Linux hits the iPhone!

by Nilay Patel, posted Nov 28th 2008 at 7:04PM

We knew this day would eventually come, but somehow we're still misting up a little -- Linux has been ported to the iPhone and iPod touch. Dev Team member planetbeing is the mastermind in charge of bringing everyone's favorite open-source OS to Apple's handhelds, and while it's a little rough around the edges (read: no touchscreen drivers, sound, or WiFi / cell radio support), it's definitely the first step on the road to hacking nirvana. The team is hard at work, and it even sounds like they're thinking about porting Android in the near future (!), so hit the read link to try it out and lend a hand if you can -- or just head on past the break for a quick vid of the port in all its text-scrolling glory.

[Via iphone-dev.org; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Handsets, Linux, Apple, iPhone OS

Tags: apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, iphone, iphone dev team, IphoneDevTeam, linux

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

manduboyx @ Nov 28th 2008 8:37PM

Linux and Apple aye?

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Nov 28th 2008 9:14PM

I guess this is the first step towards putting Android on the iPhone. Not necessarily what an iPhone buyer would be interested in in the short term, but if Android becomes an industry standard, then it'll be re-assuring to many that they always have the option.

Neutral

SPOKE @ Nov 29th 2008 9:07AM

I am thinking porting android would be easier, since the code is readily there, and one can create a hardware profile. The issue would be gaining access to the iphones hardware, I guess?

Since the only android phone now is the G1, they would need a good keyboard, and buttons for send receive calls, etc. Ha.. a virtual trackball, now that would be funny.

Neutral