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In unrelated news. Samsung today announced they will start selling a version of the Galaxy and Note 9 phones running their Tizen OS in the EU.

Format drive and install one of the following operating systems:

• BeOS
• Syllable
• AROS
• Plan 9
• Minix
• FreeDOS
• DR-DOS
• OpenVMS x86 port is coming!
• Visopsys
• SqueakNOS
• Haiku
• Kolibri
• ReactOS
• Tizen
• SkyOS
• MorphOS
• MenuetOS
• CP/M 86
• Multics, also see Multicians
• Erlang as an Operating System

There have been a large number of more or less obscure operating systems and not all have been ported to x86. Unfortunately the architecture has become a de facto standard even though it's not the best architecture or the most efficient but instead a patchwork of solutions to retain backwards compatibility. We have lost many interesting architectures over the years that would have deserved a better fate to the Intel bandwagon.

But seriously if the group backing Tizen (Intel, LG, & Samsung to name a few) get their act together they are positioned to swoop in and take the market while Google tries to steer it to their new walled garden. Tizen is OSS top to bottom so there is no locked down portion. Although I'm sure each OEM will try to slap something proprietary on it to make it their own. They need to address the security holes that were recently identified and clean up their codebase but it's theirs to lose.

From Validation Guidelines:

Application should cover the entire screen of a device.

This is likely to prove inconvenient to users as Samsung expands Tizen from phones to larger devices such as tablets. Enjoy your 10-inch four-function calculator.

Another set of three rules taken together would make several kinds of video game impractical to develop for Tizen. There are four ways to display a game on a device that supports multiple orientations:

A. Force an orientation. This is common on both iOS and Android but is forbidden on Tizen by the rule "Application should be displayed and work correctly regardless of the screen’s orientation."
B. Letterbox if in the wrong orientation. I've seen this in a few Android games to compensate for the difference between 16:9 devices and 4:3 devices. But this is forbidden on Android by the rule "Application should cover the entire screen of a device."
C. Stretch if in the wrong orientation. I haven't seen this in Android applications, but I included it for completeness to mention that Tizen prohibits it as well: "Application should not contain any overlapped or truncated text, graphics distortion, or any kinds of display errors.
D. Switching between landscape and portrait modes causes a radical rearrangement of user interface elements and/or a change to how much of the playfield the player can see at once. This is likely to confuse players.

Application should not use copyright-protected content without permission from the copyright holder.

This completely ignores plenty of lawful uses of copyrighted works under statutory exceptions. These could be either a royalty-free exception, such as fair dealing or fair use, or a compulsory license, such as Internet radio.

Application should not provide any method to share copyrighted content such as media or images via P2P or a server.

Bye bye Dropbox.

Content must not describe killing.

Bye bye any game that would be rated M by the ESRB, as well as many games that would be rated T.

Content must not depict violence towards vulnerable people, minors and animals.

If even Duck Hunt wouldn't be appropriate, I don't know what would.

Content must not disparage a person or a group of people on the basis of [...] Ideology

So disparaging Nazis for their white nationalist ideology is forbidden.

Furthermore, from Tizen Application Compliance:

Users should be able to accept an incoming phone call while the application is running. Furthermore, it should resume from the same point, or at a reasonable re-starting point, when the call is ended.

Bye bye any game with a competitive online multiplayer component, unless Samsung has chosen to be very generous as to what it considers "a reasonable re-starting point."

From Validation Guidelines:

Application should cover the entire screen of a device.

This is likely to prove inconvenient to users as Samsung expands Tizen from phones to larger devices such as tablets. Enjoy your 10-inch four-function calculator.

Another set of three rules taken together would make several kinds of video game impractical to develop for Tizen. There are four ways to display a game on a device that supports multiple orientations:

A. Force an orientation. This is common on both iOS and Android but is forbidden on Tizen by the rule "Application should be displayed and work correctly regardless of the screen’s orientation."
B. Letterbox if in the wrong orientation. I've seen this in a few Android games to compensate for the difference between 16:9 devices and 4:3 devices. But this is forbidden on Android by the rule "Application should cover the entire screen of a device."
C. Stretch if in the wrong orientation. I haven't seen this in Android applications, but I included it for completeness to mention that Tizen prohibits it as well: "Application should not contain any overlapped or truncated text, graphics distortion, or any kinds of display errors.
D. Switching between landscape and portrait modes causes a radical rearrangement of user interface elements and/or a change to how much of the playfield the player can see at once. This is likely to confuse players.

Application should not use copyright-protected content without permission from the copyright holder.

This completely ignores plenty of lawful uses of copyrighted works under statutory exceptions. These could be either a royalty-free exception, such as fair dealing or fair use, or a compulsory license, such as Internet radio.

Application should not provide any method to share copyrighted content such as media or images via P2P or a server.

Bye bye Dropbox.

Content must not describe killing.

Bye bye any game that would be rated M by the ESRB, as well as many games that would be rated T.

Content must not depict violence towards vulnerable people, minors and animals.

If even Duck Hunt wouldn't be appropriate, I don't know what would.

Content must not disparage a person or a group of people on the basis of [...] Ideology

So disparaging Nazis for their white nationalist ideology is forbidden.

Furthermore, from Tizen Application Compliance:

Users should be able to accept an incoming phone call while the application is running. Furthermore, it should resume from the same point, or at a reasonable re-starting point, when the call is ended.

Bye bye any game with a competitive online multiplayer component, unless Samsung has chosen to be very generous as to what it considers "a reasonable re-starting point."

"Tizen is an open and flexible operating system built from the ground up to address the needs of all stakeholders of the mobile and connected device ecosystem, including device manufacturers, mobile operators, application developers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Tizen is developed by a community of developers, under open source governance, and is open to all members who wish to participate."
https://www.tizen.org/about

Hmm :)

Well, let me put it this way: What kind of crap is Samsung shovelling out that the basic keyboard/mouse drivers which run on basically _anything else_ are able to render Samsung's hardware inoperable?

Plus: What kind of inept stunts is Samsung pulling that their drivers are automatically replaced?

Then again, given their track record with the developer's nightmare that is Tizen, this shouldn't surprise anyone. I mean, what is one supposed to think of a company who thought that an error message like "NAUGHTY PROGRAMMER!!! SPANK SPANK SPANK!!!" is a good idea? (Seriously: https://developer.tizen.org/de...)

Just to be clear, are you asking about Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol working with Wayland?

Well it's originally based on an ITU-T recommendation, there are open source client implementations for most of it so yes. And from what I gather it's supposed to work but I haven't tried it.

Samsung has put A LOT of time and energy into Tizen but Tizen is OSS from the ground up. Google gave us a mostly OSS Android experience but OEM's don't like being beholden to them in many areas. Especially areas where Google is competing against them. Tizen is very appealing in that regard and why so many OEM's are looking at Tizen in their devices. Look for all manner or smart devices to start running Tizen in the near future.

You see, the cloud services companies take advantage of the fact that most of us don’t know how to buy a domain, set up a website and program it to do what we want. So, what choice do we have but to click the "Accept" button when they show us the license agreement to use their service.

So instead you want us to buy a subdomain and tied hardware from you, hardware that isn't upgradeable. I can use an old laptop and get a much better screen, much more storage, much better performance, and a wider choice of software. And unlike Tizen, where "the entire SDK has been published under a non-open-source Samsung license", which you can read . Some exerpts:

IMPORTANT NOTE: This license is primarily applicable to several proprietary components, which are not open sourced. If applicable, the Open Source Software license shall take precedence over the rights and restrictions granted in this Agreement, but solely with respect to such Open Source Software.

... and ...

3.1 Except for the limited license granted to You herein, You agree that all right, title and interest in and to the Tizen SDK including the concepts and technology inherent in them, Samsung or Tizen trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, are, and at all times shall remain, the sole and exclusive property of Samsung. Except to the extent permitted under this Agreement or by applicable law, You shall not (i) modify, reverse engineer or disassemble any portion of the Tizen SDK; (ii) lease, rent, copy, redistribute or sublicense the Tizen SDK to third party; or (iii) remove, efface or obscure any copyright notices, logos or other proprietary notices or legends included in the Tizen SDK. You may not use any component part of the Tizen SDK in any way independent from the Tizen SDK. You may not load or install any of the Tizen SDK onto mobile phones or any other devices, except a personal computer.

... and ...

8.1 You acknowledge and agree that the Tizen SDK was developed at considerable time and expense by Samsung and contains valuable trade secrets and confidential information of Samsung. Accordingly, You agree to maintain the Tizen SDK in confidence and except as expressly provided in Section 2, You (i) will not disclose or provide access thereto to any person, or (ii) use the Tizen SDK for any purpose not expressly authorized hereby, or permit or authorize any other person to do so.

Humorous comment, but given that colloquially "Linux" = "GNU/Linux," seems a valid question. It seems that, at least early on, you could get xterm running on it: https://lists.tizen.org/piperm... this of course doesn't say anything about the shell, underlying libraries, etc. ... but there might be hope.

Tizen's biggest problem is samsung. Here's a chat log where rasterman (head of EFL used by Tizen in the background -- they aren't allowing anything but webapps by third parties)

https://www.tizen.org/irclogs/...

He talks about how stagnant and copycat the Samsung development bureaucracy is and how it's practically impossible to make any real innovative moves in development.

Another major issue is that the Tizen SDK (despite all the "Linux Foundation" mantra) is proprietary and gives Samsung near complete control of your code. I don't see any developer agreeing to those terms when he/she is already risking so much on a new OS to begin with.

If you've heard/seen about Tizen at all lately, I know this is one of the big things going for it. Makes sense for car makers to not have to reinvent the wheel: https://wiki.tizen.org/wiki/IVI

What makes you believe Samsung will be any more open source friendly than Google? They have no history of that, quite the contrary. Also, https://developer.tizen.org/forums/sdk-ide/tizen-sdk-licensing-makes-whole-tizen-not-open-source

You can install CyanogenMod in most android phones and restrict yourself to use only open source apps too. Or try Mer based ones (i.e. Sailfish), Tizen, Ubuntu Touch, or Firefox OS

Because Android has a cost

And FXOS is mostly Android

While Tizen,webOS are not available anywhere.

False and false

https://lists.tizen.org/pipermail/general/2012-October/001068.html

Also, (I unfortunately can't find the link at the moment, but it was on the Tizen mailing lists a few months ago) - While Samsung technically has "partners" in the Tizen project, the reality is, "We are Samsung, we do what we want."

Aaaah - found the link - https://lists.tizen.org/pipermail/general/2012-October/001061.html

Also, apparently their kernel repo has commit history obliterated - https://lists.tizen.org/pipermail/product-dev/2012-November/000100.html

On the opposite end, Android as Google envisions it is far more open. Unfortunately, as a compromise to get some manufacturers on board, most of the HALs are Apache-licensed, so manufacturers (especially Samsung) can mangle the hell out of them and not document what they did, making AOSP-derived firmwares on some devices nearly impossible.

Anyone who thinks Samsung is a champion of openness is completely and totally ignorant of how they have behaved towards the open source community over the past year or two.

Also, (I unfortunately can't find the link at the moment, but it was on the Tizen mailing lists a few months ago) - While Samsung technically has "partners" in the Tizen project, the reality is, "We are Samsung, we do what we want."

Aaaah - found the link - https://lists.tizen.org/pipermail/general/2012-October/001061.html

Also, apparently their kernel repo has commit history obliterated - https://lists.tizen.org/pipermail/product-dev/2012-November/000100.html

On the opposite end, Android as Google envisions it is far more open. Unfortunately, as a compromise to get some manufacturers on board, most of the HALs are Apache-licensed, so manufacturers (especially Samsung) can mangle the hell out of them and not document what they did, making AOSP-derived firmwares on some devices nearly impossible.

Anyone who thinks Samsung is a champion of openness is completely and totally ignorant of how they have behaved towards the open source community over the past year or two.

It does not say if they also plan to keep the development truly open, I hope they do.

No, they don't.

You may not load or install any of the Tizen SDK onto mobile phones or any other devices, except a personal computer...
  Tizen SDK License

They've chosen the JavaME path in that regard, [sarcasm] a real successful plan to emulate. [/sarcasm]

It seems to me that they're going after the feature phone market with this.

In other words, you'll be able to get the phone for free, but you'll have to pay $4.99 every time you want a new ringtone.

Tizen is also seriously targeting the automotive market. The old carputer concept has been reborn under the initialism "IVI", for "In Vehicle Infotainment", and lots of ODMs seem to be interested in getting a piece. IVI industry types are the major backers of big kernel changes like the controversial new AF_BUS.

Funky license

...Except for the limited license granted to You herein, You agree that all right, title and interest in and to the Tizen SDK including the concepts and technology inherent in them, Samsung or Tizen trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, are, and at all times shall remain, the sole and exclusive property of Samsung. Except to the extent permitted under this Agreement or by applicable law, You shall not (i) modify, reverse engineer or disassemble any portion of the Tizen SDK; (ii) lease, rent, copy, redistribute or sublicense the Tizen SDK to third party; or (iii) remove, efface or obscure any copyright notices, logos or other proprietary notices or legends included in the Tizen SDK. You may not use any component part of the Tizen SDK in any way independent from the Tizen SDK. You may not load or install any of the Tizen SDK onto mobile phones or any other devices, except a personal computer....

Funky license

...Except for the limited license granted to You herein, You agree that all right, title and interest in and to the Tizen SDK including the concepts and technology inherent in them, Samsung or Tizen trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, are, and at all times shall remain, the sole and exclusive property of Samsung. Except to the extent permitted under this Agreement or by applicable law, You shall not (i) modify, reverse engineer or disassemble any portion of the Tizen SDK; (ii) lease, rent, copy, redistribute or sublicense the Tizen SDK to third party; or (iii) remove, efface or obscure any copyright notices, logos or other proprietary notices or legends included in the Tizen SDK. You may not use any component part of the Tizen SDK in any way independent from the Tizen SDK. You may not load or install any of the Tizen SDK onto mobile phones or any other devices, except a personal computer....

Tizen has nothing in common with Maemo or MeeGo.

"There has been a lot of great work done in the Meego project, and we are pleased to see that code carried over to Tizen." - Imad Sousa (Meego’s technical steering group co-leader)

Its Samsung's internal Linux platform

If by internal you mean it is maintained by the Linux Foundation then OK.

The problem with Linux on a tablet is not installing Linux but making it usable with a touchscreen.

Gnome/KDE/Unity are moving towards a more touch-screen friendly approach [whatever you think of that], as well as Linux Os's designed for it https://www.tizen.org/ and my personal favourite sailfish http://jolla.com/ you need to keep your eyes open.

I can second this, but I have to say that if I had to dump the current "winners" (KDE and GNOME), I'd push full-tilt for EFL. It's just incredible how fast and lightweight it is, plus it has teh shinee going for it.

There are two (well, 2.5) things that really need to get done for this to happen:

• Bindings to something more portable than C. Sure, it will lose you some speed, but in this day and age, you really need to allow programmers to program in something like Java (or Python, Scala, Vala, Clojure, etc). Python bindings are already there, but the more (portable) languages, the better.
• Stabilize things. EFL has been stable for a while, but I always have the fear that it will be re-written from scratch, yet again.
• And someone big needs to push it, and push it openly. The problem with Tizen is that it isn't very open (invite only). I was excited to hear about a new open tablet, but slightly disappointed to find that it was KDE based. All due respect to the KDE and Qt camp, but you just can't beat EFL/Enlightenment for speed, small footprint or shininess.

Sure, I know these comments are aimed more towards tablets and phones, but for low end desktop, resources also matter, and the beauty of EFL and Enlightenment is that they encourage experimentation. Wanna build something radically different? Go ahead and try it out with EFL! Wanna build a run of the mill, just get it done but eat resources desktop app? Go with Qt and KDE.

I must be high. I'm hallucinating you can download the whole codebase here:
https://source.tizen.org/

The Tizen IDE is based on Eclipse, thus requires Java; the Tizen architecture doesn't include Java. A lot of IDEs and SDKs are built on Eclipse regardless of whether the target platform runs Java.

Also "Tizen Web applications may be developed without relying on an official Tizen IDE, as long as the application complies with Tizen packaging rules."

I wish I could believe this was all just a part of some complicated prank -- check out their info on installing the SDK:

Installing the SDK on Ubuntu ...
        Oracle Java* v6 or higher version (do not use OpenJDK)

https://developer.tizen.org/sdk/installing-sdk-ubuntu

Who in their right mind would hitch their up-and-coming FOSS mobile OS to Java right now? And Oracle's proprietary, closed source java -- not even the OpenJDK?

Hint: Given the trial that's going on right now, I would just avoid using Java for a whlie. Or, you know, at all (if possible).

See the dev docs here https://developer.tizen.org/help/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.tizen.help.gs%2FPlatform+Overview.html

In what way is Tizen Meego's succesor if :
1) it can't run meego apps. Or Maemo apps. It's a totally different platform.
2) it isn't a real linux, but just uses linux at a very low level (somewhat like android).

3) the SDK is as closed source as it can get.

I'm keeping my eye on the Tizen project, which is the Lnux Foundation's latest kick at the can after Elop killed Meego. https://www.tizen.org/ I won't be updating my beloved N900 until there's a new FOSS solution.

Intel's new Medfield Atom will run Android phones and tablets, Tizen devices, Win 8 tablets and (if MSFT get's their head screwed on correctly) Win Phone. Since the underlying firmeware environment in the medfield platforms is driven by Intel's reference design, MSFT will not be able to dictate whether other OSes can boot any more than they can in the rest of the x86 world. (Assuming OEMs will be smart enough to let customers control UEFI authentication)

The whole point is that Microsoft is prohibiting customers from controlling UEFI authentication (though for now just on ARM tablets.)

Intel's new Medfield Atom will run Android phones and tablets, Tizen devices, Win 8 tablets and (if MSFT get's their head screwed on correctly) Win Phone. Since the underlying firmeware environment in the medfield platforms is driven by Intel's reference design, MSFT will not be able to dictate whether other OSes can boot any more than they can in the rest of the x86 world. (Assuming OEMs will be smart enough to let customers control UEFI authentication)

I dumped Ubuntu a while ago. I don't like the direction they're going in.

Instead...well, I've been a fan of Maemo, then MeeGo, now Tizen for a while now. If I don't want to run Android, I'll wait for a usable Tizen build to put on my tablets, thanks anyway.

From the copyright information accompanying the SDK:

Except for the Open Source Software contained in Tizen SDK, all other software portions contained in Tizen SDK are governed by the terms and conditions of the Tizen Software Development Kit License Agreement, available at: http://developer.tizen.org/download/samsung_sdk_license.html

Open source, my ass.

http://source.tizen.org/git/

OK, that's funny.

But...

The point of these is not so much for the person asking the question to get The Best Answer (tm) but rather to spark an interesting discussion which many will enjoy and possibly learn from. Over the years I've learned a TON of useful or entertaining things from Ask Slashdot discussions, many of which I would never have known to ask about in a google search or otherwise.

From this discussion I've already learned about Tizen which I had never heard of before today. I also enjoyed a few more bits of discussion about the Nook Tablet which I'm considering purchasing.

So I'm glad the question got asked, even if it wasn't the best way for the asker to get an answer.

Read the other Android article published today and go for something open source instead. Maemo, Moblin, Meego, Tizen, Mer or just plain Debian.