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Intel Launches Mobile Linux Project
An anonymous reader writes "Intel has unveiled an ambitious project aimed at developing open source software for mobile devices. The Moblin project comprises a Linux kernel, UI framework, browser, multimedia framework, and embedded Linux image creation tools, along with developer resources such as documentation, mailing lists, and an IRC channel. Intel says it hopes Moblin will serve as a 'point of integration' for multiple sub-projects, and appears eager to see devices such as its Mobile Internet Device design, and chipsets such as its Ultra Mobile Platform 2007 platform, be thoroughly supported by Linux. Although all of the projects currently focus on the Intel architecture, Moblin says it is open to hosting support for other processor architectures."
By gndn in Op-Ed The story is about a boy who lives in a cupboard (i.e. "in the closet"). His Aunt and Uncle are ashamed of him because his parents were quite eccentric (i.e. "flaming") and they are deeply concerned and afraid that he will turn out just like them. On his 11th birthday (i.e. roughly at the onset of puberty), the boy discovers that he is actually a "wizard", different in both style and substance from normal people, or "muggles" (i.e. "breeders"). The boy is groomed into his new existence by a large, hairy bear of a man who shows Harry a hidden underground community of "wizards" living right under the noses of the general population (i.e. the gay subculture). Harry's first trip to this subculture involves traveling through "Diagon Alley", a play on the word diagonally (i.e. not straight). One of Harry's first rites of passage in his new life is to select a wand (i.e. penis). The wand/penis is the most important tool in a Wizard's arsenal (or arse) and so this scene is treated with great reverence and mystery. While experiencing Diagon Alley for the first time, Harry also pauses with a group of other young boys to admire a much coveted broomstick (i.e. long hard shaft of wood). Harry's indoctrination begins in earnest when he is sent to a special school who purpose is to train him to use his wizard powers safely, while still being able to live in a world full of muggles. Young students at this school are forbidden from practicing "magic" (i.e. homosexuality) outside of the school (this is the so-called "restriction on the use of underage magic"). They are also forbidden from using magic in the presence of muggles, who might be frightened or angered by witnessing it, an obvious and heavy handed commentary on gay-straight societal tension. The students at this school are segregated by gender, a clear attempt to encourage homosexual relationships. The most popular pastime at the school is a game called "Quidditch", which involves riding hard shafts of wood, handling several types of balls, and trying to score points by successfully penetrating the hoop. This activity is enthusiastically endorsed by school officials for obvious reasons. Harry quickly excels at this new game and quickly becomes known for his above-average broom handling. Harry spends a great deal of time with Hagrid, the man-bear who first initiated him into the wizarding world, but also forms a close friendship with Ron, a fellow student (and first real boyfriend). The two also tolerate the presence of Hermione, a female classmate who compensates for her lack of a penis by being a better than average student. Together, this troublemaking threesome get into mischief on numerous occasions, causing consternation and concern among the teachers. Ultimately, the story is about Harry coming to terms with the tragic and premature death of his gay parents, who both died from AIDS (personified in the story by a cliche evil villain named Lord Voldemort). Although both his parents were struck down by the horrible disease, Harry himself was spared (though it did leave him scarred for life, i.e. infected with HIV but not full blown AIDS). Harry desperately searches for a new father figure to fill the void (either figuratively or literally) left by his father's absence. Harry first clings on to Hagrid the man-bear, then later Dumbledore, a kind but haggard old pedophile, and finally clutches on to Sirius Black, an old friend of his father's and Harry's godfather. Sirius has the curious ability to transform into a wild dog (i.e. he is an aggressive top). Harry's father had the ability to transform into a horse (a sly reference to penis size, lol horsecock). Harry himself has the ability to communicate with snakes (i.e. a deep understanding and appreciation of penises). Harry is further traumatized when one of his classmates, Cedric, is also cruelly cut down by Lord AIDSmort. Harry attempts to warn the others that "Voldemort has returned" (i.e. AIDS is on
Smile, don't click...
You can tell Intel is sincere because they've followed the Linux naming convention... and come up with one that sucks :P
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
With Nokia already backing Maemo based on GTK, and Trolltech's Qtopia based on Qt, what perceived need did Intel have for starting a new project to develop a mobile UI rather than joining an existing effort? Vendor specific fragmentation is just going to result in duplicated effort.
the bottoms butt Non ni6ger patrons (7000+14*00+700)*4 MOVIE [imdb.com] Of open-source. our ability to with any sort Little-known
What about OpenMoko? An open source and open hardware cell phone slated for consumer release around October 2007. If Intel wanted to do something seems getting involved there would be a great place to start. Had they have gotten involved a bit sooner they could have probably convinced the developers to use intel hardware instead of what they are currently using (I believe it is samsung . . don't quote me on that though).
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
Why is a separate kernel needed for mobile devices? The beauty of the Linux is (was?) that the same kernel could run on everything from cellphones to supercomputers. Looks to me Intel wants to control the wireless device market with binary drivers talking to a separate proprietary kernel, licensed under GPL2.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
I hope this at least builds on the successes of OS distributions for devices like the Linksys NSLU2, the WRT54G, and the Sharp Zaurus series. These people have stable and tested toolchains, build practices, entire organizations set up around managing and maintaining Linux on these devices.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Moblin? As in these guys?
Wow! Must be good...
Hmm I just bought a slightly outdated Nokia 770 just to see how the system works with linux. I'm curious. I just began playing with linux on my home computer. Mepis to be exact and now I want to try this stuff out.
Even trolltech wouldn't respond to my emails because I am not a company.
so far the so-called open source platforms require a buy-in and although OpenMoko sounds good... how many people will use the software you write for it?
Does anyone know of the best J2ME phone to buy? at least J2ME has some software out there for it and a huge amount of phones run it. Is there a J2ME phone that uses all of the phones memory not just a tiny portion?
hmmmm... when Matt Zimmerman announced Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition, he was delighted to be working with Intel on this version of Ubuntu. Is there really a reason to create a separate project?
I owned a Clié running PalmOS, an older Cassiopeia running WindowsCE, or sort of. I bought a Dell X50v, VGA screen and everything, and sold it after a few months. Currently own a Nokia 770, which runs Debian, and I have an older Symbian smartphone as well. While novel interfaces like the one in the iPhone, multitouch included, may help with the accessibility of handheld devices, I came not so long ago to a striking conclusion: form-factor makes handhelds impractical. Either they are too small to have a decent, readable screen and convenient input method, or they are too big to be portable. The iPhone is big for a mobile phone, and even then its input methods are only so so. UMPCs attained a laughable market share - they are not portable. Then anything smaller than 10" is hard to view, and even harder to type in. I fear OLPC, or however they are called today, might fail because of their smallish screen.
So basically I can't see how a mobile device running Linux will suceed in the market, just because it runs Linux. It is great seeing Linux gaining more support and everything, and it will probably bring the costs down, but even then the problem with this kind of device is that it doesn't fit the needs of the intended users, or most of them - few geeks that like to ssh into their servers in the basement from their mobile phones like me doesn't count. The concept is essentially flawed, blame our phisiology if you want.
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
for Microsoft.
Now, some posters paid by microsoft may mention that ms has 90% of desktop users and linux only 4%. But the thing is that there is a threshold of a %% of users upon which Windows will die within months. This is when most people know somebody who has installed linux and they hear from their friends that other people are using it. (This is almost happening in Europe and some parts of Asia). This threashold is estimated around 20%
Now that MS can no longer pimp Intel, AMD, Dell and other hardware vendors, it is beyond doubt what's going to happen. MS will go down the drain like a turd .
www.eFax.com are spammers
Intel Launches Mobile Linux Project
And here I thought I was going to read about Intel programming on Linux while driving. Or better yet, putting linux on cars!
Gals and Guys,
I've see the question, "Why doesn't 'Intel' use one of the existing projects?" Well, 'Intel' hasn't started any project.
Some guys at Intel, in some group, in a division, did it. It served their purpose, probably for board-set, or platform verification reasons. Some jazzed engineers suggested the project be formalized, and a good manager, decided no to get in the way.
How do I know this? Let's just say, it is an educated guess.
I have seen so many posts about 'Intel' decided, or AMD decided, or IBM did this. Believe me, there ain't no grand council of elders that say "come forth and address the high council, and if ye are worthy..."
I saw "Moblin project" first and thought that this was going to be an article about the monsters of the same name from the Zelda games. :-(
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
Lest they be kidnapped by moblins...
Moblins you say?
I'm wondering when someone is going to release the hardware for me to use. Not all bundled up in a package like the iPhone Linux wanna be that was mentioned on /. a few days ago, but a hardware component package. More like inexpensive pico-itx type devices. Something that has a processor and the surrounding hardware, and lets me either choose memory size and storage devices. I guess an embedded arm board would work for this though, but this is Intel. Where are the embedded Intel boards ( maybe I just haven't found them)? I'm looking for something as inexpensive as the arm chips or better yet as cheap as the pic micro controllers.
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
To be honest i don't think the actual structure of the O/S is of interest other than in engineering/reliability terms. What to me would matter in a Linux web device is the browser, as Opera (as referenced above) doesn't yet play nicely with some "Web 2.0" AJAX websites (Google Maps, Google Docs & Spreadsheets).
It's a fact that no matter how good Opera is at some applications, web sites are often designed with Firefox & IE in mind as target browsers. While this is in many cases symptomatic of bad webdesign (not always: Google Spreadsheets design team claim that Opera doesn't implement some features properly), the best thing the designers of internet devices can do might be to make sure Firefox operates. Do that and you can sell your device as a thin client for popular online services as well as an open local-app development platform.
My footnote: I'd love a Nokia N800 with Firefox, to run my favourite online services. Currently only minimo runs on Maemo, and it isn't complete enough.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Kind of like Goblin but for Mobile.
Is there some kind of secret rule that ties OSS projects to terrible naming? Maybe like a blood pact or something?
Quack, quack.
Thanks for all that. By the way, your link is broken ;)
www.purevolume.com/martyd
Rather than using a Linux kernel massaged into something suitable for a mobile platform, why not create a kernel and OS designed from the ground up to meet the needs of the mobile platform. I guess "linux" is becoming more of a brand name than a specific thing.
Intel used to do a lot of embedded hardware/software when they were still running the CHG (Cellular Handhold Group), and then they sold it to Marvell. And now they are picking up the embedded Linux again. What are they thinking? ......