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Handhelds Operating Systems Software Hardware Linux

Linux Crashes the Mobile Party 128

Posted by CmdrTaco from the no-not-that-kind-of-crash dept.
superglaze writes "ZDNet.co.uk has a fairly comprehensive feature on the progress being made by Linux for cellphones. Seems a pretty consumer deal for now, but there are some interesting hints of Linux eventually challenging Windows Mobile and Symbian in business use. The article also seems to suggest that the two big groups pushing mobile Linux could be amenable to a merger due to common interests."
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Linux Crashes the Mobile Party More

Linux Crashes the Mobile Party

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  • Could this be... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ehaggis ( 879721 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:02AM (#20754293) Homepage Journal
    The year of Linux on the deskt...Cell Phone?

    • Re:Could this be... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:11AM (#20754371)
      One page print version of article, rather than 4 ad-loaded pages [zdnet.co.uk].

    • Re:Could this be... (Score:4, Funny)

      by tloh ( 451585 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:34AM (#20754571)
      Maybe, but for the love of God, Don't tease a slasdotter with a subject heading that begins with "LINUX CRASHES...." I just about nearly had a heart attack upon reading those first two words.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by $RANDOMLUSER ( 804576 )
        Don't (kernel) panic.
        • Why not have Linux on the Cell phone and every other device, how exciting and useful will it be that your computer and cell phone and game console and your car etc etc, all run the same OS and can easily communicate between each other. Just image a iPhone like device without the tyranny of iTunes, drag and drop, customizable settings, you could upload text conversation, or actual audio conversation, and there would be a piece of software for anything and everything you would ever want to do on a cell phone!

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by snoyberg ( 787126 )
            Well, due to the nature of openness, it doesn't really matter if they all run the same OS, as long as they all speak the same language. Now, having all devices being POSIX compatible is something I really like, but it wouldn't really bother me if my car ran BSD instead of Ubuntu.
            • Yeah I guess that is a point, but I was thinking of Linux (or any open OS) to manage my devices like my iPhone, or my palm pilot. And you could network or remote control those device not through a Web GUI, that would be nice.

              • Re:Could this be... (Score:5, Insightful)

                by Ajehals ( 947354 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @11:23AM (#20755763) Journal
                You can do most of that now, My PDA's run Linux (familiar), My routers run Linux (Open Embedded), my 'stereo' runs Linux (Debian) my computers run Linux (Debian again) and my media centre runs Linux (Debian yet again). Its a really nice set up. NFS all round so file access, streaming media and internet radio (now using deezer) is possible anywhere. Best of all is that the PDA's are effectively universal remote controls, Wake on LAN means I can turn on and off any device from literally anywhere in the world (which can be fun if I want to confuse the missus or the kids). The next step is for me to get a stable VPN working properly so that I can have even more remote access (I currently use SSH via my mobile, or via my PDA + mobile). Connectivity is wired for anything non portable, WiFi for the portable kit (although one of the PDA's is blue tooth only) Mobile, generally 3G, when I am on the road (via blue tooth so no cables or having to actually look at my phone). So all I need now is a Linux phone (which I will get when my current phone breaks) to complete the set. It is interesting and extremely useful, some bizarre possibilities also become available, like using a PDA as a baby monitor, or using a web cam in our office to check if I left a document on the desk (and then grabbing a soft copy from home and printing it where ever I happen to be.

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by trum4n ( 982031 )
                  I want pictures of your house. i want to see this setup, cause this is what i want to do, but cant figure it out.
      • yes... but I've only had three crashes in the eight years I've been running Linux... and two of those I think I could have recovered if I'd been bothered to ssh in from another machine... It was quicker to turn it off and on again...
    • I don't know about you, but I often place my cellphone on my desktop, so yes, this may just be the year of Linux on the desktop!
    • Could be, though ZiffDavis is years behind the times on this story.

      I've been getting interviews from Palm almost every few months now for the last year and a half to work on their Linux-based OS (generally, it ends up in me not wanting to relocate for the salary offered, or someone else wanting the job a lot more by agreeing to lower salary requirements). The last one was for a guy to come in and do compatibility bug fixing/testing, which sounded mostly like post-alpha, pre-beta or even beta testing type w

  • Lips and Limos? (Score:5, Funny)

    by somersault ( 912633 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:03AM (#20754297) Homepage Journal
    "Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation and the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS)"

    Limo and Lips sounds like the name for a private escort service.. I can see these guys going far in the industry!
    • In case you were wondering if the evolution of all modern computing technology is driven by the need for pr0n, here's your proof.

      • Damnit man, I told you all those catalogs for USB vibrators and miniature beach party sets were for an experiment into the possibility of California invasion by gigantic earthquake inducing alien phalluses, nothing to do with pr0n..
    • Yeah, and if they crank up the vibrator functionality, they ought to get deep into the market ...

  • Good moment? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I havent read TFA but Jon Stokes at arstechnica.com has a quite enthusiastic review on Intel's new 45nm mobile processor. He foresees standard x86 operating systems (windows or linux) running even on am/fm radios :P

    Intel's x86 ISA grows down: today laptops, tomorrow the iPhone [arstechnica.com].

    2008 will be the year of the must-have x86-based ultramobile PC (UMPC) and mobile Internet device (MID), and from there it's a straight march into a future iteration of the iPhone.

    This might speed-up the development of the wanted-b

  • Call me what you will a BES set up is still really easy if all you need it for is email/calendar/contact sync from a corp standing

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Serhei ( 1150661 )
      > Call me what you will a BES set up is still really easy if all you need it for is email/calendar/contact sync from a corp standing

      Do you *want* to be devoured by grammar nazis?
  • I think the article would be more accurate in saying that the revolution had been in progress for quite some time. My Nokia didn't like salt water but was based on Linux. I have to say that I think I prefer Nokia regardless but the replaced it with a Razr but let's not digress too too much.

    Here are some smart phones running Linux.

    http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9423084269.html [linuxdevices.com]

    Personally I don't care too much what the OS is so long as it works well enough and lets me get my email too.

  • Openmoko (Score:5, Informative)

    by lobiusmoop ( 305328 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:16AM (#20754413) Homepage
    The OpenMoko [openmoko.org] platform is looking like a good bet for a Linux-based phone/pda platform. ARM-based, iPhone-like touchscreen and a nice development kit available. It's due in Oct/Nov I beleve.
    • The OpenMoko platform is looking like a good bet for a Linux-based phone/pda platform. ARM-based, iPhone-like touchscreen and a nice development kit available. It's due in Oct/Nov I beleve.

      I have asked this question before and have never gotten an answer. After checking all over the openmoko site, I cannot find out if they are planning on offering something like this in a CDMA version. There are no GSM networks that I can connect to reliably within about a 15-mile radius of where I live and work (I am in

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by mhall119 ( 1035984 )
        I think that CDMA is possible in the future, but since it is rarely used outside of the USA, they are focusing on GSM only at the moment.

      • Re:well,,,, (Score:3, Funny)

        by russ1337 ( 938915 )

        "I am in Wisconsin"
        In the famous words of the Mythbusters guys....

        "Well thurs your problem!"
      • I use Verizon and was looking for this too. I remember reading somewhere in the docs that "there are no current plans". Sorry man. At least I can switch to T-Mobile
      • Kind of the same problem here. In Vancouver (BC), there are GSM and CDMA cell providers.

        But the GSM provider is the devil ( Rogers ), and I'd rather not go through another three years with them, thank yew very much.

        But I really want the OpenMoko phone ( or rather, the FIC Neo 1973 ), but since it's GSM only at the moment....

        Then again, what I really want is a wi-fi enabled phone that can run Skype, so I can get a minimal cell plan ( maybe pay-as-you-go ) so that I can use Skype as often as possible, and onl
    • I decided to go with a Nokia n800 instead of waiting for the openmoku neo. I'm really happy with it. First linux GUI I've everv liked. And next year it should have:

      - Sprint wimax (not actual cellular, but faster ... and it already has skype) (officially announced)

      - SIP phone client (in beta)

      - if rumor pictures are to be believed, a slide out qwerty thumb keyboard.

      I prefer a different form factor than the slide out, but I can't think of any other device I'd carry once those features are out.
      • I'd buy the N800... if Skype offered SkypeIn numbers in Canada. I can't seem to find any information about them doing so in my area ( Lower Mainland of British Columbia ), so I'm going to have to stick to a cell phone for now =(. Those Skype guys seem pretty tight-lipped when it comes to letting people know when they're going to have features avalible in a certain area.

  • Confusing comments (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Psychor ( 603391 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:18AM (#20754423) Homepage
    Gartner analyst Nick Jones' comments seem particularly confusing. He states "I want something rich enough to deliver applications, that's available from multiple manufacturers, offering a decent range of handsets with corporate features. Linux just falls down on all of those."

    For one thing I can't really see how Linux falls down on being "rich enough to deliver applications", and his other points just seem to show that Linux doesn't yet have much market penetration in the mobile market. While this is true, slamming it for that in an article about the Linux entry into the mobile market seems odd. I guess maybe it's just a poorly chosen quote by the author.

    • Analysts say one thing, companies do another (Score:4, Insightful)

      by porkThreeWays ( 895269 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @10:57AM (#20755427)
      The funny thing about articles like this is there are always "experts" crying about shortcomings in Linux, yet the people actually making the phones are going toward Linux. In reality their criticisms don't hold enough weight to actually discourage the Linux train from rolling. I have recently begun to make the observation that people who actually develop for and use Linux don't have the same concerns as the analysts. Analysts cry "fragmentation", however in the actual Linux community it really isn't a problem. I've yet to run into the developer that says "oh man, I'm going to have to recode so much of this app for Ubuntu from Red Hat. This is going to suck...". Or what about the user "I've used Red Hat before but this Ubuntu is so damn confusing to get used to". The people that seem to criticize the most seem to have the least amount of Linux experience and form their opinions mostly on hearsay.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )
        The whole article is about misdirection. Rather than tackling the real issue, that Linux is good enough and represents a major saving in terms of software licence fees and software patent issues. Software has already very much become noting but refinements upon what has already been produced, and in this area open source software thrives as it provides the most cost effective environment for doing that kind of work.

        It is all about selling hardware and providing services and a free software layer on top ju

    • I think your point was answered by using the words "Gartner analyst".

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by allcar ( 1111567 )
      There's a surprise! A Gartner analyst that is unable to distinguish between his arse and his elbow. What fun it must be to wander around Gartner head office.

    • Let me translate that for you.

      "I want something rich enough ...

      "rich enough" == "can read proprietary M$Outlook's rich text messages and winmail.dats"

      ... to deliver applications, ...

      "deliver applications", not sure but in context sounds like "automatically download malware"

      ... that's available from multiple manufacturers, ...

      "multiple manufacturers" == not a product but technology. Notice that no word of "based on international/etc standards" in there.

      So in other words ... M$'s thou

  • Big Deal (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Chineseyes ( 691744 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:18AM (#20754429)
    When I can easily sync my linux/wm5/symbian/whatever OS phone to my linux desktop wake me. These are just going to be more linux phones that sync with windows desktop easily but on the linux desktop require using some poorly documented library that may or may not work on the current version of your phone. Then IF your phone happens to work with said library/module you are going to have to edit all sorts of config files and PRAY that your phone is actually recognized. After all this you better hope that your mail client, calendar, and contact manager of choice work with said library.
    I've said this before on slashdot and I know I will be modded troll so enjoy.
    • Most "smart" phones (and most phones in general) don't have support for syncing with Linux. Try syncing any series 60v3 phone with linux, using even development code and it just doesn't work.

      • Most "smart" phones (and most phones in general) don't have support for syncing

        IE they may sell you a cable at the VZ store, especially if you don't use outlook, your patching together something not really supported by the carriers.
        http://bitpim.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net] is the only useable solution to the LG phones that I have found, and it works equally on windows and linux.
        I assume this is not needed for the treo, or Windows mobile phones. But it seams no carriers want to support getting your pictures, etc off y

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ivan256 ( 17499 )

          IE they may sell you a cable at the VZ store, especially if you don't use outlook, your patching together something not really supported by the carriers.


          You're falling into the trap...

          "Supported by the phone" is different from "supported by the carriers". Of course, the less we remember that, the less true it will be.
        • I've got no problem connecting the physical layer. I'm talking about software that does meaningful stuff with the connection.

          I've never seen bitpim, so that's interesting. Unfortunately, I do a bit too much international travel for it to be practical for me to use a CDMA phone. Looks spiffy, though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sr180 ( 700526 )
        Sony Ericsson's Sync with Outlook better than Windows Mobile and MS ActiveSync does. (except for pushmail.)

    • These are just going to be more linux phones that sync with windows desktop easily

      valid. Really what I think is wanted is just a open platform. Most likely the linux phones will be locked like the Iphone to start with.
      I am a bit of a MicroSoft hater, but I do want a wm5 phone because I love the Garmin mobile 10 GPS unit. A all integrated phone this size of a deck of cards is great. but 5 years ago I was up in Vancover, back of a cab, gps wouldn't work, combination of heavy overcast sky, tall building ba

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      QTopia based Linux phones/PDA's are already able to sync with QTopia Desktop under Linux, Windows & MAC. Admittedly I don't know of many QTopia based phones out there; search through here if you are interested enough : http://www.linuxdevices.com/ [linuxdevices.com] Also check out the QTopia Greenphone: http://trolltech.com/products/qtopia/greenphone [trolltech.com]
      • There's also a preliminary port of qtopia to the neo. Though hopefully trolltech gives someone the time to iron out the bugs before december.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Paradigm_Complex ( 968558 )
      The "Big Deal" for someone in your position is that increased Linux market share - even if in a different market - leads to awareness and interest. It's a step towards what you're asking for, even if only a small one. Wouldn't this also mean the OS is open source? It'd be significantly easier to have some "homebrew" programs to sync a phone when you have a notable chunk of the phone's code, right? Maybe only slightly easier? People can still sync a lot of locked-down Apple hardware with their Linux boxe

  • We really do need this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BobMcD ( 601576 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:21AM (#20754459)
    A little over a year ago I dropped almost $700 on an ipaq hw6945. I had visions of carrying around a computer in my pocket in place of where my phone used to be. This just is not the case. The network stack on this thing sucks - hard. Using terminal software and/or browsing the internet is excruciating. I basically never do it. I desperately want a choice that isn't Windows Mobile. Perhaps I'd come back at some point, but I doubt it. As it stands I have a really excellent text-messenger and a pretty crappy phone. Almost none of the capabilities of this thing are being used do to a ghastly interface and limited product selection.

    I dream of being able to run Linux on this thing... and have it actually work, of course. I just checked handhelds.org again this morning, and this still wasn't the case. Frankly, I don't really see community effort ever coming back around to my device. Not at least as a phone with camera and GPS, etc. I do dream of some larger organization, e.g. Ubuntu, taking a stab at this some day...

    I'm the biggest nerd in the world, I know, but at least I'm in the right place.
    • Perhaps you should make a webpage about creating Linux for your device, or get involved in Sourceforge.net. I have a page up for my iPhone, basically how to save money, but now that I have those practices in place I wanna start a site and/or foundation to get Linux on the iPhone, the iPod Linux guys don't wanna touch it. Oh the site for my phone is www.hartdeveolpents.com/iphone/ let me know what you think about a website for your device, I wouldn't mind helping you out.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by BobMcD ( 601576 )
        I'm one of those not-so-helpful Linux customers. There are two reasons why I wouldn't set up my own site and/or project:

        1) One already exists. I honestly don't think that it will ever result in my phone running Linux, but I'd rather not detract from it. They just might pleasantly surprise me someday.

        2) I don't code. Not that I can't, I just hate it. With a passion. I'll leave that to others and just try and give feedback, support other users, etc. It isn't the 'Number One' role you're supposed to be

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by russ1337 ( 938915 )
      Ubuntu are coming close with their Mobile and Embedded Version [ubuntu.com], however it appears to be not specifically aimed at phones but "the emerging class of ultra mobile, small handheld devices which are Internet-enabled. [linuxdevices.com] (and the author gives the Nokia N800 as an example.)

      I think this is great. There is good support behind Ubuntu, and hopefully it will start to erode the monopoly of CE et, al. in the small device market.
      • Bah, I then went on to read the FAQ [ubuntu.com] from the Ubuntu site and found this:

        Despite should be no big problem port it to run on ARM, the Nokia devices have proprietary parts that we can't have access so the port will be, at the best, incomplete. My take on that is, at least for now, if you have a Nokia N770 or N800, stick with Nokia's software

        seems its more targeted at Intel processors:

        Currently, the project is focused on x86 processors, using architectures created by Intel's [WWW] LPIA platform. The only

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dupup ( 784652 )
      The Neo 1973 [openmoko.com] is a GNU/Linux based phone that's supposed to be ready for the market around Christmas '07.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I don't want to crash your little party here, but how exactly is running Linux supposed to solve your problems? The main problem on any handheld device is usability. Not the OS it runs. Do you know why the iPhone looks so refreshing? Because Apple is attacking the usability problem. Fingers friendly interface. A fullscreen/zoom based browser, ...

      • Freedom matters *especially* on phones (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Sloppy ( 14984 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @01:02PM (#20757097) Homepage Journal

        The main problem on any handheld device is usability.

        I strongly disagree. While I think phone UIs tend to be far from perfect and agree there's a lot of room for improvement, they're usable. I can start a phone call in a few seconds, sometimes a lot quicker than that.

        I think the main problems with today's phones are:

        • Trustworthiness. How do I know the mic isn't on and transmitting to someone? (That's not hypothetical anymore; we know it actually happens [news.com]; theoretical risks are becoming reality.) Why are my conversations still unencrypted in 2007? that's ridiculous. Most of my time spent on my phone is talking with people I regularly meet in the real world. There's just no reason we shouldn't have a nice, big OTP, and PKs for fallback whenever the OTP runs out.
        • Lock-in and closedness. Why do I have to pay to get a ringtone onto this thing? (Not that I want my phone to make annoying noises, but there's a principle at stake here.) Why will my phone stop working if I put another network's SIM chip into it? Why do some people have to pay to get photographs that they took, out of their own device?
        • Lack of connectivity options. If I'm near a 802.11 network, I should be able to (optionally) use that (perhaps at the cost of more power) for my side of the network connection, instead of the more expensive cell networks. If I'm near the person I'm calling (e.g. "hey, where the hell in this huge building are you?") I should be able to directly link w/out going through anyone's network at all. As long as phone manufacturers and network providers have such a close relationship, we're not going to get these features, no matter how obvious and desirable they are.
        Having our phones run Free Software is a really big deal. I think it matters even more on phones, than it does on desktop personal computers. We need these devices to start serving the interests of the users, instead of the network providers, governments, and who-the-fuck-knows-else.

    • btw Windows mobile is a sham (Score:4, Informative)

      by porkThreeWays ( 895269 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @11:25AM (#20755787)
      Windows mobile is the biggest sham ever. There, I said it. Lemme explain...

      At my job everyone used to have blackberrys w/ Nextel. Their data network at the time sucked big time (may or may not still be the case). So as the phones aged and everyone got tired of Nextel, we switched to Cingular. I'm not 100% sure why we changed the phones, but a few Windows guys started looking at Windows Mobile based phones. The key features for this were suppose to be

      * Since it's Windows, there is a huge array of applications
      * Since it has Internet Explorer, we can use all of our websites and IE quirks
      * Since it's Windows and windows has a standard API, our windows programmers could write programs for it
      * Basically every advantage you can think of for a full blown version of Windows compacted into a phone


      Well we got them. Started using them. Crash. But not a normal crash. Remember, these are phones. So you'd spend the whole morning wondering why you haven't gotten any calls yet and it turns out the phone froze. This is completely unacceptable for a phone. I got used to checking my phone every hour to make sure it didn't need to be rebooted.

      But heck, rebooting a phone every once in awhile isn't a huge deal to be able to use almost every Windows application ever! Out of all the smartphone OS's I've dealt with, in reality, Windows Mobile has the least amount of quality applications available for it. A lot of standard things everyone did on the Blackberry's were lost simply because there was no Windows Mobile equivalent program. It turns out most developers have no interest in porting their apps to Windows Mobile. Why not? Well this brings me to the next point...

      We've had these phones 2 years, and not a single one of our Windows developers has written a program for it. Why? Because touting it as anything like regular Windows development is a flat out lie. Writing programs for a mobile phone is nothing like a traditional application. They couldn't use many/most of their normal development tools. Writing for limited hardware is a whole different ballpark. Microsoft tried to take their traditional developers and throw them into the mobile phone arena, and those developers simply aren't equipped to do it, and get discouraged and don't write anything for the platform.

      Every advantage that relied on the fact "it's basically Windows" went right out the window because, in reality, it's nothing like desktop versions of Windows. We were left with an experience that was significantly worse than the Blackberry's. So guess what? We're getting rid of thousands of dollars worth of phones because the experience truly is that bad. We're going back to Blackberry.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by toleraen ( 831634 )
        So you read some Microsoft press releases and decided to drop thousands of dollars on a platform without further research? You didn't look into the availability of programs before making the switch? Your developers didn't look at a basic tutorial to .NET compact framework? You didn't read reviews on the phone to check its stability? Now that's what I call planning! By the way, I've got a bridge for sale if you want to take a look...

  • Our little baby is all grown... hey wait a second! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by downix ( 84795 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:22AM (#20754463) Homepage
    I remember running Linux in '93, Slackware 3.0. Amazing how far we've come, but this step could not have been imagined back when I began. Our little penguin is now going mobile!

    The Cell Phone will become ubiquious in ways computers never could be. Even laptops don't get into places you will find phones.
  • Does this mean that you can do crazy-ass things like setup an ssh server on your phone and then call yourself remotely?

    Peter

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by kensan ( 682362 )
      You can do that [openmoko.org] and much more with an Openmoko-phone http://openmoko.org/ [openmoko.org]. Admittedly the software still needs quite some time to mature but it definitely will open great opportunities.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by pzs ( 857406 )
        Phones running as web servers? Phones serving files to a house? Phones-as-firewalls?

        Dare I say it, a Beowulf cluster of phones?

        I'm a bit more cynical about Linux than I used to be, but I still think I'd feel a little thrill if I saw a bash prompt on my phone. I actually quite wanted one when I was doing my PhD. I could use ssh to start a big job running and monitor its progress even when away from the lab. I could even set it up to ring me when it was finished, or when it had halted at some critical moment.

        • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          You can already do this with a Symbian based phone (assuming your network operator hasn't blocked the port)

          http://s2putty.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]

        • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward
          "I'm a bit more cynical about Linux than I used to be, but I still think I'd feel a little thrill if I saw a bash prompt on my phone."

          http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/xo_plus_openmoko-03-boot.jpg [mako.cc]

          OpenMoko has SSH in and out of course (get a shell on your phone's OS, or use your phone to connect to a prompt on some other computer)

  • Gartner Analysts (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @09:37AM (#20754595)

    Gartner analyst Nick Jones has a more objective stance but he agrees that the platform is not yet consistent or standardised enough to be a serious proposition. "I would advise IT managers not to have anything to do with mobile Linux at this point in time," says Jones. "Imagine I'm an IT manager contemplating standardising on a mobile platform. I want something rich enough to deliver applications, that's available from multiple manufacturers, offering a decent range of handsets with corporate features. Linux just falls down on all of those."
    Is there ever a time when Gartner Analysts think Linux is ok? And of course the recommendation is to not have anything to do with Linux... I mean you wouldn't actually want to get in there and help make it "rich enough to deliver applications" that'd just be silly. Did this guy have the same criticism of Windows Mobile 1.0?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rbanffy ( 584143 )
      Gartner has a lot of business with Microsoft. They would never, ever jeopardize that. It's a major revenue source and they live in a competitive market.

  • What's the Selling Point? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GaryPatterson ( 852699 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @10:00AM (#20754859)
    I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there aren't enough people who both want a smart-phone and have bought into the Linux ideology to sustain a single Linux-based smart-phone. That's not to say that such a phone couldn't be successful, just that the selling point can't be "it's got Linux!"

    What are the real selling points of a smart-phone?
    * The applications
    * The development environment (promise of new, better apps soon)
    * Linking to other devices (syncing)
    * The interface
    * The phone functions

    Apple have just sewn up the interface, everyone gets the phone functions pretty much right, syncing is okay generally (non-Windows phones are hurt by closed Exchange servers), most people do apps reasonably well and the dev environment is okay for some, not so hot for others (Apple).

    How will a Linux smart-phone distinguish itself from the pack? It's no longer enough to be as good as the rest. These phones have to be much better. Maybe the better APIs and adherence to standards will be enough. It won't win the 'cool' factor that we saw the iPhone blitz just recently, but maybe it'll be enough.

    I'd like to see more sizzle to help sell the sausage.
    • Well you saw (well I dunno if you have or not) seen all the hacks for iPhone and the wicked awesome apps they have on it. I can now write HTML and CSS code on my phone and am working on PHP, I though I would cut my hands off before I wrote code on a phone, but the iPhone is honestly not that bad to write just a few little snippets and it is wicked nice to view code at all. Plus linux people are enthused to get things running, so hopefully they will make it user friendly with an installer like the (hacked)

    • I believe that the n800 [wikipedia.org] would do strongly in your rubric (applications, dev environment, syncing, interface and phone - voip). I believe that it can even do exchange (at least the 770 did through third-party software). As far as the dev environment, applications, etc check this out. [maemo.org] It's not a phone, but it does do VOIP, as well as hundreds of other useful (and not so useful) [internettablettalk.com] things.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by efence ( 927813 )

      What's the Selling Point?
      1. Licensing. For manufacturers, obviously, not for consumers. Symbian was even forced to lower its license fees due to pressure coming from Linux.
      2. Ease of development. The poor souls who had to deal with Symbian C++ will understand me.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by weicco ( 645927 )

        Ease of development. The poor souls who had to deal with Symbian C++ will understand me.

        Amen! Now since you brought this subject up I just remembered that I need to renew my prescription for sedatives...

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Methinks if flexibility is ensured and tinkering enabled and encouraged, community will build cool applications on top of any such product.

      Personally, I would like a phone that would double as an EE tool: rugged design, flexible analogue and digital interfaces, measures voltage, resistance, capacitance, inductance, frequency/period, duty cycle, temperature, logs periodic measurements, shows analog waveforms (doubles oscilloscope), synthesizes audio test sine waves, analyzes audio specter, has easy to set up

  • Nokia n800 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by emil10001 ( 985596 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @10:15AM (#20755001)

    I already have my Linux mobile device, and I couldn't be happier with it. It attaches to my bluetooth headphones, keyboard, gps, and phone (DUN) without any problems. I can use xterm to ssh to my server, or stream internet radio or video at work. Oh yea, and I jammed 16GB of SDHC storage into the thing, so I have a decent music selection. The current version does not have a cell phone radio, but the next one will carry a WiMax chip, and possibly some other new hardware goodies.

    On a related note, Ubuntu's Moblin and Red Flag's Midinux will be out relatively soon for use on UMPCs and MIDs. So, I'd agree that things are looking up for those of us who want more than e-mail and pim on our mobile devices. I'm not sure that I care *as much* about having Linux on my cell phone, as long as it will act as a modem to my other device and make phone calls. I want them to be separate, mostly so that I can make sure not to kill the battery on the cell phone, just in case I actually need it.

    • Amen brutha! I'm currently charging my N800 at work, and I love this little bugger. Now, how did you manage to get it to sync up with your headphones? I've heard that Bluetooth syncing with headsets is nothing short of horrible.

      • You can use kagu [guardiani.us] music player that works with a2dp [internettablettalk.com] bluetooth audio. [guardiani.us] I don't know about headsets (for voip), haven't really been too interested in that, although I know that it's coming. Sound quality is very good with a2dp, and avrcp (remote control) works fairly well with kagu too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DingerX ( 847589 )
      Heh. Yeah, I got me one of them N800s. Fun device, but lots of "yes-but" features. Yes Skype works, but only with the onboard condenser mike (and not the supplied headset). Yes, it has a camera for video phoning, but no software supports it. Yes, it shows PDFs, but you have to view them on the widescreen in landscape mode, and turning pages is a pain. Yes, it has an image viewer, but you can't rotate images (again landscape mode), and large images crash it. Yes, it uses a bunch of standard Nokia parts (incl
    • For various reasons my cellular service provider is Verizon with all of the trappings that ensues. I have a Motorola E815 that I finally have working the way I want, including Java on the phone. Not linux, but much more versatile than it originally was. I was using OperaMini and Java SSH on my phone to surf and *very* occasionally remote-admin my machines. I could put 3gp TV shows ripped from my Myth box onto it, and I play MP3s in my 4x4 through the phone. Very cool. Until I bought a Nokia 770. Now

  • Don't forget Sun (Score:5, Informative)

    by simong ( 32944 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @10:16AM (#20755005) Homepage
    One of the more interesting developments following the release of the Sun UltraSPARC T1 & T2 chipsets [opensparc.net] under the GPL has been the S1 [sunsource.net], a single core implementation of the T1, which combined some other other GPLed hardware can be built as a RISC based system on a chip. It has massive potential as a powerful, low wattage processor that could compete with ARM and Intel in the portable device marketplace. It might be a couple of years in the future but I think it has the potential to be a competitor. It should run Solaris and BSD as well as Linux.

  • Incorrect quote... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bert64 ( 520050 ) <bert@[ ]shdot.fi ... m ['sla' in gap]> on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @11:27AM (#20755801) Homepage
    I find the following quote from the article quite misleading:

    "Imagine I'm an IT manager contemplating standardising on a mobile platform. I want something rich enough to deliver applications, that's available from multiple manufacturers, offering a decent range of handsets with corporate features. Linux just falls down on all of those."

    The point of "that's available from multiple manufacturers", while a very valid point, surely linux is the only one that really is available from multiple manufacturers.
    With symbian or windows mobile, you may be able to get the hardware from multiple vendors, but your stuck with a single vendor for the software. With linux, as the article states, there are at least 2 groups pushing mobile linux, and multiple hardware manufacturers also rolling their own.

    The freedom of being able to buy your hardware from multiple vendors doesn't is far less of an advantage if you only have one vendor to buy the software from, whereas the freedom to obtain both hardware and software from multiple vendors is a huge benefit to the purchaser.

  • Gartner; hehehehe. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2007 @11:41AM (#20756021) Journal
    in 1999, they were saying that Linux would never amount to owning more than 1% of internet servers by 2005. And at that time, Linux was already one of the dominant players

  • mobile linux (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    i am posting right now from my n800 :) also check out neo1973
  • So far, not 1 usable linux-based REAL smartphone has been released afaik. A little premature to say it's going to be huge, isn't it?
    Sure there have been 2 or 3 phones that were either not widely available or just phones without the smart ;-)

    With a real smartphone I mean something with a real keyboard (Nokia E61i, blackberry) or something like the sony-ericsson M600i. A thing that can play music, surf the web, read email, has a touchscreen etc. NONE so far.

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