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Linux Crashes the Mobile Party
superglaze writes "ZDNet.co.uk has a fairly comprehensive feature on the progress being made by Linux for cellphones. Seems a pretty consumer deal for now, but there are some interesting hints of Linux eventually challenging Windows Mobile and Symbian in business use. The article also seems to suggest that the two big groups pushing mobile Linux could be amenable to a merger due to common interests."
I havent read TFA but Jon Stokes at arstechnica.com has a quite enthusiastic review on Intel's new 45nm mobile processor. He foresees standard x86 operating systems (windows or linux) running even on am/fm radios :P
Intel's x86 ISA grows down: today laptops, tomorrow the iPhone.
This might speed-up the development of the wanted-by-all linux (smart)phone...
When I can easily sync my linux/wm5/symbian/whatever OS phone to my linux desktop wake me. These are just going to be more linux phones that sync with windows desktop easily but on the linux desktop require using some poorly documented library that may or may not work on the current version of your phone. Then IF your phone happens to work with said library/module you are going to have to edit all sorts of config files and PRAY that your phone is actually recognized. After all this you better hope that your mail client, calendar, and contact manager of choice work with said library.
I've said this before on slashdot and I know I will be modded troll so enjoy.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
A little over a year ago I dropped almost $700 on an ipaq hw6945. I had visions of carrying around a computer in my pocket in place of where my phone used to be. This just is not the case. The network stack on this thing sucks - hard. Using terminal software and/or browsing the internet is excruciating. I basically never do it. I desperately want a choice that isn't Windows Mobile. Perhaps I'd come back at some point, but I doubt it. As it stands I have a really excellent text-messenger and a pretty crappy phone. Almost none of the capabilities of this thing are being used do to a ghastly interface and limited product selection.
I dream of being able to run Linux on this thing... and have it actually work, of course. I just checked handhelds.org again this morning, and this still wasn't the case. Frankly, I don't really see community effort ever coming back around to my device. Not at least as a phone with camera and GPS, etc. I do dream of some larger organization, e.g. Ubuntu, taking a stab at this some day...
I'm the biggest nerd in the world, I know, but at least I'm in the right place.
I remember running Linux in '93, Slackware 3.0. Amazing how far we've come, but this step could not have been imagined back when I began. Our little penguin is now going mobile!
The Cell Phone will become ubiquious in ways computers never could be. Even laptops don't get into places you will find phones.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Phones running as web servers? Phones serving files to a house? Phones-as-firewalls?
Dare I say it, a Beowulf cluster of phones?
I'm a bit more cynical about Linux than I used to be, but I still think I'd feel a little thrill if I saw a bash prompt on my phone. I actually quite wanted one when I was doing my PhD. I could use ssh to start a big job running and monitor its progress even when away from the lab. I could even set it up to ring me when it was finished, or when it had halted at some critical moment.
It would also get many, many geek points when people see you fiddling with your phone in the pub:
"Are you texting?"
"No, I'm restarting a simulation of liver behaviour on a cluster in the basement at Imperial College"
Peter
I already have my Linux mobile device, and I couldn't be happier with it. It attaches to my bluetooth headphones, keyboard, gps, and phone (DUN) without any problems. I can use xterm to ssh to my server, or stream internet radio or video at work. Oh yea, and I jammed 16GB of SDHC storage into the thing, so I have a decent music selection. The current version does not have a cell phone radio, but the next one will carry a WiMax chip, and possibly some other new hardware goodies.
On a related note, Ubuntu's Moblin and Red Flag's Midinux will be out relatively soon for use on UMPCs and MIDs. So, I'd agree that things are looking up for those of us who want more than e-mail and pim on our mobile devices. I'm not sure that I care *as much* about having Linux on my cell phone, as long as it will act as a modem to my other device and make phone calls. I want them to be separate, mostly so that I can make sure not to kill the battery on the cell phone, just in case I actually need it.
Methinks if flexibility is ensured and tinkering enabled and encouraged, community will build cool applications on top of any such product.
... tricoder! An universal, ultimate versatile gadget that does what each person needs or wants or thinks would be cool.
Personally, I would like a phone that would double as an EE tool: rugged design, flexible analogue and digital interfaces, measures voltage, resistance, capacitance, inductance, frequency/period, duty cycle, temperature, logs periodic measurements, shows analog waveforms (doubles oscilloscope), synthesizes audio test sine waves, analyzes audio specter, has easy to set up ASCII terminal, can connect to remote debugger on another system, can download new firmware into ISP flash micros, can display video from additional micro camera (to inspect small details or unaccessible parts), has good scientific calculator with number base conversions and boolean logic operations, can be programmed to control some simple process.
I can imagine there are others who would like their phones to log climate data: position (GPS), humidity, ambient temperature (or temperature read by an external probe, i.e. water temperature), atmospheric pressure, ambient light.
Imagine phone that connects to music instruments and does MIDI sequencing
Imagine phone that acts as sonar (i.e. for visually impaired) to scan the surroundings or measures the room dimensions (for real estate salespeople).
Imagine phone that acts as RC models controller console
Imagine phone that has laser pointer and inclination sensors and projects vertical or horizontal lines on a wall.
Imagine phone that has laser speed meter (similar in function to one police uses to single out speeding cars)
I can add lines till tomorrow, but I think you've got the picture (and plethora of your own ideas).
In short, what is expected from a versatile platform based phone is to be a
I know there are (or there can be if there is demand) some gadgets that can do all that (including connection over mobile networks) without actually being somebody's phone, thus getting in the way of its normal anticipated usage (as personal communication device), but the point is in ability to use one on the spot on the moment's decision to do so. It should be a "second best" choice, fall-back option if you happen to need to improvise (for professionals), or even a first choice for low level, casual (hobbysts') usage.
So far, evolution of additional features on the phones have shown merging functions from other gadgetry but it hardly crossed the line between leisure and creative work. It could, but it didn't because it would essentially be a market segmentation. However, if you have open, extensible, flexible platform, you don't have to risk: others will jump in and build upon.
On a phone?
The UI on a Linux phone is very unlikely to resemble any existing Linux desktop any more than the iPhone GUI resembles Aqua.
There's plenty of space for a phone with a UI that has more depth than an iPhone, and more consistency than Windows Mobile. I've just dumped my iMate JasJam for a Sony Ericsson M600i, and it was like taking a breath of fresh air. Symbian/UIQ is much more rational than Windows CE, but I'd still prefer an OS I could customise, and the form factor of the M600 isn't as useful as the iMate.
For me, a Linux phone would be the best of both worlds. If there were any available, I'd have one in my pocket now.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
i am posting right now from my n800 :) also check out neo1973
"I'm a bit more cynical about Linux than I used to be, but I still think I'd feel a little thrill if I saw a bash prompt on my phone."
http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/xo_plus_openmoko-03-boot.jpg
OpenMoko has SSH in and out of course (get a shell on your phone's OS, or use your phone to connect to a prompt on some other computer)