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And just like iOS, it's impossible to do an Android app without using Java

Really. Seriously? You really mean that? I thought you could write native apps for Android too if you wanted.

Android is going to be running on different phones, processors and architectures so making an app in C++ for the phone means it's only going to work on that one phone, defeating the whole point of cross platform for phone manufacturers.

and also to be honest, fuck Symbian, the bringers of software patents to the UK. fuck them in the ass with a hot iron rod, everything they touch turns to shit so I hope they don't get anywhere near this. ..and last but not least you can in fact do c apps on android however for the above reasons it's pointless to do so.

http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/13/android-native-apps
http://devphone.com/java-why-not-write-an-android-application-in-c

Consider the iPhone, which despite being so crippled, a developer can still create and compile some native application for it, and install it via iTunes store or jailbreak. Google has decided TO BAN ALL NATIVE APPLICATIONS for its Android phones, and only allow Java.

Surely we will end up seeing "jailbroken" Android phones. If you are willing to consider a jailbroken iPhone as a legitimate target platform, you should know that people are already working on (and have met some success with) building and executing C and C++ applications on the Android emulator.

Only via crazy hackery unbeknownst to man. The Freerunner uses ARMv4 and Android requires ARMv5 [1]. Note that this article is for the older Neo1973 but the same applies. [1] http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973

No it will not unless Google will recompile most code, because Android requires a ARMv5 cpu and this release is ARMv4. It would have been nice if they designed it with a Android upgrade in mind and designed the Freerunner with a ARMv5 chip.
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware
http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973

...seem destined not to converge in any significant way, in spite of some pretty awesome hacks:

http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973

-theGreater.

As I understand it "OpenMoko" is the software platform & base applications. The neo1973 is the name of the hardware (the phone), although I think the new incarnation has a new name "Freerunner".

The Neo whatever-its-called as hardware will be able to run OpenMoko-- but it can also run Trolltech's Qtopia software, which is further along, development-wise.

As far as Google's Android platform-- it's my understanding that it won't run on the Neo hardware due to some kind of lack of backwards compatibility with the ARM processor in the Neo.

Finally, I think there are some parts of neo1973/openmoko that are not fully open-- can't remember, but I think it's the GPS or GSM driver/daemon.

W

I don't. Simply because TI is pushing it.
And Qualcomm, and NVidia, and Broadcom. There is no single company in that aliance whith a good track record when it comes to being really open. I guess Google is the best one on the list, and even they are mostly into 'opensource' to because they make a lot off money based thanks to the open-source software they use. It's not like they are giving that much back.

Yeah, it may be a succes comercially, but it's not going to do much for open-source. Take a look at the 'source' released by google, it only the just they really had to release because of the license. But all the interesting bits are left out. If you think you can use this to make it run on your own phone, think again. It's just a diffent lock in, getting locked in to google may be an improvement for people in the USA who are used to being locked in by there provider, but it is far from 'open'.

But hey, i'd be happy to be proven wrong on this, but until someone manages to compile the full android stack and run it on a real non-android phone it's vaporware to me. There is OpenMoko and Qtopia which are both actually open and in a further stage of development. And there is Maemo and a whole bunch of other open embeded platforms, why would google start it's own if it isn't because they want control and not openness?

Yeah, and it doesn't work. See: http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973 for details.

Cheers,

Benno