Ubuntu Mobile Announced
Placid writes "The BBC has up an article detailing the 'Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded' project which was announced by Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu's CTO, on the Ubuntu developers mailing list. Zimmerman stated that 'These devices place new demands on open-source software and require innovative graphical interfaces, improved power management and better responsiveness.' According to the article, Intel will have their finger in the pie too, as they've recently announced a prototype device running Ubuntu. Part of the project's goal is to maximise the power saving abilities of a planned low-energy chip codenamed Silverthorn. The chip will be just one-seventh the size of normal chips, and consume only 10% of the power of existing processor. What does this mean for projects such as OpenMoko? Healthy competition, or the beginning of the end?"
http://projects.openmoko.org/
Hosted Projects: 20
Registered Users: 525
That's not so much... Even http://opensource.y7.ath.cx/ doesn't cover them...
Sounds great, but rather bold prediction of using only 10% the power of existing chips. I seem to remember the crusoe chip being hyped like this, until it was released.
The N800's Maemo distribution is based on Debian, and while it does have a development community, things are a bit lacking right now. Would be nice if this device were supported, since a dist for many devices will probably get more development done for it than a dist for approximately two devices.
The Slashdot crowd can get a bare-bones phone and start hacking on it in mid-May.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9423084269. html