Google: Android, MeeGo don't have to fight

Google open source chief Chris DiBona said he's not in the killing business and expects that Android, MeeGo and other open source cell phone operating systems to play nicely together in the sandbox.

"MeeGo doesn't have to lose for Android to be great and Android doesn't have to lose for MeeGo to be great," DiBona told hundreds who gathered in San Francisco for the Linux Foundation's :Linux Collaboration summit.

Of course, it would have been quite impolite for DiBona to say anything else. MeeGo, which was launched earlier this year by Intel and Nokia, is hosted by the summit's sponsors, the Linux Foundation.

But no, really, DiBona says, noting that open source is designed to offer choices and that the open source industry is not as bloodthirsty as others in the commercial software world. In this industry, competitors "have to have enemies and we have to kill Microsoft and break this ... I've never been this guy," DiBona said during his talk Wednesday the conference, which was webcast live from the San Francisco event.

"I don't want Android to succeed because MeeGo has to fail," he said. "MeeGo is great ... they don't have to be hurt for us to succeed. There are two billion cell phones out there now and some are Android, some are iPhone, whatever, and some are MeeGo and some are Symbian. Why is this bad?"