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    New Mobile Linux Association FormsPosted By: Ryan on Thursday, June 15, 2006 11:46:27 AM
A new effort to bring together companies on a mobile Linux agenda has been announced today by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone. The group announced their intent to establish a open Linux-based software platform for mobile devices.
The founding companies’ objective is to realize the development of the platform based on the contributions of all interested stakeholders through an open and transparent process. Focusing primarily on the joint development and marketing of an API specification, architecture, supporting source code-based reference implementation components and tools, the foundation intends to leverage the benefits of community-based and proprietary development. Once established, the foundation aims to provide an API specification, architecture, references to open source code, new source code-based reference implementation components (to be developed and committed by foundation members) and specifications for referenced third party software. The foundation also plans to provide a test suite to assess and demonstrate product conformance to the platform specification. While the initial foundation members plan to be primarily responsible for delivering the development of the first reference implementation of the mobile operating platform, they will also actively encourage membership participation of other companies committed to its development. This group notably leaves out ACCESS and PalmSource. PalmSource is a founding member of the Linux Phone Standard Forum (LIPS) as well as the OSDL's Mobile Linux Initiative. MLI focuses on industry and open source developer resources on Linux-based operating system technical challenges and also works to foster development of applications for Linux-based mobile devices.
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34 total comments The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PIC is not responsible for them in any way. login or register for free in order to post comments.  RE: Motorola, Docomo, et al but not PALM?AdamaDBrown @ 6/15/2006 2:40:36 PM #
Yes, DoCoMo is the same one that owns something like 15 or 20 percent of Access. And I'd have to assume that Palm isn't involved in this. RE: Motorola, Docomo, et al but not PALM?
DoCoMo has about 11.66% of ACCESS stock... http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8305/ntt-docomo-increases-stake-in-access/ RE: Motorola, Docomo, et al but not PALM?AdamaDBrown @ 6/15/2006 5:41:32 PM #
Hm, I had some vague recollection that they had had 11% before the last time they increased their holdings. Guess I was mistaken.
 Open Software FoundationPenguinPowered @ 6/15/2006 6:19:58 PM #
One is reminded of the founding of OSF, in the face of IEEE POSIX and the Sun/AT&T SVR4 alliance. The result of that was to accelerate the doom of Unix in the market place. Looks like ALP will be out just in time to see the doom of Linux in the telephony space. New mobile Linux association to be called B.A.B.E.L.The_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/15/2006 10:05:04 PM #
"What we got here is... failure to communicate."
R.I.P. RE: Open Software FoundationFoo Fighter @ 6/16/2006 9:04:22 AM #
Fragmentation in the Linux ecosystem? No, that could never happen. Why, just look at the cohesiveness and unity that permeates within the desktop Linux distributions. There are only like three distros out there, right?
By the way, Ars has a good post on this story here… http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060615-7070.html
a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/20/2006 4:01:41 AM #
I'm surprised no one has mentioned http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2549276490.html yet. Very aggressive schedule, these people have.
Forked tongue, Marty speaks with.The_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/20/2006 4:25:44 PM #
yet. Very aggressive schedule, these people have. Thanks for sharing, Yoda. TVoR (Sith Lord) P.S. Lord Vader kicked your sorry, green little a$$. RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Marty wrote: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP Them and practically everybody else that's building phone platforms these days. But just how "head to head" the competition will be is a matter of some doubt. It doesn't look like their "smartphone" platform will run native 3rd party applications, for example--just Java and Flash. Which makes it something considerably less smart than even Nokia's S60 platform. Like most of the other Linux phone shops out there, a la Mobile seems to be going after mass-market feature phones rather than the higher end handsets that ACCESS/PalmSource is presumably targetting. RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/20/2006 8:00:27 PM #
I dunno about that. These guys: http://peripherals.engadget.com/2006/06/20/t-mobile-sidekick-3-gets-official/ only run Java, and I hear they run native 3rd party aps.
RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
How do you know so much about this "Sidekick" device, Marty? I guess you could meaningfully talk about systems like Sidekick, SavaJe, and (to a lesser extent) BlackBerry running "native" 3rd party applications in the sense that the whole system is running in a VM with the application. It's not a Java MIDP VM running in a cramped little sandbox that's slapped on top of Linux; you have Java APIs that give access to platform specific features. This phone doesn't show any sign of having such an architecture. From what I can see it's not remotely in the same class of Palm OS, Windows Mobile, UIQ or even S60.
RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/20/2006 10:12:44 PM #
Oh, I agree. I think that a ala mobile has put together a platform targeted at the middle tier, as you suggest, and don't really expect any serious third-party application development for it. That is pretty consistent with what the MVNOs seem to want though. I just mentioned the Sidekick because it's a Java phone that by coincidence was launched today. ;) Well that, and I work for Danger now. ;) (So I can't say anything about the phone, other than to point people at press releases.)
RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Good for you Marty. Tell me, when is Danger porting to Win CE ;) Surur RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Funny how all the porting seems to be going in the other direction :-p http://advogato.org/article/866.html http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/Loox400series http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HpIpaqH4100 http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HpIpaqH5400 http://handhelds.org/projects/jornada56x.html etc. etc.... RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Ah the grass roots... so grubby... Anyway, there was quite a bit oif excitement when some-one rumnoured the next sidekick would be wm, and also a lot of disappointment when it was revealed this was not the case. The sidekick is obviously a capable device. About the only thing a smartphone OS can provide these days is a platform. There is no other differentiating feature. Having the Sidekick be part of an open platform is probably not in Dangers plans. One can however dream. Funnily enough this is exactly the problem with mobile Linux. They are already shipping on millions of phones, but they are too fragmented to be a platform. This is obviously what these standards organizations seek to address, but you know what they say about standards. The nice thing is that there are so many to chose from. Thats mobile Linux standards organizations of course. Surur RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
The nice thing is that there are so many to chose from. Thats mobile Linux standards organizations of course. It is indeed a sad state of affairs. I see the announcement referred to in the OP as emblematic of the problem, not the hope for a solution to the fragmentation problem. The only good news you can really extract from it (if you try really hard) is that the first company that comes out with a really complete Linux smartphone OS might be able to set some kind of defacto standards while the consortia quibble over what the "real" standards will be. RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Surer wrote: Having the Sidekick be part of an open platform is probably not in Danger's plans. It's an open platform AFAIK. Java API and all that (not just MIDP). You probably have to sell your 3rd party apps through Danger and maybe get them certified and all. Haven't really looked into it. RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/21/2006 7:05:48 PM #
Good for you Marty. Tell me, when is Danger porting to Win CE ;) My crsytal ball is mentioning something about ice ages in warm regions as prerequisites. RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPThe_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/21/2006 10:01:37 PM #
Funny how all the porting seems to be going in the other direction :-p http://advogato.org/article/866.html http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/Loox400series http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HpIpaqH4100 http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/HpIpaqH5400 http://handhelds.org/projects/jornada56x.html etc. etc.... http://www.hacksrus.com/~mike/lince/lince-mips.htm Hobby coders do not a viable platform make. >>>Good for you Marty. Tell me, when is Danger porting to Win CE ;) My crsytal ball is mentioning something about ice ages in warm regions as prerequisites. Funny how people used to say the same thing about a Palm devicw running a Windows OS (and last I checked, this was already available). RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/21/2006 10:41:18 PM #
I should have known I couldn't fool you, Skippy. I guess the jig is up and I may as well admit that Danger hired me, based on my long productive association Microsoft operating systems, to replace DangerOS with Windows Vista for Telephony. We're on schedule, and will release shortly after Vista Service Pack 3.
RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
TVoR wrote: Hobby coders do not a viable platform make. Tell that to Linus Torvalds.
RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Marty, maybe someday, if not today :) Surur Edumacating Beersy.The_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/22/2006 10:25:40 PM #
I guess the jig is up and I may as well admit that Danger hired me, based on my long productive association Microsoft operating systems, to replace DangerOS with Windows Vista for Telephony. We're on schedule, and will release shortly after Vista Service Pack 3. Excellent! It's all going according to plan. Bwahahaha! By the way, Marty can you list how many changes of direction PalmSource took with its OS in the past 2 years? In case you haven't figured it out yet, Danger is spent, Bubba. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Resistance is futile. TVoR wrote: Tell that to Linus Torvalds. 1) Linux is not a viable platform for desktop users that are not computer geeks. 2) How many tens of MILLIONS of $$$ have big companies like IBM spent supporting development of Linux? Do you consider IBM to be a group of hobby coders? When PalmSource gave code to the Linux developers, do you consider their contribution to have been an example of hobby coding? Have a seat, Bubba. Your ignorance is showing (again). TVoR RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALP
Pull your head out of your *ss, Missy, it's a joke. You think I'm arguing that some guys who stay up late to get GPE running on their old iPAQ are taking down Microsoft? But as long as you're going to be all clueless and pretend like there's an argument, who said anything about Linux being a viable desktop platform (isn't this PalmInfocenter)? Or that this hobbyist OS hasn't taken off because of sizable investments by commercial vendors (including PalmSource, CMS, and ACCESS)? RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/23/2006 8:43:39 PM #
By the way, Marty can you list how many changes of direction PalmSource took with its OS in the past 2 years? Since i haven't been there for the last 7 months, no. In the time I was there: 1. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Danger is spent. Why try to reinvent the wheel? What wheel? Who's reinventing any wheel? We're busily switching to WinCE, just as you predicted. (Actually, we're merging Windows/CE, Windows/ME, and Windows/NT into the new and improved Windows/CEMENT; but I'm not supposed to tell anyone that.) Marty & Beersie: the twin towers of comedy.The_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/23/2006 11:46:32 PM #
You guys are the greatest. No. Really. RE: a la mobile competes head to head with ALPPenguinPowered @ 6/24/2006 1:58:52 PM #
You guys are the greatest. No. Really. Thank you. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.
Vegas, Baby! Vegas!The_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/24/2006 3:28:11 PM #
Remember, Marty: what happens in Vegas STAYS in Vegas.
Dead men tell no tales. Have a nice day, Sweetie. TVoR
we-com industrye_tellurian @ 6/22/2006 9:04:01 PM #
What are your thoughts on additional connectivity choices? Linux seems a logical choice for interaction with e-knarr. E-T e-tellurian completing the e-com circle with a people driven we-com solution RE: we-com industry
You're not from around here, are you?
RE: we-com industrye_tellurian @ 6/28/2006 2:45:04 PM #
Please define your "around here"? E-T completing the e-com circle with a people driven we-com solution RE: we-com industry
Third planet from the Sun. "We-com" and "eknarr" don't seem to exist on our World Wide Web (outside of your posts on PalmInfocenter) so I'm assuming they must be from some other world's wide web. :-) David Beers Pikesoft Mobile Computing Software Everywhere blog www.pikesoft.com/blog RE: we-com industry
Is E-T a Turing Test?
Tim I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight. Treo 270 ---> Treo 650
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Yet another Linux group. Isn't Docomo the big holder in Access or am I confused again?
And where's PALM? Not big enough to mention though they're part of it, too? Or not part of it?