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Why Linux Is Good For Low-End Smartphones
jfruhlinger writes "Nokia's announcement that it was developing a Linux distro for low-end smartphones, shortly after abandoning the Linux-based Meego OS for Windows Phone 7, was a little puzzling. But it actually makes good business sense in the smartphone world. While WP7 aims for the high end, there's a market for cheaper and less complex phones that still beat boring old feature phones, especially in emerging economies. And, unlike Symbian and the heavily tweaked Meego, Linux can be quickly and cheaply brought to market as a low-end smartphone OS."
I would love to see a very small version of Linux on a smartphone. Think kernel less than 1MB (less than 500kB ideally), and a very lightweight graphical library. This could easily be made to boot in under 5 seconds and run on put-put hardware. I've done it myself with a system with pretty old Arm v5 at 300MHz, with 32MB RAM and 64MBytes of ROM it's capable or running a lot of goods - certainly any simple smartphone task.
I wish them luck!
Really? I think that SE Xperia and some HTCs are not low-ends. And Android is some Linux flavor.
In basic terms I don't see how anyone could object to this, it seems great. Obviously low end phones will have to move towards basic smart phone capabilities just as they once had to start including address books and text messaging, and linux is a good solution. The only worry is that Nokia, being a phone manufacturer, won't be making this cross-compatible so an opportunity for the android-of-the-low-end-phone is lost. It's still better than Meego!
Yes, what do you think android is? Chopped liver?
pardon, but all the experience i've had with windows on smartphones ... it couldn't have been further away from high end than these.
My first phone with a linux kernel however (samsung gt-i9100..) - THAT is how high end feels!
And, unlike Symbian and the heavily tweaked Meego, Linux can be quickly and cheaply brought to market as a low-end smartphone OS.
Err... so 2 OS's that are already developed, marketed and beta tested are more expensive then 1 new one?
1. Microsoft somehow still gets paid. >:/
How did this get a FP post? Does the iiotic poster and, apparently, the 'editor', doesn't realize that Meego, Moblin, Android, et al. are all cut from the same cloth?
I would not be surprised if these low-end phones ran some version of something like a stripped Opie or something based on minimalised QT libraries/UI. With 200Mhz for a low-end smartphone would be enough to make this work, and potentially much more featureful than existing crap phones. We were running more, back in the day, on 200Mhz/32Mb RAM/32Mb ROM PDAs, after all...
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Why not just keep updating/upgrading S40?
I thought 2012 was to be the year of Nemesis on the desktop (and everything else) as it smashes into the earth?
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Perhaps I missed something, but Linux is just a kernel (and according to some people a huge chuck of GNU software). This still makes no sense, they will still have to create so much more software than just using something like Android. They could trim down android to the point where it is able to run on smaller less functional phones. This decision does not makes sense to me.
Cause its free and anyone can use it would be my first guess.
They should call their new OS Maemo.
I think Nokia is tangled up in one of these critters. They will forever be developing a Linux for phones which will be abandoned just as or before it is fully rolled out. Rinse and repeat . . . forever . . .
See ya on this story again in two years, folks.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Smart for Nokia, perhaps. Everyone else just seems to be using Android. I wonder if Microsoft has Nokia's hands tied?
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I wouldn't count on MS not being interested in the low end smartphone range. Just because they're only barely crawling into the market now doesn't mean they aren't aiming for a huge section of it. That's why they partnered with Nokia, who did everything from the low end $20 phone to the $20k phone with dual sim and special call centre, and everything in between. But it will take time for that to emerge as viable (or, more likely, not) from MS. Nokia at this point cannot afford to wait around.
If a phone manufacturer wants to make a low end smart phone, Android is the way to go. It comes with a huge app ecosystem, more polished and cheaper to implement than any new Linux solution. I don't see how anything Nokia produces can compete with a $150 Android phone.
Nokia is probably only considering Linux after they realized that WP7 does not scale down to low end smart phones. They are covering up poor strategic decisions.
It would be great if they used Qt for embedded Linux for the GUI. It's a great development environment.
If you think back to the introduction of Netbooks, the first models were all running Linux.
Microsoft soon said, 'we can't be letting you do that'.
They introduced a slimline XP plus putting limits on the CPU, RAM etc that could go into a Netbook and qualify for the almost free XP licenses.
Fast forward to 2011.
Nokia is in deep do-do. I is losing market share hand over fist. The shareholders have seen their investment plummet. They want to get out with something before the share price hits zero.
Nokia has this nice little agreement with Mictosoft over WP7.
This hasn't stopped the slide in market share or the slide in the share price.
Nokia are IMHO getting desperate.
Result is to publicly start developing anothe Linux based phone O/S in the hope of making MS a tad pissed off with their now errant love child.
All thay want is for MS in the shape of Mr Balmer to call his old chop Mr Elop and tell him that he is being a very naughty boy and that Boss Steve Balmer won't be letting Nokia do this silly thing and offer to buy Nokia outright.
Then the shareholders will get something. Mr Elop will get a whole wad of cash and a seat on the Microsoft board.
The employes? The dole queue for 90%.
Job Done?
You bet.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
"...there's a market for cheaper and less complex phones that still beat boring old feature phones, especially in emerging economies. And, unlike Symbian and the heavily tweaked Meego, Linux can be quickly and cheaply brought to market as a low-end smartphone OS."
2 points:
1. Other little-known fact seems to be that linux is good for the high-end as well (as demonstrated by various android devices and the N9)
2. How is linux unlike meego? Given that two telephony devices have already been brought to market with the Nokia linux maemo base, I would say that is 'quicker than quickly'.
I think people need to stop discussing Nokia's recent decisions as if they were logical or rational, and nothing to do with other weighty factors.
And this is how Microsoft will finally get that Linux patent portfolio they were talking about all these years
MS is trying to paint Linux in the low end corner. When in fact it is better at all functionality than anything MS can create. It will not work because the galaxy S II is already the most high end phone on the market. And it is running linux. They are too late. Imagine the next Samsung phone comming out next year. Microsoft will be way behind once again.
Microsoft soon said, 'we can't be letting you do that'.
They introduced a slimline XP plus putting limits on the CPU, RAM etc that could go into a Netbook and qualify for the almost free XP licenses.
How exactly did Microsoft say that they could not "be letting you do that", and to whom did they say it? Or did they effectively do this just by releasing XP cheaply. I can see your point there: how can Linux compete when their opposition virtual give away their OS?
Fast forward to 2011.
Actually, let's not. I think that you are making far too much out of this announcement. It is normal for Nokia to be using multiple phone operating systems at the same time. They usually have a wide variety of phones on offer from the high end smartphone to the bucket end dumb phone. And you can't act surprised when a company that has a history of developing Linux products announces that they will be using Linux in another product.
This is just business as usual. I think that it is a wise thing for Nokia not to have all their eggs in one basket.
In theory, though, Nokia should have free reign to use Linux in their devices now that they are completely in bed with Microsoft. It would be unseemly for Microsoft to sue the company they bought... errr... partnered with to build the best possible Windows phones for patent infringement by making inexpensive Linux based smart phones.
Yeah, we know already that theory is pretty useless. Microsoft would do what they want and twist some serious arms for Nokia to not do Linux of any sort on any devices... "informally."
I think the form of persuasion Microsoft would use is (threats of) patent license fees.
One, the timing suggests that MS can't be bothered to work this scenario. This isn't something that was (allegedly) in play before anyone even thought MS deal was happening, it happened after the MS deal was solidly in place.
I just don't see this as an appealing play for MS. We are talking about an environment that is explicitly anti-app and anti-cost. Given no per-device margins to be had by a software vendor and no promise of a rich application development and publishing ecosystem to reap revenue from, I don't see MS ever changing this situation.
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Feature phones still do have applications.. they just are not for heavy data users and browsing the web., With a feature phone, you get bored, and maybe download tetris or video poker or something...
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"Phonux" DOES have a nice ring (pun of course intended) AND actually gives some fucking hint as to its purpose.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
here comes the start of "the year of Linux on the phone" You fucking people..
Linux is currently the best general-purpose OS, full stop. Of course, it is good for low-end smartphones -- they are general-purpose computing devices.
What is more important, Linux is also the best for high-end smartphones and for desktops -- and it would be on all of them if not Microsoft's predatory tactics. The actions that caused Nokia to "choose" Windows for its new phones are not in any way different than the actions that make Windows "popular" on desktops. It's Microsoft's monopoly maintenance from the beginning to end, and it has to be stopped.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
He doesn't know what Meego was.
He doesn't know what Symbian was.
He doesn't know what Maemo was.
He doesn't know what Android is.
He doesn't know what Meltemi will be.
Clueless.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
By the time they finish "developing a Linux distro" and bringing it to the market, won't the hardware specifications of the n900 have become low end? I think they'd be better off putting their development time into applications rather than the operating system. I don't have complaints about the operating system on my n900, but I sure wish the interface to the contacts database was as good as the one on my old Treo 650. (I have the emulator, and I've imported my ~600 contacts sorted into the maxed-out number of groups, but the emulator can't dial calls.)
For a momment there I had the crazy impression that there were already linux smartphone OSes you could buy and that the summary was wrong.
Android and Meego are Linux by any pertinent definition. Customizing a Linux kernel for $any_task is not itself an impressive feat -- a couple of hackers can shoe horn a kernel into a refridgeration compressor microcontroller in a weekend, while drunk. Coming up with a useful and spiffy looking software stack on top of it that runs on low end hardware is the real feat Nokia has to pull off.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
MeeGo on the Smartphone
:) The reality is this is a classic tactic from the Microsoft playbook, in this case sabataging the potential relationship between Intel and Nokia
"MeeGo didn't fit for Nokia because it didn't fit within it's high-end smartphone plans... not because of any mechanizations on the part of Redmond".
a) Microsoft does deal with Nokia, b) Microsoft appoints new Nokia CEO, c) Nokia cancels MeeGo. Yea, no conspiracy there
the tivolization issue...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I wouldn't be surprised if there's an announcement next year that the high-end phones will be running Linux as well. Microsoft hasn't exactly been a good choice in embedded operating systems.
How's that? Data usage depends on your data plan, not your phone type. Even Nokia's S40 phones have Youtube, Facebook, etc., applications.
As for browsing the web, you can do that with S40, too. The latest models even have touch ability.
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"Teabagging", in this context, refers to the homosexual act of dipping your balls into your gay lover's mouth, like a tea bag in a cup of hot water. This (along with cock smoking, posting to slashdot, and taking screenshots of your gnome/kde theme) is a common activity for linux users.
Really? Our ~100 company desktops and our servers run on Linux which saves us tens of thousands on license fees and is reliable and intuitive. What binds most of the Linux users I know is that they are smart enough to see those advantages.
Your android phone is running linux. It's not a desktop but I don't think that's the target anymore.
Yeah, makes sense: MS needs a strong partner to establish WP7 in the market. MS has tons of money to invest e.g. to buy Skype, to pay Nokia and so no. Of course it is their first priority to destroy/weaken Nokia, to make sure they do not accidentally end up with the strong partner they so desperately need.
WARNING: This comment might contain traces of peanut-butter. And irony.
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There is "poison pill" in Nokia shares. If you buy over 30% of Nokia shares, you need to buy whole Nokia.
Can you substantiate this claim? (Link or other source for this information?) Never heard this before, but sounds interesting.
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