Linux has one, last, chance to become the No1 OS in a particular consumer-oriented market (not counting servers): the mobile phone market. The open nature and yes, the hype around Linux has made lots of mobile-oriented companies to consider using Linux for their next-generation cellphones. But there is a major problem on the way to success, a problem which is created not by Linux itself, but by the greed and close-mindness of these same companies that endorse Linux.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Get your facts. Nokia only use 2 OSes on their phones: Series 30/40 platform which is based on a propietary embedded os and Series 60/80/90 platform which share the same Symbian OS core and base UI classes. Nokia doesnt use Linux on phones.
Sorry but just because you want to group Series 30 and 40 together and 60/80/90 doesn't make it true. And I didn't say Nokia shipped Linux on their phones, I said they use 5 different OSes, which is true. Nokia, however, is quite clear that they are not planning on offering a single platform. They will continue to use Series 30 for their regular handsets, Series 60 for their mid line smart phones and Series 80 for their high end smart phones. And they have not indicated that they are going to switch off of Linux for their Tablet line. Which means you are looking at a reduction to 4 OSes of which 3 of them are incompatible (30, 60 and Linux) and two which are semi-compatible (60 and 80).
This fact mean less sales, so carriers and developers are definitely not happy with it.
Are all of you living in some alternate universe where carriers are having a hard time getting subscriptions? You're making these "if they don't do it no one will come" arguments when you're talking about companies making billions in revenue.
Member since:2005-07-06
Sorry but just because you want to group Series 30 and 40 together and 60/80/90 doesn't make it true.
It does. As for Series 30/40 it doesnt matter which OS it uses. This platform is closed (has no public API), so there is no application compatibility problem becasue there are no applications 
Nokia, however, is quite clear that they are not planning on offering a single platform. Series 60 for their mid line smart phones and Series 80 for their high end smart phones
Wrong. S60 will be the future unified platform for all Nokia smartphones. Series 90 features (touchscreen support) already get subsumed into S60 and in the S60v3 Feature Pack 3 the S80-like HVGA resolution support was introduced. That means S60 communicators are also on the horizon.
Are all of you living in some alternate universe where carriers are having a hard time getting subscriptions?
Without availability of common smartphone platforms (S60, WM and PalmOS) they definitely would have a hard time getting subscriptions.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.""And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Nokia, by itself, has more than that many GSM models and they run on at least 5 different operating systems (two regular cell phone systems, Series 30, Series 60 and their Linux devices).
Get your facts. Nokia only use 2 OSes on their phones: Series 30/40 platform which is based on a propietary embedded os and Series 60/80/90 platform which share the same Symbian OS core and base UI classes. Nokia doesnt use Linux on phones.
Cell phone providers are perfectly happy making things difficult for developers and developers are perfectly happy having things be difficult as long as they can continue charging 10x more than what a PC developer would be able to charge for an app. The fact that users are inconvienced is irrelevant.
This fact mean less sales, so carriers and developers are definitely not happy with it.