It looks like
Android and the boys and girls over at the
LiMo Foundation are lining up for a head-on collision -- a veritable mobile Linux explosion, if you will. The coalition is prepping to finalize its core software and programming interface by next month, but devs can get a head start now by grabbing a beta version of the SDK, ahead of the "significant" changes to Android's SDK promised in the next few weeks. Even better, LiMo's chief says that real, actual handsets running its wares will be available "very soon" -- and with companies like
Azingo already ready and willing to throw together fully functional stacks, the world might just be big enough for two players in the mobile Linux arena after all.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Evan Spielberg @ Feb 5th 2008 11:33AM
It would be nice if there was some hardware to run this on. Emulators are boring. I have a Wizard sitting on my desk collecting dust.
Iremember Unixv7 @ Feb 5th 2008 12:13PM
>>> ...the world might just be big enough for two players
>>> in the mobile Linux arena after all...
Motorola has been into mobile linux for years. Make that three players.
PalmSource/Access has pretended to be into mobile linux for years. Make that four players.
Palm is pretending to come out with their own mobile linux by end of this year. Make that five players.
Others?
john @ Feb 5th 2008 12:18PM
Nokia. Which, unlike Palm, Android, and LiMo, actually has shipping products (not phones, but PDA/Internet-Tablets) that are Linux based.
I had forgotten about Motorola.
Chris Ziegler @ Feb 5th 2008 12:20PM
I'm talking about players that are committed to manufacturer-agnostic Linux. That certainly can't be said of MOTOMAGX, Palm has yet to deliver, and ALP is not a major player by any stretch of the imagination.
Chris
john @ Feb 5th 2008 12:17PM
Two major players? Nokia isn't big enough on their own to be considered a major player? Unlike Android and LiMo, Nokia at least has shipping Linux based products.
(the fact that they bought Trolltech doesn't automatically mean that Nokia is joining the LiMo Foundation; it could mean, instead, that Trolltech will be leaving the LiMo Foundation, or that Nokia at large, and Maemo (their mobile linux), will stay independent of LiMo while Trolltech remains a division affiliated with LiMo)
Chris Ziegler @ Feb 5th 2008 12:19PM
Perhaps I wasn't clear, I meant phones. Nokia isn't shipping, and hasn't shipped, any Maemo-based phones.
Chris
john @ Feb 5th 2008 12:28PM
Chris:
You don't think Maemo will transition to their phone platform? It seems to me (and has been mentioned elsewhere) that part of the purpose of the Internet Tablet product line is to be a proving ground for developing Nokia's Linux expertise so that it can replace their Symbian investment.
While you're right that Maemo is not on a phone yet, Nokai has certainly put embedded linux into more customer (as opposed to developer) hands than Android and LiMo. Their Linux platform in general isn't vaporware ... just the phone support. Whereas Android adn LiMo are still in that vaporware category, as far as actual shipping products go.
It seems to me that Maemo is at least as credible in this category as Android and LiMo, specifically because Android and LiMo are still vaporware (on the phone side, AND on the generic side). Android and LiMo have a specific commitment to phone support going for them, but where Nokia hasn't yet announced specific phone support for Maemo, it has actual shipped embedded linux software and experience on its side.