OSDL's Mobile Linux Initiative

Rob writes "The Open Source Development Labs has introduced a new initiative to accelerate the adoption of Linux in the mobile market by providing a forum for device manufacturers, network operators, and application developers. Like the OSDL's other working groups, the MLI will provide a forum for creating requirement specifications based on existing implementations and invest in existing and new mobile Linux projects to identify and fill gaps in the open source operating system's functionality."

Comments

Hmmmmmmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the OSDL's other working groups, the MLI will provide a forum for ..slashdotting the hell out of innocent websites...

Desktop Linux Improvements

[CyricZ]

Would any of the improvements enhance the desktop Linux experience? Indeed, applications designed for the minimalistic hardware of many handhelds could potentially perform amazingly on a high-powered, modern desktop.

Re:Desktop Linux Improvements

[FidelCatsro]

Yes but saying that , you could just use something like fluxbox or even TWM(to go to an extreme) , Which both perform brilliantly on today's hardware .. They even perform wonderfully on 10+ year old hardware .
Even things like Xfce perform wonderfully on old hardware ., So you can imagine how well they perform on up to date hardware .
Performance is not something to worry about in desktop environments, we don't need better performing WM/DEs (even KDE can run fairly well on a p2 ) .

What we perhaps need is an improved UI in some things (personal preference ).No gain in this sector will likely appear from this initiative , considering the way most Mobile devices handle input .

What sort of gaps are they trying to fill?

[CyricZ]

The article itself isn't very technical. Can anyone shed some light onto what sort of gaps they're trying to fill?

It does list some of the technical areas to be worked on:
real-time, power management, security, memory footprint, and fast boot functionality

However, what specifically could be improved in each area? Would such improvements be of any benefit to server or desktop applications in a significant way?

Metrowerks involvement?

[CyricZ]

It is widely known that Motorola, who is involved in this initiative, is linked to Metrowerks (or what was Metrowerks) via Freescale. Metrowerks is well known for developing C/C++ compilers for various platforms, including many embedded systems.

While GCC is a fantastic compiler, the Metrowerks compiler has often been amongst the best optimizing compilers. That said, could the performance of handheld devices be improved by compiling the Linux kernel and most Linux software with the Metrowerks compiler, rather than GCC? Considering the kernel's use of GCC-specific features in its code, it would of course not be an easy task.

Re:Linux's weak point?

[CyricZ]

Perhaps it's more an issue of trying to focus on too many markets at once. Quite opposite to the UNIX credo of doing one thing, and doing it well, it seems that some people want Linux to do everything these days on all sorts of systems. Handhelds have vastly different needs than servers, and desktops differ from both of those. You're going to run into problems when you try to make one piece of software perform excellently on such varied environments, each with vastly different requirements.

High time!

[LaughingCoder]

As a (former) mobile software developer, I think this is fantastic. Symbian and Windows Mobile are currently the two mainstay "open" platforms for developers. Java is making inroads, but no two phone's Java VMs are the same, making it a nightmare for developers (write once, debug everywhere). Symbian suffers a bit from this malady as well - each phone model resulted in a some tweaks to the software, and more often than not, a special executable. It should come as no big surprise that the best platform today for mobile developers is from Microsoft. The tools are quite good (and free), and the various instances of the platform (Smartphone, Pocket PCs) are sufficiently similar from an application's persective that only 1 source tree is needed. Further, the same executable will run on every device as long as it is a compatible CPU like the ARM - which is what almost all of them are. Linux in the mobile space would be a great thing - especially if a decent set of tools (and libraries and FOSS applications) were available to accelerate the process.

Using Python and Ruby for handheld development.

[CyricZ]

Will they be looking into the use of Ruby and Python for application development on such handheld devices? Indeed, many cell phones use Java-based programming environments. Considering how much better that Python and Ruby often perform than Java for desktop applications, it would seem plausible that they may have a place on such devices.

Sounds like CELF

[Samrobb]

From the sound of it, it seems like they're going to be covering a lot of the same ground as the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (see the CELF home page.)

The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), a California Non-Profit Corporation, is focused on the advancement of Linux as an open source platform for consumer electronics (CE) devices. The CELF intends to operate completely within the letter and the spirit of the open source community. The CELF is a place to come and discuss various issues that are of particular importance to the CE industry. Through an open process, the CELF members will clarify and codify certain requirements to be addressed in open source software. Thereafter, the CELF will evaluate any open source submissions as to their effectiveness and responsiveness to the requirements. Open source submissions accepted by the CELF Architecture Group and Steering Committee will be incorporated into the CELF source tree, which itself is open to the public.

There's some interesting stuff coming out of CELF, if you're interested in that sort of thing. IIRC, Matt Mackall (the author of the linux tiny set of patches) is now working for CELF. From other CELF members I've talked to, I can say that they seem to be a pretty techically oriented bunch. The individual CELF members aren't marketing types trying to push OSS developers to do their work for them, they're developers who have a real interest in pitching in and helping to make Linux a useful OS for consumer electronics.

Finally - a good PIM device

[MarkSwanson]

What I'm hoping to see is an open solution that I/everyone can contribute to so we have a good open standards compliant PIM software.
Currently all of the folks that write PIM software for cell phones have created their own flavours of iCalendar and vcard. They improve their implementations with each new cell phone and each revision of each new cell phone, but quite a lot of limitations and problems still exist. It's hard to support moving targets like this and the targets have been moving slowly for over 4 years.

Personally (as the author of a SyncML solution and someone who has to support n phones/revisions across the globe) I haven't seen any cell phone devices use anything but the older deprecated VCARD standard. I also don't remember (very tired though) seeing any devices that support the newer IETF iCalendar standard. I believe an open solution would be able to get out an updated implementation of the newer standards and enable a much higher level of functionality and interoperability. I believe a better PIM foundation will enable more interesting and useful applications and services to be built.

Cheers.

Java does not outperform Ruby in the least

[brunes69]

The only reason you percieve it being better on the desktop is because Ruby and Python use bindings to an already native GUI library, while Java has it's own which is not native, so of course it will seem slower.

This is not an obstcale on mobile platforms since MIDP defines standard GUI objects which are implimented in native code.

Java actually runs faster than Ruby or Python in the back-end because it is compiled code, whereas Ruby and Python are interpreted (notwithstanding JIT compilers). On a mobile platform though, there would be no benefit to any of them, except that Java already has a huge developer and application base in the mobile arena, so it would win out.