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from the article and tagline of this thread:
"Symbian remains by far the top mobile device OS, according to Canalys, with a 67 percent share, well ahead of second-place Windows Mobile, with 15 percent of the market."

Why the switch from comparing smartphone OS's to the state of "mobile devices"?

There is enough in the article to make it look like valid research but this is a blatant flaw IMO. Most of the article is about smartphones except where it goes and switches to comparing marketshare of mobile devices. We all know that in the mobile device market, Microsoft has recorded about $10 billion in losses to 'win' that market. It is very interesting that it is used in this article to provide a 'low blow' to the prospects of Motorola and others in the smartphone market using Linux...

From what I had heard/read( http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8804000399.html ), when DoCoMo, in 2004, started using Linux( http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=19 750 ) in its smartphones, it catapulted Linux to became the #2 mobile phone OS, behind Symbian. All the other smartphone manufacturers in the Linux camp built the numbers up even further.

So, seeing that Linux is actually the #2 smartphone OS instead of Microsoft Windows, the article should have read more like it was a foregone conclusion that Motorola's use of Linux was going to be a win for Motorola and its shareholders.

It's amazing how one little bit of misleading information can change a story if not tarnish the perception one walks away with. But this is a CLASSIC ZiffDavis trick, one prefected in the OS/2 vs Windows war of the early 1990's. Notice how the last sections/paragraph(s) of the story end in such a way to put doubt in all that was laid out for you in the beginning of the story? This is CLASSIC ZiffDavis, or should I say classic Microsoft marketing.

LoB

The Motorola Ming ships outside of Asia as the Motorola A1200. You might've seen that around.

Where have you been? Windows Mobile is still around. Microsoft never cancelled it...

Here's a market share study by Gartner for worldwide shipments. Note that it counts windows smartphones only and not PDA phones. (Smartphones do not have the touch screen; instead, they have a numeric keypad like a normal phone.)

Microsoft's recent earings call indicates that their market share is increasing -- the article quotes a 90% increase. These statistics don't seem to include Linux based phones.

There's been more selection from Symbian phones in the past, but right now there's more Windows Mobile devices available in the USA. Symbian has also been in the market longer.

This article states that Microsoft has a 17% market share and some analyst expects their market share to grow.

Note that almost all Linux phones are shipped in Asia -- I have never seen a Linux phone for sale in the United States, but plenty of Windows phones and a few Symbian ones. The number of Symbian devices available retail from cellular providers seems to be declining here.

I personally use a Symbian phone.

There are a few in regular use; http://www.linuxdevices.com/links/LK6129039469.htm l

The Nao is decidely reminiscent of MegaMan, while the Choromet looks like a cross between something from any of the Gundams and Bubblegum Crisis. Is it possible to build a humanoid robot that doesn't rip off a Japanese TV show or videogame, people?

The Nao is decidely reminiscent of MegaMan, while the Choromet looks like a cross between something from any of the Gundams and Bubblegum Crisis. Is it possible to build a humanoid robot that doesn't rip off a Japanese TV show or videogame, people?

just as she's about to cross the threshold 40 of these things come running down the hallway armed with foot-long kitchen knives.

Are you trying to sneak a "imagine a beowulf of these" joke in here? ;)

It says it maintains internet access while recharging here. With 32mb of ram, that is plenty to run a webserver. I'm offering $10 to the first person to get their mini robot Slashdotted. Of course, at $14,000 each, that won't help a lot with the initial cost.

There are already a few Linux phones out there..

see:
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9996556326.html

You can even test drive Qtopia via a LiveCD.

Download here (114MByte):
http://qtopia.net/iso/qtopia-4.1.1-2006_04-20_1114 .iso

Simon.

Coraid lists 5MB/sec sustained throughput

Don't forget that there is ATA-over-ethernet You can buy the 10 disk arrays make them RAID5 and offer as SAN solutions to linux machines with ease, without expensive fiber switches.

This also includes 3rd party software. Currently, Java applications are king, because they are sandboxed, and do not have full access to the device. With SXE, native applications are sandboxed as well as some other security restrictions that are in place, to restrict access to the device/network.

To me, it comes down to the fact that if you want to build really robust systems, guess what, you have to deal with that "decentralized" problem. It doesn't go away. A local display is a lot simpler to create. A distributed display, like X11, is a lot more complicated, but opens a new world of possibilities. Same goes for everything else: distributed disk, distributed compute resources, distributed input devices (multiple keyboards, mice, anyone?), distributed screens, distributed media production/consumption (phonon, nimm: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5209121793.html ).

So eventually you have to solve the problem. Might as well drive the solution straight to the core of the kernel so it can handle these situations natively.

Thanks for the troll. http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4036830962. html

People at linuxdevice have a good article on it and even a link to a interview with a chinesse seller in video made by a french reporter! I post this a some time ago, but people here don't like my syntax.

People at linuxdevice have a good article on it and even a link to a interview with a chinesse seller in video made by a french reporter! I post this a some time ago, but people here don't like my syntax.

and almost as many crashes as an unpatched Win98 install.

You mean like this?

"Anomalous embedded Linux survey results reported, retorted"

which includes a graph showing Embedded Linux to be the #1 choice of developers. That graph, unlike the EE Times survey, is based on data from a well respected market analyst firm, Venture Development Corp.

"Anomalous embedded Linux survey results reported, retorted"

which includes a graph showing Embedded Linux to be the #1 choice of developers. That graph, unlike the EE Times survey, is based on data from a well respected market analyst firm, Venture Development Corp.

Linuxdevices, a magazine/site devoted to the use of Linux in embedded systems, responds to the EE Times in this article:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4718792784.html

All is not as it seems.

This is interesting stuff, as Linux, although behind Windows embedded in certain device types like smartphonse, is constantly gaining market share, and clearly leads in devices like firewall, router and wifi appliances.

-FreakGeek

I see, I thought you were talking about the transition away from the non-free FreeQt license, when you were really talking about the transition from QPL to GPL; my bad.

The switch from FreeQt to QPL was much more important then the later switch to the GPL. I mistakenly believed that RMS's involvement, ended at this point, but I was wrong.

The difference with respect to X is this, RMS and others felt the QPL was causing some serious practical problems for the free software community, hence effort was expended to asking Trolltech to switch. Ironically, RMS was involved in the QPL debate to help with a practical problem, whereas suggesting a licensing change for X would be more about the general philosophy of copyleft. ( Why Copyleft?, What is Copyleft.)

The "I'm not even going to bother to talk to them I'm just going to insult them from afar with very emotive language until they use my own personal license" approach

Well, apparently he did talk to them. I have not seen any insults in any of his posts on the issue.

"Try finding a non-apple box with as small a desk footprint as a mac mini."

Okay: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8464432110.html

Sure, it's a blatant rip-off of the Mac Mini design, but you did ask. :)

Sure, it's got IBM-PC insides, not Mac insides, but that's what you asked for. :)

Cell has been running linux for quite some time.
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6219524044.html http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9098337586.html

Cell has been running linux for quite some time.
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6219524044.html http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9098337586.html

If this photo is correct (looks a little bit strange), the device runs GPE, a pretty nice handheld interface used by several linux handheld derivates and based on GTK+. Since GPE uses a real XServer, porting applications is quite easy (you can even run them remote), as opposed to OPIE, which uses the framebuffer directly. Nokia's maemo platform has many similarities to GPE, I hope that both projects profit from each other.

Reference picture

I don't understand why they always insist on designing wearable computers like this to work from the back of the wrist the same way a wristwatch is worn. It would be far more ergonomic to turn your hand palm-up, and it would have the added benefit of giving the screen a measure of protection as it wouldn't be sticking out from your arm.

This is a very cool device, though. I'd buy one if I had the money and could see a practical use for it.

http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2656883479.html

"If you know of a motherboard with SATA that'll take a CPU that can be passively cooled and has open source drivers for everything, I'd like to hear about it, as I plan to build a bigger server this year."

In the enlarged picture of the board, you can clearly see two SATA ports at the bottom right.

For example, are there any phones I can install my own OS and software on (preferably something free and hackable...) and still have them work as phones?

There are a number of Linux smartphones that have been made, but I'm not sure any of them are actually available in the US. They seem to be popular in Asia.

Palm OS smartphones have plenty of software available for them for you to install, but the OS isn't open or particularly hackable. The next generation of Palm OS is being build on top of Linux, but the timetable and roadmap seem kind of up in the air right now.

In addition, there are a number that run Pocket PC. You can run and develop your own software on these, as well, but it's a version of Windows, so it's about what you'd expect from the standpoint of openness or hackability.

In principle, Linux could be ported to Pocket PC phones, since they are architecturally similar to (and run the same processor family, ARM, as) the iPaq, which has a Linux community.

Why has it become verboten for anything smaller than a laptop to have a clamshell keyboard? Sure, there are a few Zaurus models, and probably a few I don't know or have forgotten, but for the most part, small computers have integrated or slide-out keyboards which are way too small and which don't protect the screen, or no keyboard at all! You need to protect the screen, and you need to type! What's the problem?

While this doesn't have Tivo-like features, it does run Linux: P901iTV Some people go too far with their Japanese fetishes but, in general, it is pretty sad how far ahead the Japanese consumer product market. Simply go to any shop in Akihabara or Yodabashi camera and there products years ahead of what is considered new in the U.S. Hell, the free phones in Japan are better than $100-200 models in the US!! The US consumer market is way too slow in adopting new technologies - or even having them available for the bleeding-edge, early adopters to play with! When a bloody $5 per month "service" to let you schedule recording on your Tivo is considered news on a tech-centric website, you know something is wrong.

...this much stuff in something as small as a phone! Imagine what PalmSource could do if they wrote the OS for something as large as a microwave oven. Or even a refrigerator.

Linux:
Yellow Dog Linux runs on Cell. (Link; this is the same military product that is linked to in a Register article further up in the thread.) It's being marketed for semi-embedded uses, like in medical imaging systems, sonar and radar, etc., apparently.

Free Optimizing Compiler:
I have no idea whether there are any compiler optimizations for it in GCC, I suspect not, though. However there is a version of the IBM XL C compiler for it, available here (no idea if registration is required, I didn't attempt to download). I wonder how the IBM compiler is implemented, and whether you could use it in a Linux-based Cell system as a drop-in replacement for GCC. It says "GNU C extensions are welcome."

Your not missing anything here.

If you want general purpose system go with the 4-6 Gigahertz Power6 proccessors they are developing. This will provide very fast multiple 'PPE's your looking for.

Ok, so the SPEs don't have 'branch prediction'.. So what? They are so freaking fast at what they do that it probably won't matter.

Your looking at one cell. A Blade isn't going to have one cell. It's going to have 2-4.

A rackmount of these guys will provide, conservatively, 10 of these blades.

Maxed out 10 blades would be 40 cells, theoretically.

That is 40 PPEs. That is 320 SPEs.

That will give you a supercomputer-level, buy todays standards, number crunching ability (remember SPEs are NOT vector.. they can do more then just floating point) in the roughly same space and probably electrical usage as a common 24 inch CRT Television.

Think about that for a second. Two full racks of this crap side by side would provide enough number crunching power to real-time render a virtual Holodeck.

Look forward to the return of 'software rendering'. Remember that the current MIPS-powered Playstation 2 is fully software rendered...

Early models are already shipping:
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS3591350722.html

It's a evaluation system. 1-2 or dual core Cell blades.

Oh and of course it runs Linux. Terra Soft (makers of yellowdog linux) will be selling them. They also will ship with Fedora Core installed.

ATA over Ethernet seems like an even better choice for small biz, than obsolete fibre channel. In some cases it may be a better choice over new fibre channel.

Heres a little write up on it: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS3189760067.html

It mentions how you can use the ata over ethernet in combination with iSCSI. The ATAoE protocol has much less overhead than iSCSI, because ATAoE is not using TCPIP, rather it is its own non-routable protocol to be used for local storage using the ethernet hardware. It is explained a lot better in other places, but Iit sounds like something the original poster would be interested in.

-MS2k

It cannot be the answer, because in rural america people do not understand technology, but in India they do. Big difference.

That's the biggest line of bullshit I think I've ever seen. Typical of someone who hasn't spent a day outside of the city.

Having grown up in rural America, I can safely say that we understand technology just fine. Not just mechanical technology such as engines, combines, hay bailers, and other complex machines (which any farmer certainly knows better than you). There are plenty of examples of high-tech equipment that rural America understands better than you.

How about irrigation technology? With the price of water rights and well permits going up, farmers have to be especially concerned with water delivery systems. Farmers know what kind of irrigation systems deliver the most irrigation to the ground while minimizing evaporation. Do you?

What about the role of GPS in farming? How about Zaurus PDAs used in cattle herding?

Shall we talk about milk next? Technology in that field is fairly advanced, too.

Yes, rural America understands technology. You clearly don't understand rural America.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3591350722.html

Jan. 10, 2006

The first product based on IBM/Toshiba/Sony's Cell processor has shipped, reports Mercury Computer Systems. Mercury's Cell Technology Evaluation System (CTES) is a 470-pound behemoth with one or two dual-Cell blades running Linux. It targets defense, medical, and industrial inspection markets.

The CTES system is available with one or two of Mercury's Dual Cell-based Blade units. Each Blade features two Cell processors clocked at 2.4GHz, and running Linux in SMP (symmetric multi-processing) mode. Each Blade also has 512MB of "XDR" SDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, and dual gigabit Ethernet interfaces (dual PCIe Infiniband HCA add-in cards will be available in Q2). The Blades run a net-bootable Yellow Dog Linux variant called "Y-HPC" that was developed by Terra Soft Solutions, one of Mercury's VARs (value-added resellers).

The CTES system is housed in a 19-inch, 11U IBM Blade-Server chassis with a Web-based management module, dual gigabit Ethernet switches, and an "acoustic attenuation module." Additional components include a 17-inch flat-panel display with integrated keyboard and touchpad, 2000-Watt power supply, and an Intel Xeon-powered IBM xSeries 336 PC Server development and simulation system (a dual-PowerPC alternative will also be available) running RedHat Fedora Core 4 Linux. The system measures 34.4 x 20.5 x 24 inches, and weighs 470 pounds.

On the software side, an included IBM SDK offers compilers and gdb's (GNU debuggers) for the Cell processor's PPE (Power processor elements) and SPE (synergistic processor elements), along with a Cell simulator, and PPE and SPE libraries that support 32-bit PPE applications.

CTES additionally integrates a variety of Eclipse-integrated Mercury middleware, including its MultiCore Framework (MCF), aimed at managing the distribution of data across multiple computing elements working in tandem; its Scientific Algorithm Library (SAL); its Parallel Acceleration System (PAS); and its Trace Analysis Tool and Library (TATL).

Randy Dean, Mercury's VP of business and technology development, stated, "Our customers have expressed high expectations with the implementation of the Cell Technology into their application development."

Availability

The CTES is available now to "early access" customers at an undisclosed price.

Since the first cell product is already shipping. http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3591350722.html we should be able to benchmark the processor pretty soon and find out if it is all a hype or this really is the second coming :-)

I don't know about China but it seemed that at least in my experiences, the big companies in Korea are cognizant about GPL licensing issues and are pretty good at complying with the license.

For example, when I was working there a year ago
(1) Korea-equivalent of BSA would conduct random audits of software licenses. Actually one consulting company that my company hired had to stop working for couple days because apparently they didn't have proper number of licenses for Visual Studio. The company I worked for also ran in-house audits from time to time to detect not only licensed software but unauthorized software like MSN, mp3, etc.

(2) The company actually had an entire group devote to GPL and there were several initiatives to educate engineers and product planners about various licenses including GPL (I attended several presentations on it) and I belive we also purchased (or acquired) several software that was supposed to detect presense of popular GPL software in our sources.

(3) Engineers and markets usually talked and argued about including GPL stuff in the product we developed. We would usualy opt for commercial libraries because we usually didn't want to go through the hassle (we were big enough not to care about costs most of the time - if we had to think about cost, it probably meant that marketing guys weren't doing a good job in product planning)

(4) Last group that I worked in actually forbade usage of linux because of GPL license and we spent couple mil buying commerical RTOS and was in the process of coverting linux to that OS.

So, while I don't think Korean companies are up to standards of U.S. companies, I think it is a mischaracterization that all Asian countries don't care shit about IP stuff. Maybe private citizens might not care (there weren't too many cases of Korean-equivilant of RIAA suing people but Korea is a much less-litigious society) but I think most companies by far are pretty good about complying with GPL.

For example: http://opensrc.sec.samsung.com/ has the sources for linux used in this product: http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7933085076.html (pretty decent product, although concept-wise, it is a knock off of japanese products)

The reason why Korean companies would care is that while chances are low they will be sued in Korea, they will be sued in U.S. and almost all companies need to sell their crap in U.S. to make money. So basically U.S. law becomes more-or-less de facto "international" law.

Aopen have one.

This "MiniPC" will also be quite a bit faster than the Mac Mini, even without taking OS X's sluggishness into account.

SD/SDIO on Linux was explained recently at linuxdvices.com.

There are some handheld linux distros. Check out linuxdevices.com for an example of what people have been working on.

Perhaps this may offer one valid reason for not choosing sd. Not sure that RS-MMC is any better mind.

Hi Folks, For those who are still interested, here is it in linuxdevices http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9968931411.html

Hi Folks, For those who are still interested, here is it in linuxdevices http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9968931411.html

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT2189271708. html

Troll? No. Clever? Thanks, yes I know, but don't let that frighten you.
As an AC I don't get any real chance to defend my side but I can
promise you that I have built at least three _working_ systems.
Jitter can be solved many ways, simple reordering, windowed backbuffering,
lots of fancy stuff - or for a budget DIY system just don't bother about
it too much, it's not like the OP asked for a fully commercial system is it?
Here's a few obvious links to help. I'm guessing you are enraged by my suggestion
because you work for a commercial VoIP provider. What can I say? Please grow up.
I also guess you have never actually built such such a system either, try it, go on,
fire up that C compiler and amaze yourself at how easy it is. Really, you don't need a load of fancy stuff, VoIP hardly even needs a processor, man you could get a 4MHz Z80 to
do most of what is required.

here
here
here
here
here
and here

I'm quite looking forward to AOpen's Intel Mini Computer that looks just like a Mac Mini. If the AOpen mini can stay cool with a >1Ghz processor it should be totally awesome for stuff like this.

If you want the ultimate in Linux minimalism, try go to http://linuxhacker.org/ (and don't forget the Jailbait distro: 16MB of compact-flash/DOC goodness) or http://www.linuxdevices.com/ for info on running on hardware so tiny it'll make your head spin.