Comments on: Too many platforms?

By: Links 21/05/2009: New GNOME, IBM Promotes Desktop GNU/Linux | Boycott Novell

Fri, 22 May 2009 03:19:16 +0000

[...] Too many platforms? So where is the massive diversity in mobile platforms? Right now, there is Android in smartphones, LiMo targeting smartphones, Maemo in personal internet tablets and Moblin on netbooks. And except for Android, they are all leveraging the work being done by projects like GNOME, rather than re-inventing the wheel. This is not fragmentation, it is adaptability. It is the basic system being tailored to very specific use-cases by groups who decide to use an existing code base rather than starting from scratch. It is, in a word, what rocks about Linux and free software in general. [...]

By: Dave Neary

Dave Neary — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:11:18 +0000

@Foo: I didn’t – Fabrizio didn’t mention it, so I didn’t. At this stage, it looks like OpenMoko is pretty marginal as an “industry” platform.

@Joseph: No, LiMo isn’t vaporware. It’s a collection of software, some of which (30 to 40 percent) is free software, the rest of which is cross-licenced among LiMo members.

@bratarsch: The difference between FreeSmartphone.org and oFono as I understand it is like the difference between Gstreamer and ALSA. Yes, they can both be used to get the same result, but they’re not at the same level of abstraction.

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:34:46 +0000

You should have put one of the last sentences of your post in bold:

“And except for Android, they are all leveraging the work being done” … “rather than re-inventing the wheel.”

By: foo

foo — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:11:45 +0000

You forgot about the OpenMoko mobile platforms.

By: Joseph Charpak

Joseph Charpak — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:07:30 +0000

Isn’t LiMo still vaporware at this point? If so, that’s even one fewer in the list.

By: bratarsch

bratarsch — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:31:23 +0000

This is Harald Welte’s take on this:

http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2009/05/12/#20090512-ophono_fso

So, yes, they actually *are* reinventing the weel here.