Intel has vowed to find another buddy for its mobile Linux effort Meego, after Nokia shacked up with Microsoft on smart phones.

According to Reuters, Chipzilla chief executive Paul Otellini has claimed that MeeGo remains a worthwhile cause because carriers need an alternative ecosystem.

Otellini added that Nokia's chief executive Stephen Elop jumped in the wrong direction by going with Windows, saying if he was going anywhere, he should have gone to Android.

According to Intel's CEO, Nokia will find it harder to differentiate itself on Windows. "It would have been less hard on Android, on MeeGo he could have done it."

"I wouldn't have made the decision he made, I would probably have gone to Android if I were him," Otellini said. He pointed out that Nokia's choice was a financial decision.

Microsoft was rumored to be in a bidding war with Google over the deal. Elop, a former Microsoft president, has said that contrary to reports, Microsoft is not paying his company "billions" to swallow Windows. The financial terms of Nokia's agreement with Microsoft are not known.

"MeeGo would have been the best strategy but he concluded he couldn't afford it," Otellini said.

Intel formed MeeGo a year ago with Nokia when the pair merged their Moblin and Maemo mobile-Linux projects. Under Nokia's Microsoft relationship, MeeGo has been relegated to "project" status for "longer-term market exploration" on devices, platforms, and "user experiences". Nokia has one MeeGo smartphone in the works, which it still plans to produce this year.

"We will find another partner. The carriers still want a third ecosystem and the carriers want an open ecosystem, and that's the thing that drives our motivation," Otellini said.

We presume he meant MeeGo as the "third ecosystem", next to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, given Windows Phone's currently nonexistent market share. ®