Slashdot Mirror
Linux Powers Motorola's Smart Phone
An anonymous reader writes "Motorola unveiled the A760 at CeBIT and claims the handset is the first in the world to blend the open source operating system with Java software. As well as Linux, the A760 has onboard a camera, diary, e-mail program, MP3 player, speakerphone and colour touchscreen."
It's also an inside joke in Finland. Mr Proper is (was?) a household cleanser just like Vim :)
I think a lot of folks aren't quite up on what a phone has in terms of resources that one can utilize well, especially for cool hacks and whatnot. Running linux on a phone is a good first step, but there's a lot more that needs to exist first.
First off, there's memory issues. Having replaceable flash memory is useful, but more often than not the cellphone stores it's programs in read-only high-speed (and thus expensive) flash that's either on the chip itself or very much part of the built-in phone. Phones are usually quite tight in terms of memory usage, especially smart phones like this; writing any permanent programs that run on the phone constantly must keep that in mind.
Another issue is single vs. multithreaded apps. Most cells are optimized to be single threaded, as it's faster, uses less CPU overhead and usually easier to program/debug. That removes a lot of the ability to do things like, say, add a global filter to the mix. It's not impossible, but you should keep it in mind.
Third, most cellphones require a fair amount of specialized hardware to reprogram the phone itself. Or reboot it in the case of problems. Not to mention images needed to reflash it if something goes wrong, the software required to interact with the hardware on whatever platform, etc. All of these things are possible, but they are hard to easily get around.