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Symbian Foundation Takes First Step In Open Sourcing Mobile OS

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the many-options-to-play-with dept.

readthemall writes to let us know that the Symbian Foundation has released the first of several packages in their plan to open source the entire Symbian mobile OS. "On Wednesday, Symbian made available its first package covered by the EPL, the OS Security Package, according to Symbian developer Craig Heath. 'The OS Security Package source code is now available under the EPL, and it is the very first package to be officially moved from the closed Symbian Foundation License (SFL) to... the EPL,' Heath wrote in a blog post. Heath said the EPL would allow the security package to bypass export regulations in the UK, where the Symbian code is legally based."

6 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Symbian vs. Linux by lixee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll quote the wiki: "Symbian OS kernel (EKA2) supports sufficiently-fast real-time response such that it is possible to build a single-core phone around itâ"that is, a phone in which a single processor core executes both the user applications and the signalling stack. This is a feature which is not available in Linux. This has allowed SymbianOS EKA2 phones to become smaller, cheaper and more power efficient.[citation needed]"

    Is that even true? If not, we should take it up on the discussion page.

    --
    Res publica non dominetur
  2. Re:Right by rumith · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Not all Nokia phones use Symbian. However, with Qt for S60 on the horizon, Symbian-specific skills are likely to become irrelevant. I strongly suspect that Nokia will be pushing Qt as the main toolkit/API for their [smart]phones, after which they will be free to dump the steaming pile that is Symbian and switch to Linux.

    Once again, I'm not saying that Nokia is in trouble: with their apparent migration towards Linux + Qt, they will be fine. I'm saying that open sourcing Symbian isn't likely to save it, and probably isn't even intended to.

  3. Re:Right by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually Nokia used to use careful phrases like "Series 60 : Optimised for Symbian", implying that S60 could potentially run on other OSs.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  4. Re:get rid of symbian signed.. by davester666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They still want to be like Apple.

    And it is worth big money to them to be able to absolutely control what can be installed on "your" phone.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  5. Re:Symbian has 49.5% ww smartphone market share by migla · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When could I expect to run a custom firmware image on the Nokia N73, which runs S60 v3?

    --
    Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
  6. Re:Decline of Windows Mobile? by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What was great about Windows Mobile before? That you could get cracked more easily? That it ate all the power and your battery died after 2 hours? Or that it was more expensive and buggy? ^^

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.