Symbian Foundation Takes First Step In Open Sourcing Mobile OS 88
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ScuttleMonkey
from the many-options-to-play-with dept.
from the many-options-to-play-with dept.
readthemall writes to let us know that the Symbian Foundation has released the first of several packages in their plan to open source the entire Symbian mobile OS. "On Wednesday, Symbian made available its first package covered by the EPL, the OS Security Package, according to Symbian developer Craig Heath. 'The OS Security Package source code is now available under the EPL, and it is the very first package to be officially moved from the closed Symbian Foundation License (SFL) to... the EPL,' Heath wrote in a blog post. Heath said the EPL would allow the security package to bypass export regulations in the UK, where the Symbian code is legally based."
Re:Decline of Windows Mobile? (Score:1, Interesting)
Because life is more interesting when you have to reboot your phone daily.
Today's magic word is "annoys"
Re:Decline of Windows Mobile? (Score:1, Interesting)
Because Windows Mobile has a large number of available applications that can be downloaded or installed for free. It also has a really nice development environment in Visual Studio.
Symbian vs. Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Is that even true? If not, we should take it up on the discussion page.
Re:Right (Score:3, Interesting)
Once again, I'm not saying that Nokia is in trouble: with their apparent migration towards Linux + Qt, they will be fine. I'm saying that open sourcing Symbian isn't likely to save it, and probably isn't even intended to.
Re:Right (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually Nokia used to use careful phrases like "Series 60 : Optimised for Symbian", implying that S60 could potentially run on other OSs.
Re:Right (Score:1, Interesting)
Their developer share is quite disproportionate, though. :(
One can always hope... I do wish Nokia would drop Symbian, nuke large parts of the signing process with fire, make a decent app store, and start making Linux phones with that excellent GUI of theirs (Yes, really. IMO they make the most power user-friendly smart phones out there, programming excepted.) Won't happen in a million years, though.
Re:get rid of symbian signed.. (Score:2, Interesting)
They still want to be like Apple.
And it is worth big money to them to be able to absolutely control what can be installed on "your" phone.
Re:Symbian has 49.5% ww smartphone market share (Score:3, Interesting)
When could I expect to run a custom firmware image on the Nokia N73, which runs S60 v3?
Re:Decline of Windows Mobile? (Score:1, Interesting)
Huge failure ?
Last year there were over 200 million phones running Symbian OS and this will continue to grow now that manufacturers have much more flexibility over the way they use Symbian. The same cannot be said for Windows Mobile, poor customization and device makers just don't trust Microsoft.
iPhoneOS won't be licensed and will remain a very profitable niche (albeit a large one) market for Apple.
Android is more interesting, my guess is that in five years time Android will look like Symbian and Symbian will look like Android e.g. I wouldn't be surprised to see Android running Qt.
The big battle will be over the services delivered on the phone and whilst Google has a massive headstart there they will face the same problem as Microsoft with WM, no-one is going to let them control the entire market.
Re:Decline of Windows Mobile? (Score:1, Interesting)
I have been a Nokia guy since I got my first mobile 8 years ago. I have been using Symbian based phones for years. I have just got a HTC Magic Android phone and there is no way I am going back to Symbian ever. The sheer amount of apps for it and the openness to tweeking just destroys Symbian even if Android can't do proper OBEX file transfer.
Re:Decline of Windows Mobile? (Score:3, Interesting)
What was great about Windows Mobile before? That you could get cracked more easily? That it ate all the power and your battery died after 2 hours? Or that it was more expensive and buggy? ^^