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I'd rather Nokia actually be the only truly open mobile platform out there. No, Android isn't sufficiently open. It's my phone, at a minimum I should be able t

I'd rather Nokia actually be the only truly open mobile platform out there. No, Android isn't sufficiently open. It's my phone, at a minimum I should be able to pull all my own data off it in any form I choose.

wmf 16y ago
IMO a GNU/free fork of Android would still be a better platform than MeeGo or Symbian, and would be cheaper to develop.
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  Yes, and you could put QT on top of it!
  - limmeau 16y ago
    A C++ framework on top of a mobile OS in which most interesting things happen in the Dalvik VM? What for?
    - justincormack 16y ago
      I think the hacker expectation is that a free open mobile OS would not be tied to a single programming environment and making it easy to port the mass of existing qt code would be useful.
    - blub 16y ago
      Most interesting things including lawsuits. If things turn sour with Dalvik, Qt already runs on Android.
- blub 16y ago
  There is no such thing as a free Android, except if you tear the whole Java user space away. And I'm REALLY curious about why you and 14 other people think that Android is such a good mobile OS. The VM is both a legal and speed liability, the Android UI is not GPU-accelerated and the entire OS is still immature (see the embarrassing bugs with the SMS or the browser security holes).
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    > There is no such thing as a free Android, except if you tear the whole Java user space away. Isn't that part BSD-licensed? > the Android UI is not GPU-accelerated It's a bit hard when you have to support more than one device, but I believe it's a matter of time. As more and more hardware gains hardware acceleration, I assume it will come (if not already in the latest 2.x and 3.x series) > the entire OS is still immature(see the embarrassing bugs with the SMS or the browser security holes) Don't confuse the OS with the programs that run on it. You don't blame Windows when SharePoint eats up all your intranet, do you?
    - blub 16y ago
      The license doesn't matter that much, it's the principles - one of them being that you don't get sued by such and such corporation if you use the code. Or Google doesn't change the terms if they lose on trial. No one has patents on C or C++ AFAIK... SMS and web browser are core mobile OS services, they're not simple programs since connectivity is very important for a mobile phone.
      - rbanffy 16y ago
        > No one has patents on C or C++ AFAIK... Oracle is not complaining Google is implementing Java in Dalvik. Oracle is complaining they are implementing things too similar to stuff Oracle has acquired patents about. http://carlodaffara.conecta.it/oraclegoogle-the-patents-and-the-implications/ http://carlodaffara.conecta.it/oraclegoogle-the-patents-and-...
  - buster 16y ago
    From a technical point of view the OS is actually the best out there, imo. It's developed from the beginning with handsets in mind and as such has quite some really nice features.
    - sudont 16y ago
      Which technical point of view? From an enterprise standpoint, where it's on par with the iPhone and behind Blackberry, or an API standpoint, where CocoaTouch has about 30 years of development lead-time?
alex_c 16y ago
The problem is that openness at the cost of user experience isn't good enough to keep a company alive. Ideally you'd get both, of course; but so far Nokia has been unable to deliver on user experience compared to iPhone and even Android.
- blub 16y ago
  Google is not delivering a truly open handset because it's in their corporate interest, not because it would detract from the user experience. I'd rather wait for one company to try to and get their UX together than wait for Google to do an 180 on their data collection policies or for Apple to tear down the walls of their garden.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
tensor 16y ago
Out of curiosity, how are you unable to pull your data off of Android?
bergie 16y ago
N900, the only phone you can own that you will really own yourself.
- regularfry 16y ago
  Which, coincidentally, can also run Android (if you really want to hack it that much).
  - bergie 16y ago
    ...or MeeGo, and I guess Ubuntu and Debian are also possible. That is one part of the phone being truly open. Here was the original announcement: http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lovers-here-comes-maemo-5/ http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lover...

wmf 16y ago

IMO a GNU/free fork of Android would still be a better platform than MeeGo or Symbian, and would be cheaper to develop.

joe_the_user 16y ago
Yes, and you could put QT on top of it!
- limmeau 16y ago
  A C++ framework on top of a mobile OS in which most interesting things happen in the Dalvik VM? What for?
  - justincormack 16y ago
    I think the hacker expectation is that a free open mobile OS would not be tied to a single programming environment and making it easy to port the mass of existing qt code would be useful.
  - blub 16y ago
    Most interesting things including lawsuits. If things turn sour with Dalvik, Qt already runs on Android.
blub 16y ago
There is no such thing as a free Android, except if you tear the whole Java user space away. And I'm REALLY curious about why you and 14 other people think that Android is such a good mobile OS. The VM is both a legal and speed liability, the Android UI is not GPU-accelerated and the entire OS is still immature (see the embarrassing bugs with the SMS or the browser security holes).
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > There is no such thing as a free Android, except if you tear the whole Java user space away. Isn't that part BSD-licensed? > the Android UI is not GPU-accelerated It's a bit hard when you have to support more than one device, but I believe it's a matter of time. As more and more hardware gains hardware acceleration, I assume it will come (if not already in the latest 2.x and 3.x series) > the entire OS is still immature(see the embarrassing bugs with the SMS or the browser security holes) Don't confuse the OS with the programs that run on it. You don't blame Windows when SharePoint eats up all your intranet, do you?
  - blub 16y ago
    The license doesn't matter that much, it's the principles - one of them being that you don't get sued by such and such corporation if you use the code. Or Google doesn't change the terms if they lose on trial. No one has patents on C or C++ AFAIK... SMS and web browser are core mobile OS services, they're not simple programs since connectivity is very important for a mobile phone.
    - rbanffy 16y ago
      > No one has patents on C or C++ AFAIK... Oracle is not complaining Google is implementing Java in Dalvik. Oracle is complaining they are implementing things too similar to stuff Oracle has acquired patents about. http://carlodaffara.conecta.it/oraclegoogle-the-patents-and-the-implications/ http://carlodaffara.conecta.it/oraclegoogle-the-patents-and-...
- buster 16y ago
  From a technical point of view the OS is actually the best out there, imo. It's developed from the beginning with handsets in mind and as such has quite some really nice features.
  - sudont 16y ago
    Which technical point of view? From an enterprise standpoint, where it's on par with the iPhone and behind Blackberry, or an API standpoint, where CocoaTouch has about 30 years of development lead-time?

alex_c 16y ago

The problem is that openness at the cost of user experience isn't good enough to keep a company alive. Ideally you'd get both, of course; but so far Nokia has been unable to deliver on user experience compared to iPhone and even Android.

blub 16y ago
Google is not delivering a truly open handset because it's in their corporate interest, not because it would detract from the user experience. I'd rather wait for one company to try to and get their UX together than wait for Google to do an 180 on their data collection policies or for Apple to tear down the walls of their garden.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

tensor 16y ago

Out of curiosity, how are you unable to pull your data off of Android?

bergie 16y ago

N900, the only phone you can own that you will really own yourself.

regularfry 16y ago
Which, coincidentally, can also run Android (if you really want to hack it that much).
- bergie 16y ago
  ...or MeeGo, and I guess Ubuntu and Debian are also possible. That is one part of the phone being truly open. Here was the original announcement: http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lovers-here-comes-maemo-5/ http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lover...