4 ms·
It's great to have more open hardware. Even more, we need open OS's for mobile. There are no serious options beyond what the the market leader, Google, generou
by hackuser 11y ago
It's great to have more open hardware.
Even more, we need open OS's for mobile. There are no serious options beyond what the the market leader, Google, generously releases the code for: From what I can tell, almost all the 'custom ROMs' for Android phones are 99% AOSP [1] and do little to differentiate themselves from Android; by comparison, think of how different Linux is from Windows and MacOS. We need the BSDs, Linux distrbutions, GNUs, etc. for mobile.
[1] Android Open Source Project, the free/open source version of Android that Google generously releases for devs to hack on. (Maybe it would be better for the open source world if they had to develop their own.)
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EDIT: I might as well provide visibility to a few projects, though I know little about them; some might be defunct or dormant, for example. If someone can fill in details and gaps, it would help me (and others who are interested, I imagine) make sense of what's out there. Right now, I hardly know where to start.
* OpenPhoenux (http://openphoenux.org/ http://openphoenux.org/): Several open hardware projects compatible with multiple OSes (imagine that - hardware on which you can install different OSes!), including the Neo900 discussed below and the GTA04.
* OpenMoko (http://openmoko.org http://openmoko.org): "a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. Openmoko was formerly associated with Openmoko Inc, but is nowadays simply a gathering of people with the shared goal of "Free The Phone"."
* Jolla and Sailfish OS (https://jolla.com https://jolla.com): An open system thhat looks commercially designed. Decended from Meego?
* Meego and its many decendents: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Mer_and_mobile_operating_systems.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Mer_and_...
* SHR (http://shr-project.org/ http://shr-project.org/): GNU/Linux based OS
* QTMoko (http://qtmoko.sourceforge.net/ http://qtmoko.sourceforge.net/): "debian distribution for Openmoko Freerunner and Goldelico's GTA04 phone. Phone and user interface is based on QT Extendeded formerly known as Qtopia" defunct?
- gue5t 11y agoThe folks at neo900.org and the leftover enthusiasts and hackers at maemo.org are working on building open-source replacements for the proprietary bits (pulseaudio codecs, a couple drivers, various middleware bits) from Maemo. They'd appreciate any help they can get from people who understand relevant topics or have time to learn. Eventually it should be possible to run fully open-source code (and an upstream kernel!) on an N900 or Neo900 and also make and receive telephone calls via oFono. I agree completely that AOSP is a joke of an "open source" project and that it engenders complacency while not providing the benefits a truly open OS would.
- mmastrac 11y agoThe long tail of mobile OSes doesn't exist. Just look at the comments on any FirefoxOS thread -- lots of voices saying "why bother" since the top two are so heavily entrenched and the #3 is barely moving the needle. We do have alternatives, but nobody is using them.
- hackuser 11y ago> Just look at the comments on any FirefoxOS thread -- lots of voices saying "why bother" since the top two are so heavily entrenched I've noticed that too. Imagine if Torvalds, GNU, or the Mozilla team (to name just a few) responded that way. However, it's possible that they faced just as many naysayers.
- mmastrac 11y agoExactly. The same people who balk at running alternative OSes on a phone would be running Linux Mint on the desktop. I'd love to see more open competition on mobile, but it's a tough market to crack.
- gue5t 11y agoFxOS uses an Android kernel: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Platform/Gonk https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...
- skykooler 11y agoSailfish OS is a decent alternative - has been ported to several different phones, uses a modern software stack (Qt/C++/Python 3/Wayland) and is decently popular in some regions (the Jolla phone outsold the iPhone 5c when both were released around the same time). Unfortunately, Jolla's future is looking rather uncertain now.