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Linux Gets Mobile (phone)
arclightfire writes "The Register are reporting that Motorola, one of major mobile phone manufacturers in the world, has decided that the future's bright, the future's penguin! The reasoning cited is the belief that China holds the key to the mobile phone market of tomorrow, therefore this future needs to be Linux; 'Not only is China potentially the world's largest mobile phone market, but it's also where most phones are built. Even more significantly, it's where the next generation of all mobile devices will be based, thinks Motorola.' Pax Linux?"
Yes, they do run Linux. Most people in the cities own mobile phones. In fact, there are more mobile phones in use than land-line phones.
You'd be surprised at how capitalist China is. It's fast becoming a highly affluent society, and the companies that get in on the market are going to win enormously - those that don't are going to be left behind.
I don't know where you got the idea that people can't afford electronics there, but it's a pretty dated notion. At least 10 years out of date, I'd say.
Plus, my old boss once told me that Motorola's sole purpose in life is to make crappy phones at a great loss. Anyone who has ever had the mis-fortune of using one of them will know that in order to beat the Nokia's of this world, they need to fire their entire UI team and replace it with people who actually know what they are doing.
Sure, it runs Linux and it's got that geeky appeal. But don't get carried away, it's still the same experience that all Motorola phones have.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Yes to the first question. No to all the others, officially, although there is a Java API for writing your own programs. I think the lowest levels (radio communications, etc.) are protected and don't have explicit API access.
I suppose you could reverse engineer it but I don't know how hard or fruitful that would be.
Now they should just port the UI and other frameworks from Symbian. Having a (C++) source code compatibility w/ Symbian OS would be a boon.
It will be interesting to see how Nokia and others react. The interesting thing isn't that it is based on Linux, but rather the fact that it's using Java extensively. Will also the lower level stuff be done in Java? In Symbian circles most of the "serious" stuff is done in C++ (ish), but we'll see whether the sledge will turn at some point. Phones are (still) very memory-cramped environments, and require design decisions that differ from normal Linux application design.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
The average annual salary in our high-tech company (about 75% engineers.. offices in Beijing & Shenzhen) is less than RMB100k (about US$12k), but yes, everybody seems to have cell phones...
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Does it have some shell terminal with ssh?
Not unless there is one written in Java. This is a consumer phone. It may have a Linux kernel, but doesn't contain anything extra out of the norm from other Motorola products.
In fact, if you didn't know it ran Linux - you wouldn't know from just using it.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
. But if they were open source. Think of the posiblitlys. ahhh to dream of a day when all is free to tweak :)
They are free to tweak already. You can download a public SDK for various Symbian OS versions, and build applications for your phone (3650, 7650, etc.). The Symbian OS is not particularly open, but in SDK's you have the docs, the header files and the libs. All of the stuff you would need for basic application development. There are also books that detail Symbian OS development available.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
You probably can't replace the OS. Phones that can re-flash themselves normally only accept signed firmware updates. This may be a condition of type approval, as radio regulatory agencies and network operators don't want people screwing up cells with buggy customisations (one badly-behaved handset can make a whole cell unusable).
Oh, I'm sure you can get the source. But it doesn't mean you can install a new kernel. They make the hardware and get to hard lock the memory map. That means the kernel and important init applications can be protected out of sight with any permissions enforced directly by hardware.
Your hacking might be limited to logic analyzers and such.
Has anyone tested a Motorola Linux phone? Can I download my own C apps to it? Do I get root access? Can I mess with the readio protocols and steal the ID number from another phone? Do I get source? Can I recompile the phone OS and reinstall it?
I don't know why this comment has been modded as "Funny". Moderators: please re-mod as "Insightful" or "Interesting".
These are all valid questions. Since Linux is under the GNU GPL, Motorolo must comply with section 3 (redistribution) of the GPL. Those terms are:
In this case, 3(c) is not an option. And 3(a) is not practical. That leaves 3(b): a written offer to provide source code. In the case of a mobile phone, I would expect that written offer to be in the back of the user manual, along with the complete text of the GNU GPL.
But I don't expect you get 'root' access, since you won't have a shell. And I doubt they'll provide an interface to download your own C apps, but they will probably let you download your own java apps.
Well, the relative prices of things are pretty different in China. Basic goods are very, very cheap. We're talking 1/10th the price for most food, clothing, and basic household items. Electronics are more expensive than in the US - for example when the V60 first came out it was something like US$500. Real estate also is very expensive - I don't remember exactly how much, but definitely comparable to the US. There's also the issue that you can't own land outright in China, you can only buy 99-year leases from the government (but that's another issue entirely).
The biggest lifestyle difference I can see is that most people don't own cars in China. I wonder how much money a year they save from that...
Sure, you may be wondering how most people manage to possibly even get by on a $50 paycheck a month, but realize that that is the national average, where all sorts of people are factored in. In a land of such contrast, there are still tons of terribly rich people, and those who earn upwards of $1200(USD) a month are not that uncommon.
80% of China's population is into agriculture, and only 20% of them are priveledged enough to be urbanites, but if you do the math, that would mean that there are more people living in cities in China than there are in the United States. In a place where image is everything, it is inevitable that cellular phones have become extremely popular, if not ubiquitous. On the street, almost everybody (and I mean somewhere like 9 out of 10 people) has a cell phone. It is no wonder why Motorola is considering this vast market, because this is only the tip of the iceberg. This many cellular service subscribers only indicate a market penetration of 13%. Imagine the profits of market penetration somewhere upwards to 50%.
Port the frameworks from Symbian to Linux? Why? What Motorola seems to be saying is that it doesn't really care which OS is running on the phone, everything that the user will see will be done in Java. All else being equal, why would Motorola choose Symbian. It doesn't need any of the UI/PDA stuff that Symbian provides because MOT just wants to run Java on top of it. For that reason, Linux is ideal, it can be very minimal and has a good java VM.
You're right about the fact that Linux being the lower layer isn't that important. I just don't understand why Motorola would port, or have any other interest in Symbian with regards to their Linux phone offerings.
Can I download my own C apps to it?
Not likely, not any more than you can download your ASM apps on any other phone on the market.
Do I get root access?
Root access to what ?? There is no shell, no TTYs, no /dev (or no / for that matter). The kernel is just used to control and manage the hardware (screen, keyboard, de/modulator, battery and memory)
Can I mess with the readio protocols and steal the ID number from another phone?
Not any more with this phone than any other... Even if you wll have the kernel's source, you won't have any more access to the hardware than on any other phone.
Do I get source?
Yes, but only to the kernel. (there is *much* more in there)
Can I recompile the phone OS and reinstall it?
Sure, with some fine soldering and steady hands, but the bootstrap code in the phone won't accept the new kernel unless it's signed with the correct key. So, it's useless.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
Not unless there is one written in Java.
There is at least on pure Javaimplementation of SSH, MindTerm. Its pretty reasonable. How it is portable to MIDP, which is presuambly the flavour of Java we're talking about here is questionable...
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