platforms in a combined effort to reduce fragmentation and offer device vendors a standardized platform. The MeeGo platform is endorsed by the Linux Foundation, which has taken on a stewardship role with the aim of facilitating collaboration around the software.

The Linux Foundation announced that twenty seven companies or organisations are pledging their support for the MeeGo mobile Linux platform

Intel has tightened its alliance with Nokia by merging its Moblin mobile Linux platform into the Finnish phone giant's built-on-Linux Maemo OS. The combined platform will be called MeeGo - which will undoubtedly be satirised as 'MeeToo', given its clear intention to fight the rise of Android and iPhone.

The MeeGo project is about to celebrate its first birthday, but there may still be Linux and open source developers who aren't quite sure how it relates to other Linux-based distributions for tablets, netbooks, or phones — like Android, Chrome OS, or the netbook remixes of popular desktop distros.

Advocates for duelling open source mobile platforms Android and MeeGo championed their technologies on Wednesday, with a MeeGo spokesman offering a product roadmap, and a Google technologist emphasising Android's release schedule and addressing fragmentation questions.

Intel has revealed that it is developing a variant of the Linux-based MeeGo operating system that will run on conventional desktop and laptop computers. This move could substantially broaden MeeGo's scope, transforming it from a mobile platform into a general purpose Linux distro.

MeeGo 1.1 will be available soon for the Nokia N900 smartphone, which will be able to boot into either the MeeGo or Maemo flavors of Linux. Meanwhile, Aava Mobile, which is porting MeeGo to its Intel Atom N6xx based Aava Mobile smartphone reference design, joined MeeGo's overseer, the Linux Foundation.

Novell is working on a successor to SUSE Moblin which will use components of the Nokia and Intel driven MeeGo operating system. It's expected that SUSE MeeGo will be available pre-installed on consumer devices within the next 12 months