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- tuxracer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24Speaking of which, before you go buy an iPhone, then come to digg to read the latest, "iPhone Update Breaks iPhones" article... check out http://www.openmoko.com/products-neo-base-02-scree ... that is due to be released this month. It is completely built around open source technologies. Even the hardware has open specs.
- dynacrylic, on 10/10/2007, -3/+17"By releasing the new platform into the open source community, the hope is that the collaboration will allow for a faster release of products and technologies with enhanced capabilities for video, graphics, and Internet."
It only took a few years but at least some companies have caught on. - RobotBuddha, on 10/10/2007, -4/+11Mozilla comes out as 'pro' open source? I'm shocked! But, joking aside, are they talking about moko here? If not, it sounds like an annoying case of the NIH syndrome.
- geminitojanus, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Except you don't realize that these people are creating something that is free, they aren't working for free. These companies are /paying/ them to develop Linux.
Instead of competing against each other like blood-thirsty corporate overlords, they're getting together and working on one product that serves all of the companies. Each company gets to work on the component that they know best; the cellphone baseband company gets to write the baseband driver, the company that produces the processor gets to write the compiler and the bootstrapping, etc.
Open source will go further than any one company alone could ever take any one product. That's the beauty of the project. Seven companies get together and decide to build a cellphone platform, a year later they've got something tangible that each one of them created, can now sell, and split the profit however they like, rather than spending three years to spin a platform individually, with or without success. They can also take the group-created work, create products of their own and release them in competition. 100%, absolute free market. - KloroFormd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Samsung makes phones.
Texas Instruments makes chips.
ARM makes efficient mobile processors.
The others... not sure of. - redxxx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5uhh... no, it will probably never be as trendy as the iPhone nor will the UI be as pretty. So no, it will probably never "catch up" with the iPhone.
The technology will probably be comparable if not superior, and people will be able to decide what software they use, so a lot of people will prefer them. - JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3"The technology will probably be comparable if not superior, and people will be able to decide what software they use, so a lot of people will prefer them."
I agree. Obviously, there is a place in the market for low cost, open source based products. And just as obviously, there is also a place for proprietary products. Neither of these will ever be able to totally replace the other. Those who say otherwise are simply demonstrating a poor understanding of the marketplace. - tuxracer, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7How in the hell is this dugg down? Apple fanboys *that* rabbid?? Whip the foam from your mouth and let me tell you I'm writing this from within OSX from my MacBook Pro, which I love. I especially love the fact that I can install any application that I happen to find useful... I have my cellphone on with me more often than my laptop, so I applaud these efforts to bring open source to cell phones. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware none of these seven companies even manufacture cell phones. OpenMoko is the first project I've seen that actually puts this into practice.
- stevenwagner, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The OpenMoko Neo1973 is NOT due for release this month. It got pushed back till Christmas.
Sep 20 - GTA02v3 design finalised.
Oct 20 - GTA02v3 design produced, and shipped to qualified developers.
Nov 20 - GTA02v3 design verified through testing by developers.
Dec 10 - GTA02v3 produced in moderate volume
Dec 20 - GTA02v3 goes on sale
Dec 25 - GTA02v3 arrives. See Santa's Sleigh Package Service.
http://www.phoronix.com/blogs/david/index.php?k=bl ... - tuxracer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Ah, I stand corrected. However, you failed to defend Apple so despite the fact that you have a short, sweet, reasonable and factual response it too has been dugg down.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2OpenMoko was announced before the iPhone, now maybe its not got a UI as good as the iPhone but I doubt its a whole lot worse and it was done before there was much in the way of commercial support, now there are large mobile phone companies behind such projects.
Plus being open source it shouldn't be too hard for someone to code a clone of the iPhone UI (Actually some Chinese company did it already, dunno if it was opensource). But unlike the iPhone you will be able to run 3rd party application and theme it etc... Maybe there are some patents on the UI but they can probably be worked around, and you can just grab the code and compile your own since patents only really conver the implementations, which is why FreeType can have the code for the Apple patented antialiasing of fonts, but distros can't release binaries with it enabled. - Yoshi39, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3So your saying that the phone companies sees linux as cheeper,more stabe, and uses less resources in my opinion that sounds like they think it is better (whether they think it is better because or despite the fact that it is open-source is irrelevant)
- geminitojanus, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5Then you would explain Linux's increasing adoption in the cellphone market over Windows CE/Mobile and Symbian how, exactly?
Mobile developers are pissed. Almost every time one of these companies update their OS, all of their software breaks. All of it. Linux, paradoxically, is a very stable platform to build on because all of the layers in a typical Linux application stack are insulated from the next layer's API change. If something in some subsystem somewhere has to change, it doesn't break your software, which makes software developers happy campers. On top of that, if something isn't working, you've got the source /right there/ to see why it's not working, and you can fix it yourself.
Linux works because it's absolutely the right tool for the job. If there were another OS with that kind of ARM support that has that strong of a community, /and/ was Open Source, it would be a competitor. But plain and simple, there isn't one. Symbian's the "next best thing", but Linux outclasses it in so many ways it's almost embarrassing; even Nokia, who owns about half of Symbian (and is the biggest holder of it), is moving away from Symbian in favor of Linux. - xoineg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2unfortunately the other millions of companies out there said NO to open source....
- ilgaz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Symbian is there which is open source and brand neutral. If they can't produce a good smart device which will make to top electronics lists such as Nokia N800, it is not Nokia's or Symbian's fault or Linux will fix the problem.
Nokia N800 running Linux also has commercial, closed source Opera as its browser. Why? Because it works. It serves the users needs. User doesn't care if it is open or not, look, people who would never touch anything "Linux" also buys Nokia N800 tablet device which _is_ running Linux.
It is usability and quality of code, nothing else. - JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2"Plus being open source it shouldn't be too hard for someone to code a clone of the iPhone UI..."
Sure, anything can be done but how long will it take? Today, Apple has a real product that consumers can buy, Open Moko has promises and potential. Apple is fulfilling consumer's needs and earning money while OpenMoko is toying with their dreams. Maybe somehow, somewhere, someday in a land far, far away, open source will become a real marketplace leader instead of a follower ... but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it. - Thyris, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4Sometimes this stuff is just stupid, Companies that go open source hoping that they'll get their apps created for them essentially for free, bye bye corporate expense they say! Programmers like to work for free. Truth is, a good majority of programmers like to make money for their profession, just like other people, not work for free. Open source can only go so far.
- neotexan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Sorry, but the companies don't think open source is "the future of cellphone technology." They just looked at all options, and found the solution that balances cost effectiveness and demands of customers. If Microsoft or any other company/group offered a mobile development platform, made it reasonably priced and working, they would go with it.
- geminitojanus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's actually funny you mentioned that; a great deal of the code running on the iPhone is open source code, including the kernel (Darwin) itself.
- treed, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Well, at least I've heard of most of them.
- known, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1http://cglinux.sourceforge.net/
- dkoon, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3only because it's free...
- neotexan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2You must have skipped the 'reasonably priced and working' part. Symbian and Win Mobile both have licensing fees and tend to have problems. I agree that Linux can be an excellent platform for phones. The kernel was designed to be stable and use a minimum amount of resources. I'm just saying that Linux is being adopted because it meets requirements and is cheap to develop on, not because companies think open source is a movement or inherently better than closed-source.
- jartur, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Okay. I'm gonna stop hating Samsung phones.
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Source code and $3US will buy you a cup of Starbucks coffee. "Source code" does not equal "product".
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1"It only took a few years but at least some companies have caught on."
Now that they've "caught on", will they ever "catch up"? Can we expect this coalition to create the next iPhone or will they always be two years behind and working to copy the best proprietary offerings? - JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1"Open source will go further than any one company alone could ever take any one product."
I'll believe that when this coalition designs and brings to market the next iPhone. - ilgaz, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1I would pay if Opera releases an update to my Nokia 9300 Symbian 80 device but I wouldn't touch Mozilla if they ever cared about Symbian, the real MS killer and cared to ship a binary.
Mozilla does not have a release for Symbian. Yes, the same Symbian which is open with complete SDK. What they ship? They ship a WinCE application.
Mozilla is becoming a proof that being open source doesn't neccessarily mean being "good guys". - Darcy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"Then you would explain Linux's increasing adoption in the cellphone market over Windows CE/Mobile and Symbian how, exactly?"
lol, Who are you trying to kid? - SimehSingh, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0But Microsoft isn't on the list so it can't be good can it?
- fdezfze, on 10/10/2007, -8/+0http://3couleurs.blogspot.com
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1¿sǝlıqoɯ ǝǝɹɟ ʇǝƃ oʇ ƃuıoƃ ǝɹɐ ǝʍ uɐǝɯ ʇɐɥʇ sǝop
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