Linux is coming on mobile devices

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lonifasiko
  • Start date Start date
Coming? Linus has been around for quite some time, even on mobile devices.
It's not a replacement for the CF at all. It's an OS, not a framework or
library that runs under another OS. So you might get a PDA running Linux as
the OS as a replacement for a CE-based PDA. Of course they'll have to get
market share, so they start out behind CE, Paln and Symbian already. CE
licenses start at $3 and you get DRM, Linux will reuire purchasing licenses
for DRM and decoders, so it's likely to cost more. Linux is very viable in
the embedded space, but in PDAs I just don't see it. The barriers are
really high.

-Chris
 
Sure, Mono could be ported down. It would be a large undertaking, and a
much smaller market than the desktop, so whether it will or not is
questionable. It's all about time and value. It would be interesting, no
doubt.

-Chris
 
I know Linux would be the OS of the mobile device, but I understood
from the link I gave you that Access Linux Platform would be a kind of
CF for Linux, that is, a set of libraries wrapping main functionality
of Linux OS for mobile devices that would let programmers play in this
different environment.

Perhaps I did not understand correctly the article.

Thanks anyway.
 
Linux platform in discussion here is actually related to Palm OS, the
good old OS for PDAs. Palmsource creator of Palm OS changed its
strategy and decided to make its future version of Palm OS some kind of
wrapper on Linux. They acquired China Mobile Soft a leading chinise
mobile firm, which was already providing Linux based mobile solutions.

Later palmsource was acquired by Access more famous for its award
winning mobile browser called NetFront. ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP) is
basically a combination of palm and Linux.

Standalone linux for mobile devices was already around as Chris pointed
out.

Simputer is an interesting device which may not be famous outside
India, but its a Linux based PDA, which is being positioned as low cost
PC here in India.

Here are a few links for Simputer:
http://www.ncoretech.com/simputer/
http://www.amidasimputer.com/

Returning back to our original discussion ALP is a new linux based
platform and I very much believe that Palm was loosing out in the
mobile race to WinCE platform so it decided to join hands with Linux,
the only other OS giving some kind of resistance to Windows.

Lonifasiko, you are right about ALP being somekind of wrapper, yes its
Palm being wrapped on Linux :-), so its programming is going to be a
lot different than programming for CF.

Bottomline is ALP is a combination of palm and linux and it remains to
be seen if it becomes as popular as palm once was. I doubt that BTW.
Lets wait and watch.

Cheers!!

Sachin Palewar

Palewar Techno Solutions
Pocket PC & Mobile Software Development
Nagpur, India
www.palewar.com
 
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