[ILUG] Android gone Free

[Colm Buckley]

On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 1:48 PM, Michael Watterson <watty at eircom.net> wrote:

> John P. Looney wrote:
>
>> On
>>
>>  Ah, see that's where you are confused. The point of Android isn't to
>> 'fiddle with interesting harware and linux'. It's to use Linux to create the
>> best damn phone anyone can get, price no object. And the Android guys really
>> think that the way to do that is by opening the source so people can add to
>> it; by writing end-user apps, tweaking the OS to do better battery life,
>> writing an app to match mobile-phone mast data with GPS coordinates and
>> uploading
>>
>> John
>>
>>  Indeed Android is NOT about *"Linux"* at all really. That is a means to
> an  end. It's about a Phone Platform that Google controls. Google/carrier
>  like Apple iPhone decides what apps can go on it and if the apps stop
> working.
>
> Price is an object too.
>
> Just because something uses Linux and is Open Source does not mean it is
> for an Open Platform, or will be the best or even a good idea.  I've never
> trusted Advertising Agencies and  at the  end of the  day  Google is  not a
>  Sugar  Daddy  for Linux  but is  a  Commercial Company that is intent on
> selling Advertising Space.


Do you take milk with your crazy?

Seriously, is any of this actually founded in fact, or is it all just
conspiracy theory?  I honestly can't tell what it is that you're trying to
argue here.

Colm



> Maybe some day there will be a decent Open phone running Open Source that
> does not need jailbroken for you to load your own version of Firmware, but I
> don't see, and G1 confirms it, that Android is it.  Obviously Google
> generates a big a reality distortion field as Steve Jobs if you think
> Android is really about promoting Open Source and Linux, just because the
> Source SW is open and is based on Linux. Have a look at Pandora  to see a
>  HW that is really about  using Linux and  being Open on HW and SW.
>
> The point of  a PC is you can load any OS you like... BSD, Linux, OS/2,
> Minix, XP.. Not so easily OSX, but that is the OS issue, not the HW. It's an
> open Platform that can run Open Source, or Not.
>
> An Android phone I don't beleive was ever intended to be an Open Platform
> (HW), though using Open Source SW. Apart from anything else, the phone
> carriers control the phone Network access 100% and don't much like Open
> Hardware. They don't much like Nokia these days. BTW it's trivial to install
> your own native Symbian app on a Nokia (or other Symbian phone). It only
> needs Nokia Signage to distribute it and unlike Apple and Google they don't
> turn off apps or block distribute of apps that conflict with their own
> commercial goals.
>
> Not that I'm a fan of Symbian. But I have at least used Symbian SDK, WinCE
> SDK, Done Linux desktop and embedded development, Windows NT desktop, and
> other embedded development. I've put custom Linux SW on Linksys routers that
> were "protected" and failed to "jailbreak" some funky specialist Dlink and
> Netgear ones even though I had the Linux Source.
>
> I've got an ARM based touch screen VOIP PDA I built with Debian on it and
> internal PCMCIA 4G Mobile Modem. We looked at putting Android on it, but
> frankly it would have been a pointless exercise.
>
> After a lot of research over some years and playing with high End Nokia,
> WinMo and iPhone I conclude that really a phone sized gadget only much works
> well as a phone. To really browse, email, GPS etc, you need either 800x480
> screen and magnifing glass or a Nokia 810 sized gadget (Maemo version of
> Linux, not Symbain)  with 4.3" screen.  I have an  ARM dev system with
> similar chip to iPhone and it has 4.8" 800x480 touchscreen. If the top and
> bottom edge of bezel was small, you can do a pocket size gadget with it. We
> used JTAG to replace the WinMO in Flash with a cut down Debian.
>
> The iPhone/ N95/HTC Touch/Android G1 is a pretty niche market and it will
> come under pressure from things like new Archos 5 (internal 3G/HSDPA and
> upto 250Gbytes)  in January.  Most people are happy with a Phone/Music
> player with maybe optional snaps. Frankly the screen is too small even on an
> iPhone for decent Video, GPS, eBooks, email, documents and Web Browsing
> other than the most casual kind.
>
> I'd get more excited about a Jailbreak on Archos 605 (Linux) than on a
> T-Mobile G1 (Linux)



-- 
Colm Buckley / colm at tuatha.org / +353 87 2469146