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Yes I know from personal experience new Linksys boxes (greater than v5 I believe) run VxWorks as their OS. You can flash DD-WRT micro to them though, which in my experience has made a huge difference in their stability

A quick search revealed this article: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4729641740.html

2000 called and they want their FUD back.

Trolltech released QT v2.2 under the GPL back in September 2000, after which RMS stopped complaining and granted forgiveness as they did what they wanted.

2000 called and they want their FUD back.

Trolltech released QT v2.2 under the GPL back in September 2000, after which RMS stopped complaining and granted forgiveness as they did what they wanted.

Talk about LiPService: Access (of Japan) was the company that basically bought the PalmOS away from Palm. They claimed (in 2005) that they were going to roll out mobile phones running Linux, with PalmOS GUI and binary compatibility. Where are they? Just now putting out just specs, right as Google and the rest of the world blot them out of existence. Nearly certainly taking chances of a Linux mobile with Palm compatibility (and its library of apps and developers) to zero.

Um... no. Please provide a source to your ridiculous claim. Oh wait, you can't. But I have some.

Vista's sales were 60% less than expected (comparing to XP's first week sales in October 2001), and 50% less than predicted by Microsoft. However, 30% of first week sales opted for the $400 Vista Ultimate, bringing the dollar value up to $207.13, 66% up from the initial selling price of XP. It should also be noted that PC sales were up 67% from the same week the previous year, making Vista sales look even worse.

As for actual total desktop market share, that's a tougher thing to measure. Linux users don't have to buy anything, meaning we can't judge them by sales numbers. You can't even look at download stats because the same disk image could be used throughout an organization (I myself have used the same CentOS disk on more than *200* machines). The numbers people quote most often come from advertising statistics, but that has it's own problems, mainly to do with a little something called an ad blocker. In 2002, only about 1-2% of users had adblocking software; in 2004, 21%; in 2006, 53%; and by the end of 2008, 80% are expected to have some form of adblock installed. That means that less than half of people's computers are actually reporting data back to advertisers for these OS market share statistics, with a disproportionate amount using something besides Windows. Meaning that Linux and Mac users are again shown in less than actual percentages.

Anyway, here are the numbers for the month of December 2006 from netapplications.com (the most quoted source):

XP - 85.30%
Mac - 5.67%
Linux - 0.68%
Vista - 0.37%

Other factors to keep in mind concerning advertising statistics are the large and growing number of dual boot and VM configurations, not just Linux-Windows, but Linux-Mac and Mac-Windows and the fact that most advertising statistics are usually limited to one country or even just major cities in a country. Also the fact that these numbers only account for (some) desktop systems, not servers or most embedded devices (of which Linux now boasts 20+% and 49% market share respectively as of April 2007).

Sources:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011360&intsrc=hm_list
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=10&qpmr=24&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qpcal=1&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=95
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7065740528.html

Wow. That ended up WAY longer than I thought it'd be. Sorry. :p

Oh, one last thing. If you go to the second link I gave and look up the stats for last month, you'll see that Vista is already at 9%. Not bad, but not great, either, considering how hard Microsoft's been pushing it for the last year (think about all those stories about retailers selling XP since no one with half a brain tech-wise wants Vista).

You laugh, but that what this article is about!

Ok, well maybe not everything on there is source available, but it at least runs Linux... close second

I wanted to post this on this story, but i got there too late... This article at LinuxDevices alludes that the gOS PCs are really intended to act as a development system for a range of future Linux products using the Ubuntu/Enlightment platform. If you cant get your hands on one of these now, don't worry, you will start seeing these soon a lot more commonly. I bet by the end of 2008, you will see a gOS port for say the eeePC (and questions of whether Xandros is breaking the GPL can be tossed out with the bathwater while keeping the baby!)

yes!........ Amazon launches Linux-based eBook reader

Microsoft and LG Electronics, best known for its DVD players, home theater systems, and cellphones, announced on June 7 that they had entered into a patent cross-license agreement to enable LG to use Microsoft patented technology in its product lines, including in its Linux-based embedded devices.

A more modular design of laptops would indeed be progress (also resolving upgrade/replacement/service issues), e.g. these open source, LEGO-like computer modules that run LINUX, perhaps in combination with components which stack on a shelf, combined with electronic paper displays when in 'mobile' mode. Perhaps a future as discussed earlier here.

CC.

Whoever modded him offtopic was either being childish or desperate to hide the information. Probably just a fanboy.

Reading further on this, the interesting thing about Dalvik is that it's a non-Sun-controlled JVM. The thing about JavaME (aka PhoneME) is that although it (like JavaSE and JavaEE (Glassfish)) is released under GPLv2, there is no exception clause (there is for JavaSE). This means that you can only run GPLv2 code on PhoneME. Obviously Google and it's partners didn't like this, so they wrote their own JVM. In order to avoid infringing on Sun's IP they've made the bytecode unique to Dalvik. So Java goes in ---> Dalvik bytecode comes out, runs on Dalvik. Very clever.

I'm waiting for the Fit PC:

- Fanless and consumes 5 watts
- 4.7 x 4.6 x 1.6 inches (almost a 3.5" floppy drive)
- 40 GB hard drive
- 500 MHz AMD Geode LX800 processor
- 256 MB of DDR RAM
- up to 512 MB of NAND flash
- Dual 100 Mbps Ethernet
- SXGA graphics controller, resolution to 1920 x 1440
- 2 USB 2.0 high speed ports
- Audio in/out interfaces
- RS-232 serial port
- Preinstalled Linux, or install WinXP via USB
- $285

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5551137361.html

Linux overtook Microsoft in the embedded space about 4 years ago. Linux is currently in use on about 50% of new projects, versus about 18% for Microsoft.

Here's the link for this years results:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7065740528.html

Check out the past years as well. You'll see why WindRiver has basically dropped VxWorks and ramped up with Linux a couple years ago. They did so when Linux outpaced them.

So there's the example you asked for about when Linux has ever won against Microsoft.

That big picture at the top is the stuff of friggin' nightmares:

http://linuxdevices.com/files/misc/buglabs_community_legos-sm.jpg

"How come I don't hear nothin' when I connect my speakers to my GPS? I tried calling support on the video camera and got no answer!"

...in this picture translate to "I WILL NEVER GET LAID" in binary.

I'm quite impressed that he went to the trouble of the cutaway side panel and the illumination. With all those switches and lights on the front we truly are one step closer to Star Trek technology.

How to:
http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8047723203.html

Utility to do most of it for you:
http://ffem.org/daveb/pkgwrite/

I think being open for development isn't enough, you also need to spend a couple $100 million or so in marketing...

There is no substitute for a good engineering team on a project like this. Perhaps a challenge for a local university of engineering students to help out.

But environmental concerns are that a PC isn't going to cut it. Imagine what salt water mist does when it gets sucked in.... My guess is you need ingenuity like you find on many of the devices on http://linuxdevices.com./

An SBC computer that is of low power and can be sealed from the elements. Many have no special needs for fans. You going to need the power to drive servos and motors so generating power from the sun and the boats motion including electricity storage is paramount. GPS and compass interfaces as well, possibly weather too. Maybe 2 SBC, one to control the boat and another to plan and guide the boat simple cross over Ethernet to communicate. You want a small computer(s) for space, weight and power consumption.

For software development, keep it simple. KISS rule applies. Don't get Java fancy, use straight up and simple C/C++ structures. Follow basic concepts of good embedded software design like avoiding memory allocation and associated leaks at run time. Modularize all the components. Find a good programmer(s) in embedded design and a good technical sailor and marry them if you have to. Having a good mechanical aptitude will help to. I am not sure how many servo systems you will need but they are needed and are the fingers of the system.

Design nothing of the hardware except plugging it in and sealing it from the elements, favoring COTs (common off the shelf) parts if available. Use a USB to a GPS for example. Or get the servos from an industrial shop. Your going to be under a time crunch to get that software working so leave as much time as you can to testing it. If it isn't tested, assume it does not work.

The Sandisk 32 GB flash notebook drive was measured at 0.6 ms access time, and another article tagged one jump drive at 0.8 ms access time, both much better than a very fast hard disk. (I did see other, slower devices, but one just wouldn't use the slower tech.) And clearly we can boost flash's transfer speed by using multiple chips in parallel.

BitMicro has their own version using standard SATA. Not nearly as fast in transfer speed, but they claim 0.03 to 0.1 ms access time: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4331778531.html
So these other guys aren't alone. One wonders how SATA vs. PCIe bus affects the performance.

This may be true for DVD and other standard-definition video formats. But high-definition formats such as HD DVD and especially Blu-ray Disc generally have tighter compliance and robustness [wikipedia.org] requirements. I don't see how a Free kernel on commodity hardware can conform to these.

While the kernel is open source drivers and software don't have to be. For instance Nero Linux, which supports both Blu-ray and HD DVDs, isn't. Other software capable:

• High-def DVD SoC supports HD-DVD, BlueRay, Linux
• Playing HD DVD On Linux. It seems everything's in place to play your HD DVD discs in Linux. The kernel supports the UDF filesystem, the recently released BackupHDDVD C++ for Linux can decrypt the content, and the latest VLC and Mplayer can play it.

Ubuntu are coming close with their Mobile and Embedded Version, however it appears to be not specifically aimed at phones but "the emerging class of ultra mobile, small handheld devices which are Internet-enabled. (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.

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/ Also check out the QTopia Greenphone: http://trolltech.com/products/qtopia/greenphone

Here are some smart phones running Linux.

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

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.

Scroll down on the LinuxDevices article on the Hava to the screenshot that shows the "remote control".

Look familiar?

The problem is, QNX management has said that before:

"The new QNX initiative consists of several key elements . . .

• In recognition of the ease with which developers can obtain and begin development with Linux, QNX has decided to make their new QNX Realtime Platform free "for non-commercial use". Developers can now download the software and its associated development directly from the QNX website.
• In response to the growing desire for source code that has resulted from the exploding popularity of open-source Linux, QNX will soon release the source code for many QNX applications, drivers, and libraries."

That's from a press release back in 2000.

Last time, the free version of QNX stayed around just long enough that free software developers ported their major packages to QNX. Then QNX management yanked it away.

Despite the new press releases, the QNX CVS source repository hasn't been updated in six years.

http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8415621500.html

My guess is that part of town didn't upgrade yet, thus they use the old too-ugly-for-apple parking meters :)

Instead of trying to churn out 48 Volts which is serious overkill to run a Wifi router, it seems to make more sense to engineer it for lower power. Slashdotters may remember the articles announcing Meraki's stuff. They built a cheap, low power autoconfiguring mesh network Wifi router. The indoor one is $50 and the outdoor is $100. They're bringing a solar product out as well, but apparently it's not ready for sale yet. Oh, and did I mention they run linux? Of course, any solar contractor could hook up a panel, inverter, and battery set to run one off solar now. The difference is the pre-engineered solution has the potential to be cheap.

linuxdevices.com

This reminds me of my reaction to Linux on PCs about 15 years ago - I had a choice of UnixWare (from Novell) or Linux, and thought that Linux was very incomplete and wouldn't go anywhere. Today, UnixWare is almost dead, and many of the surviving Unixes are open source (the BSDs, Solaris, Darwin, ...) due to the success of Linux on the server. I now run Linux on my main home PC, and customers of my (proprietary software) employer are now saying 'support Linux or Windows or you won't buy your software at all in 18 months time'.

Mobile phone Linux will develop just as Linux did on PCs, servers and embedded devices. See this article by Jim Ready, who helped create the RTOS industry in the 1980s, for more on how Linux became a mobile phone OS through reduced RAM usage, execute in place, power management, memory type based allocation, ARM Thumb instruction support for more compact code, DirectFB for nice GUIs without X's overhead, and real-time features: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9959043369.html

OpenMoko is explicitly documented as being a developer platform not a normal phone - maybe the title of the page you linked to, "Developer Preview", should have given you a clue there... If you want a Linux phone that is usable out of the box, there are quite a few available now even in the US, such as the Motorola Razr V8: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS3724634466.html

This reminds me of my reaction to Linux on PCs about 15 years ago - I had a choice of UnixWare (from Novell) or Linux, and thought that Linux was very incomplete and wouldn't go anywhere. Today, UnixWare is almost dead, and many of the surviving Unixes are open source (the BSDs, Solaris, Darwin, ...) due to the success of Linux on the server. I now run Linux on my main home PC, and customers of my (proprietary software) employer are now saying 'support Linux or Windows or you won't buy your software at all in 18 months time'.

Mobile phone Linux will develop just as Linux did on PCs, servers and embedded devices. See this article by Jim Ready, who helped create the RTOS industry in the 1980s, for more on how Linux became a mobile phone OS through reduced RAM usage, execute in place, power management, memory type based allocation, ARM Thumb instruction support for more compact code, DirectFB for nice GUIs without X's overhead, and real-time features: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9959043369.html

OpenMoko is explicitly documented as being a developer platform not a normal phone - maybe the title of the page you linked to, "Developer Preview", should have given you a clue there... If you want a Linux phone that is usable out of the box, there are quite a few available now even in the US, such as the Motorola Razr V8: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS3724634466.html

I think you are looking at it from the inside out. While I don't disagree with what you say, I think the crux of your issue fall on several things that aren't stated clearly.

First is that Linux has created a sort of exception to the GPL where he claims it is ok to run anything as long as it uses normal system call from the kernel. This is what gave us the idea of separating user-land from the kernel-space. There are a lot of people who don't think he has a right to make this exception to the GPL but it has been this way for a while.

Second, the exception your mentioning is if there is a proprietary work and you create a GPLed work that uses it. I believe you even represented it this way. Where the problem comes in is when a proprietary app links into a GPLed work. This is what I think the parent was attempting to say which I agreed with.

Third, You mention the uses of BSD and LGPL style licenses. I know the list is long and that I would certainly miss a lot if I tried to name them. But these weren't the ones we were talking about.

I tried to do a google search to check my facts and it appears this issue is riddled with back and forth interpretations on this. I was hoping the FSF had a faq about (I did see the exception you were talking about though). In the GPLv3, it declares all the libraries as part of the covered works. Here is a link to where they show that not only is linking as we noted not proper, but it shows how GPLv2 only and GPLv3 libraries and programs cannot be linked or put together. Even GPLv2 and LGPLv3 is incompatible which demonstrates the outside in approach. Also, it goes so far that you have to relicense LGPL for use with regular GPLed works in some situations.

Here is another site that attempts to deal with the issue for embedded developers It brings up the same concerns and lists some of the issues surounding the Linus position and all. Unfortunately, it doesn't deal with the GPLv3 since it was written 6 years ago.

I am thinking it is a problem to the uneducated. Most proprietary companies in the windows world would probable fall into that category. I think it might be likely that they see the need to create for the platform less important then th need to be clear on the license and terms. I just don't think they are messing with taking the time. FUD goes a long way in this and MS has been their bread an butter for quite a while so they are probably listening to it.

It seems to me from this that it is pretty clear (and no surprise) that Linux mainstream kernel development favors the server over the desktop. However, there are various real-time kernels available.

Might development in the real-time arena ultimately be a closer fit to the desktop than the mainstream kernels? I realize that real-time may not currently be targeted or completely appropriate (at least in its current form) for the desktop, but I would think a more real-time approach to the user interface is what is necessary for optimum user experience. Even Microsoft has "server" and "desktop" versions of their OS and options you can set to tune it for one use or the other. Wouldn't a completely alternative kernel or distribution that you could select at install time that is designed for the desktop be a good idea-- and possibly this might grow out of some of the real-time efforts?

I've been using Linux sporadically since 1991 (Slackware 0.9), but primarily my UI there has been svgalib. I never found Gnome or KDE or any of that very compelling-- these are great in a *server* environment as remote-desktop style capabilities where you are willing to live with less-than-optimal performance, but on a non-server desktop I expect something that performs more like running on one of those real-time kernels from the link above. I've tried to use the Linux desktop, many times, but always give it up ovar a dual-boot to Windows because it just ain't impressive enough to counter the relative lack of compatibility or availablility of relevant applications. It could be mind you (IMHO), but that's simply not the focus of the mainstream developers.

Leave the server optimization to the current mainstream kernel developers, they're pretty good at it and obviously have little interest in trading off any of that for better optimization of the desktop-- not necessarily a bad thing, IMHO. Not only that, they're too wedded to some form of network-connected GUI which again, is fine for what it is but not what I want to work on when the machine is sitting right here in front of me and I'm wanting it to run my user interface. I look to other sources for a bleeding-edge user experience, it's clear that the core developers are either uninterested or inexperienced in this regard. And that's not a slight, I've never believed in a one-size-fits-all solution, the nice thing about Linux distributions, is there are so many to choose from (to paraphrase Tannenbaum).

PC/104 (4" square) http://tlb.org/ttds-pc104.html
Pico-ITX (3.9" x 2.8") http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2154184680.html
Embedded Ethernet Boards http://www.ethernut.de/en/hardware/index.html
Chumby http://www.chumby.com/

Make magazine (lots of fun stuff) http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/11/the_o pen_source_1.html

See http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4223741314.html It looks like they want to make sure good virtualization software is available on their processors.

Start saving: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6832279023.html

I enjoy my daily dose of Slashdot, but honestly whoever wrote this is trying to hype this thing way out of context.

The FCC in NO WAY made any comment on the security of opensource software. They merely said the using opensource based software defined radios in commercial products would be hard to gain approval, due to the obvious fact that if users can modify that software they can do things such as increase power or change operating frequencies which are illegal because they can allow interference with others' communication devices.

This is also potentially dangerous because it could interfere with law enforcement, ambulances, or any other kind of emergency or important communications.

Now, if we want to argue on the point of how opensource can be used while limiting the user from making serious/illegal changes to software modems, that's one thing. (I don't see how this could ever be worked out under the tivoization clauses in GPL3).

But lets not get all fired up at our FCC when it really hasn't said a thing about the "security" of opensource projects. Don't believe everything you read on Slashdot folks - think for yourself and make sure you read the real source documents before you fire off like idiots.

A more balanced article about this topic:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9075126639.html

The REAL FCC document:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/07-2684.htm

As it has been delayed until October at the earliest, I guess we'll just have to wait to see...

The Motorola A760 (http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7780859583.html/) and other cellphones were running MontaVista Linux as far back as 2003/2004.

When a new version of GCC or the kernel was released, were owners of these cellphones able to "play around with FLOSS inside the firmware"? Surely the several years that cellphones have been running MontaVista Linux have been enough to produce an answer to that question.

So why hasn't the FSF campaigned against those Linux cellphones taking away the freedoms the GPL was supposed to grant?

Honestly... why would I pay $700 for the privilege of having not one but TWO large companies dictate to me how I can use a piece of hardware. Till I can buy a phone that lets me do whatever I want with it, they're all crap to me.

The iPhone craze has truly reduced epic proportions... so much so that my GRANDMA emails me and says she wants to buy me one. I mean, I don't want to be ungrateful, I'm probably the only person I know who actively DOES NOT WANT an iPhone, I should take advantage of my most-favored-grandson status, but.... yeeesssh!

The future of desktop computing is 24/7 thin clients/home servers using less than 10W and passive cooling without fans, because for a typical 300W desktop 24/7 system you probably would be paying $100/month, more than a thousand a year. This is enough for 90% of users, those who are not after the latest/greatest 3D horsing power, those whose necessities are supplied with an onboard graphics chip such as Intel X3100 or even less. You would be surprised with the amount of computing power such devices have nowadays.

They do not use hard disks, but flash memory/pendrives as storage for the operating system and homedir, and are passively cooled, so they do not use fans, which are noisy and spend more energy. Massive storage (TBs) can be added if necessary, each one using an extra ~15W. A small list with some of them:

1) Linutop: http://www.linutop.com/
It comes with xubuntu, 280euros.
~6W, AMD Geode LX700 433MHz, 256MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 4xUSB2.0

2) Zonbu Zonbox: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9073106297.html
It comes with Gentoo Linux, $250.
~15W, VIA C7 1.2GHz, 512MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 6xUSB2.0

3) Mini Linux PC: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6372429785.html
Not sure about which Linux flavor it comes with, but if it runs Linux, it runs Ubuntu, $99.
~5W, 200MHz x86-compatible, 128MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 3xUSB2.0

4) OLPC: http://www.laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml
Not yet available, but specs are fine for a home server + external storage, ~$100.
~2W (!), AMD Geode LX-700@0.8W 433 Mhz, 256MB RAM, Audio, LinuxBIOS (!), wireless connection, 3xUSB2.0.

Many others: http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4923746399.html

The future of desktop computing is 24/7 thin clients/home servers using less than 10W and passive cooling without fans, because for a typical 300W desktop 24/7 system you probably would be paying $100/month, more than a thousand a year. This is enough for 90% of users, those who are not after the latest/greatest 3D horsing power, those whose necessities are supplied with an onboard graphics chip such as Intel X3100 or even less. You would be surprised with the amount of computing power such devices have nowadays.

They do not use hard disks, but flash memory/pendrives as storage for the operating system and homedir, and are passively cooled, so they do not use fans, which are noisy and spend more energy. Massive storage (TBs) can be added if necessary, each one using an extra ~15W. A small list with some of them:

1) Linutop: http://www.linutop.com/
It comes with xubuntu, 280euros.
~6W, AMD Geode LX700 433MHz, 256MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 4xUSB2.0

2) Zonbu Zonbox: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9073106297.html
It comes with Gentoo Linux, $250.
~15W, VIA C7 1.2GHz, 512MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 6xUSB2.0

3) Mini Linux PC: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6372429785.html
Not sure about which Linux flavor it comes with, but if it runs Linux, it runs Ubuntu, $99.
~5W, 200MHz x86-compatible, 128MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 3xUSB2.0

4) OLPC: http://www.laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml
Not yet available, but specs are fine for a home server + external storage, ~$100.
~2W (!), AMD Geode LX-700@0.8W 433 Mhz, 256MB RAM, Audio, LinuxBIOS (!), wireless connection, 3xUSB2.0.

Many others: http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4923746399.html

The future of desktop computing is 24/7 thin clients/home servers using less than 10W and passive cooling without fans, because for a typical 300W desktop 24/7 system you probably would be paying $100/month, more than a thousand a year. This is enough for 90% of users, those who are not after the latest/greatest 3D horsing power, those whose necessities are supplied with an onboard graphics chip such as Intel X3100 or even less. You would be surprised with the amount of computing power such devices have nowadays.

They do not use hard disks, but flash memory/pendrives as storage for the operating system and homedir, and are passively cooled, so they do not use fans, which are noisy and spend more energy. Massive storage (TBs) can be added if necessary, each one using an extra ~15W. A small list with some of them:

1) Linutop: http://www.linutop.com/
It comes with xubuntu, 280euros.
~6W, AMD Geode LX700 433MHz, 256MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 4xUSB2.0

2) Zonbu Zonbox: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9073106297.html
It comes with Gentoo Linux, $250.
~15W, VIA C7 1.2GHz, 512MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 6xUSB2.0

3) Mini Linux PC: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6372429785.html
Not sure about which Linux flavor it comes with, but if it runs Linux, it runs Ubuntu, $99.
~5W, 200MHz x86-compatible, 128MB RAM, Audio, 100baseT, 3xUSB2.0

4) OLPC: http://www.laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml
Not yet available, but specs are fine for a home server + external storage, ~$100.
~2W (!), AMD Geode LX-700@0.8W 433 Mhz, 256MB RAM, Audio, LinuxBIOS (!), wireless connection, 3xUSB2.0.

Many others: http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4923746399.html

(a) How much will it cost? If it's cheap, I want one!!!
(b) This is darn similar to the recently announced Yoggie Pico, which is only $40--though the Pico doesn't have USB host capability or ethernet (but could probably be hacked to provide such :-))

The share of the market which belongs to Windows Mobile is actually quite small, particularly compared to Symbian's industry dominating share upwards of 70%. It turns out that most people (well, all people with a margin of error of only 5.6%) don't seem to be obsessed with obscure Windows Mobile "business" features that are hard to set up and expensive to maintain (Exchange Server integration), on phones that don't work all that well. Here are some interesting articles on the market share of cell phone platforms.

Apple iPhone to exceed Windows Mobile by 2008?
Smartphone
Symbian tops Smartphone OSes, but challenges loom
Linux trounces Windows Mobile in Smartphone shipments
Smartphone market share


Your discussion of killer apps on phones seems ingenuous. Random access to voicemail, real web browsing, and an easy to use Google maps function all three appear to be of great interest to non-geek folk interested in the iPhone. Several business people who are heavy cell phone users have told me, without prompting, that the random access voicemail feature alone will spur them to buy an iPhone. Salespeople are really jazzed about all three features, including the Google Maps. They have maps and web browsing on their smart phones today, but they are not happy with the non-ease of use of current devices. And they get lots and lots of voicemail, and they've known for years that they wanted random access to it. Exhange Server integration, well, it never comes up in the discussion until a geek ask about it. Nobody (a number of people approaching zero with a margin of error of 5.6%) cares about Exchange Server integration with their phone.

Your use of the term "fanboy" is technically incorrect. The parent post relies almost entirely on hypotheticals to elucidate a point regarding possible reasoning behind Apple's Safari for Windows move. Furthermore, calling the parent a "fanboy" is an ad hominem logical fallacy. Please endeavor to raise the level of discussion here, and avoid cheap shots. If you don't have a point to make, read and think more before you post. If you do have a poitn to make, don't undermine your credibility by including ad hominem attacks with your argument. Although there are those here who reward such childish behavior with mod points, there are people here who mod down for inappropriate use of the term "fanboy".

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7497964764.html

Actually, it is mean to stop license proliferation of the 3rd type:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7188273245. html
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_so ftware_notes/why_gplv3_says_additional_permissions _are_removable
http://gplv3.fsf.org/additional-terms-dd2.html

And the LGPL v3 is actually written in terms of the GPLv3:
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/barcelona-rms- transcript.en.html#lgpl
http://gplv3.fsf.org/lgpl-draft-2006-07-27.html

So basically, the GPLv3 was designed to eliminated the need for any GPLv3-compatible license since any GPLv3 compatible license can be written as the GPLv3 license plus additional permissions. It might not be the most efficient way to specify your GPL-compatible license (e.g. the MIT license would be much longer if expressed this way), but it can be done. If the GPLv3 license existed, I doubt the GPL-like per file Mozilla license would have existed or the GPL-like for open source Qt license would have been created as independent licenses.

Some more info about the Neo 1973 Linux phone. Interestingly it can run Windows Mobile, too.

It would be nice to have the option to install Linux on other smartphones too. The only interesting project I know at the moment is Xanadux, but since most phones have to be reverse-engineered, development is much slower than it could be.

Why did you think that there had been nobody crazy enough to try challenging GPL? See

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8564956607.html