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Linux Headed For Smartphone Domination?
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices has published a summary of research findings from Zelos Group that predicts that Linux is going dominate the smartphone market, beating out both Symbian and Microsoft. Zelos says that Linux scored highest on the two criteria that matter most to OEMs and carriers: openness and low cost. Microsoft scored lowest in these criteria. The article says Zelos believes Symbian beats Microsoft due to the flexibility of its licensing terms, and Microsoft prospects will be stymied to an extent by its desire to strictly manage how its brand is used. The conclusion: Linux will be the preferred operating system for connected devices."
u r n marteenee
MODERATOR PIECE OF D O G S H I T!!!111
you fucking cunt!!!111 human thrash!!111
Howard Dean's 'smart ID' plan
By Declan McCullagh
CNET News.com
January 26, 2004, 5:18 AM PT
COMMENTARY--After Howard Dean's unexpected defeat last week in Iowa, public attention has focused on his temper, his character, and that guttural Tyrannosaurus bellow of his not-quite-a-concession speech. But Dean's views on Americans' privacy rights may be a superior test of his fitness to be president.
Dean's current stand on privacy appears to leave little wiggle room: His campaign platform pledges unwavering support for "the constitutional principles of equality, liberty and privacy."
Fifteen months before Dean said he would seek the presidency, however, the former Vermont governor spoke at a conference in Pittsburgh co-sponsored by smart-card firm Wave Systems where he called for state drivers' licenses to be transformed into a kind of standardized national ID card for Americans. Embedding smart cards into uniform IDs was necessary to thwart "cyberterrorism" and identity theft, Dean claimed. "We must move to smarter license cards that carry secure digital information that can be universally read at vital checkpoints," Dean said in March 2002, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. "Issuing such a card would have little effect on the privacy of Americans."
Dean also suggested that computer makers such as Apple Computer, Dell, Gateway and Sony should be required to include an ID card reader in PCs--and Americans would have to insert their uniform IDs into the reader before they could log on. "One state's smart-card driver's license must be identifiable by another state's card reader," Dean said. "It must also be easily commercialized by the private sector and included in all PCs over time--making the Internet safer and more secure."
The presidential hopeful offered few details about his radical proposal. "On the Internet, this card will confirm all the information required to gain access to a state (government) network--while also barring anyone who isn't legal age from entering an adult chat room, making the Internet safer for our children, or prevent adults from entering a children's chat room and preying on our kids...Many new computer systems are being created with card reader technology. Older computers can add this feature for very little money," Dean said.
There's probably a good reason why Dean spoke so vaguely: It's unclear how such a system would work in practice. Must Internet cafes include uniform ID card readers on public computers? Would existing computers have to be retrofitted? Would tourists be prohibited from bringing laptops unless they sported uniform ID readers? What about Unix shell accounts? How did a politician who is said to be Internet-savvy concoct this scheme?
Perhaps most importantly, does Dean still want to forcibly implant all of our computers with uniform ID readers?
Unfortunately, Dean's presidential campaign won't answer any of those questions. I've tried six times since Jan. 16 to get a response, and all the press office will say is they've "forwarded it on to our policy folks." And the policy shop isn't talking.
Then there are the privacy questions. To curry favor among the progressive types who form the backbone of his campaign, Dean has positioned himself as a left-of-center civil libertarian. He's guest-blogged for progressive doyen Larry Lessig, embraced the Brady Bill and affirmative action, told audiences on the campaign trail that the Bush administration has "compromised our freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism," and pledged to repeal parts of the USA Patriot Act.
It's difficult to reconcile Dean's current statements with his recent support--less than two years ago--for what amounts to a national ID card and a likely reduction in Americans' privacy. "Privacy is the new urban myth," Dean said in that March 2002 speech.
"I know of no other Democratic candidate who has this view on national ID," said Chris Hoofnagle, ass
What do you think?
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Manufactured in Taiwan or China
Programmed in India
Customer support in India or where else is cheap
Use inexpensive operating system
What's so hard to see about the trends here? Even Redmond at some point must start thinking about how much of what they do there can be done overseas. (Just heard over the holidays that Dow Chemical will be putting half its engineers over seas, particularly in India for 24 hour engineering of projects.) When's Bill going to drop the first shoe? I think it's going to happen.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
the sybian
Linux just can't offer that functionality, and the pasty white nerds that deal in linux can't either.
Well, not most of them.
this is outrageous1!!!!!111111 i demand free speech!!11111111 do you even know what freedom is, you commie piece of commie?!!!11!?!??! pray that we wont come to your countrey and libberatte ya!!!!!!!!111111
OK, so it's quite easy to buy a PC running linux, handhelds already run linux, smartphones will be running linux (well, occording to the article), but buying a portable without paying a microsoft tax is just plain impossible. When will that barrier fall?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
[Please pardon my ignorance if Everybody Already Knows This.]
I got a cell phone (Mot v60i) about a year ago. I enter in the directory a bunch of the numbers I frequently dial. Works great for my universe of about 20 numbers.
Once in a while I need to lookup a number of a restaurant, doctor's office, etc.. Not lugging the white pages whereever I go, my only current option is to make a call to information and get charged some fee to find out the number.
Isn't there some way of having a cheaper directory lookup service based on text and scrolling of viewing the white pages online without needing to callup some human?
Just seems like it should be so...
"Provided by the management for your protection."