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A Different Kind of Linux Smartphone: Samsung To Sell Tizen-Based Model Z
As The Next Web reports, Samsung is finally bringing to market (in Russia, to start) a phone, the Samzung Z, running the Tizen OS. Like Android, Tizen is based on the Linux kernel, but it's intended for HTML5 apps rather than Android apps. It's not Samsung's first Tizen device, though; the second-generation of its Gear smart-watches are running Tizen as well. "Samsung earlier revealed plans for its first Tizen smartphones to be launched during its second quarter of business in 2014, which runs April to July, so it seems like smartphones other than Samsung Z could still be on their way. The Samsung executive said that Tizen devices could account for as much as 15 percent of Samsung’s mobile shipments per year, but Android will still be its main business."
We need a good Replicant based Linux distribution that lets users replace their spyware laden operator's distro with a privacy perserving os that does everything a linux box can.
http://www.replicant.us/
It's got an HTML5 userland, so you know the apps will be TOP NOTCH.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
The Hurd-based GNUphone looks like a brick, feels like a brick, and is a brick. Sure you can talk into it, and everyone can call you on it, but they only call you crazy.
As someone who watched the 'community process' of the maemo/meego get ignored and decisions regarding the base OS/packaging system forces through by corporate/political types I'm glad to see at least one company producing a debian based phone.
Access to the OS for C application development outside a VM, EFL/enlightenment as the native application toolkit and access to a QT port.
HTML5 after that seems like an an necessary afterthought but at least your not running in a VM.
You can also use Qt for developing. Since Qt has an improving support for Android too, eventually developing cross-platform apps may become easier.
So far, every attempt at producing a smartphone leads the people involved to believe that they willl be DIFFERENT and they will be able to make a phone which doesn't suck without native apps. So fat everyone else has learned the lesson eventually. Android learned it. Apple learned it. Microsoft have learned it. And the Tizen people will need to learn it to have any chance of success.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I had a SGS2 and have a SGS4 now. They are fine phones. I want a replaceable battery and a SD card slot. This reduces the field for me a lot.
For my wife I bought a Moto G and I suspect I will replace my SGS4 with a phone in the same class, once it needs to be replaced. Phones are rapidly approaching the phase where most middle class phones are good enough. Two years ago a high-end device was necessary for a good experience, these days this is no longer true.
Life will become tougher for phone manufacturers.
1st Android introduced a declarative (XML) way to write UIs (I admit I don't know whether this XML gets parsed by java or native code) and
2nd There is no JVM in Android, its Dalvik VM. Google only took the language, but not the whole technology.
Where Bada went wrong is that they made a custom search with Google, creating Bada-Google. If they went with Microsoft, they would have had Bada-Bing