Is Motorola a true champion of Linux/OS?

[yekibud]

Is Motorola really the best company supporting OS at this time, or did they just use Linux it because it was free? Are Motorola phones really the best platform for Open Source development? Or is it just slightly open so you can do a little hacking? Is the new Motorola Linux platform going to be more open? Or should I wait for OpenMoko to become more available/affordable, or for Android to take off? Or is Nokia a truly more Linux friendly company because they actually have real OS linux running on some of their hand-helds?

Thanks in advance for your learned opinions.

[prasannars]

Yes, Motorola is really best company supporting Linux OS. Motorola is the firt company o introduce Linux OS to mobile devics. Motorola is the largest producer and seller o Linux based phons. Till now 10 million Linux phones are being sold by Motorola. World's first Linux OS mobile was MOTOCONTROL A760. Now Motorola worked on Linux OS and came up with a new Linux platform called MOTOMAGX which has nearly 200 new fatures. Among them few are here: Supports HSDPA, Hi Sped USB (480 MB/sec), can handle third party softwares and lots more.

[yekibud]

Hi, Prasanna. Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure you got the emphasis of my post - I was mostly wondering if Motorola was a real champion of _Open Source_ development on the Linux platform.

I don't doubt that they were the first to put a modified Linux _Operating System_ on their phones and are selling a lot of them - but that doesn't mean that they care at all about Open Source development or have any intention of making it easier for people to modify/improve the software on their phones.

So, if I want to, for example, change what happens when a button is pressed and held, is Motorola ever going to open up their code enough to let me do that? Or is Open Moko or Android a better solution for this?

[swifty]

Or is Open Moko or Android a better solution for this?

Openmoko is the one and only Opensource mobile phone environment.
At the moment Android in not more open than Motorola

btw.
have a look at Main Page - FreeSmartphoneWiki

[yekibud]

I guess I'll have to wait till I've got a little more cash and free-time so I can buy and play with an OpenMoko phone, then.

Thanks for the FreeSmartPhone link - seems like a pretty bare bones project. Read several pages on the wiki but still couldn't figure out if they had any concrete plans for getting their platform on a device any time soon.

[swifty]

Read several pages on the wiki but still couldn't figure out if they had any concrete plans for getting their platform on a device any time soon.

here are images for the NEO:
Index of /framework/milestone1
Tutorials/development env - FreeSmartphoneWiki
screenshots from A780:
Michael Lauer - Freelancer / FSO meets EZX

[yekibud]

Ah - nice. So do you know if FreeSmartphone is primarily what people are using to get OpenMoko running as a basic "feature phone" with the ability to make/receive calls? Looks like you also flashed the A780 and got it running on that? Also connecting to a GSM service provider? What do you think the cheapest compatible platform would be? Maybe an old motorola on Ebay, or something?

Thanks!

[yekibud]

Oh - one more thing - if you've got FreeSmartphone running on your A780, what's the point of putting it on an OpenMoko? Is it just that you have to hack/reverse engineer for each hardware platform, and OpenMoko is completely open so it will be easier to standardize FreeSmartphone against? Would there be any point hacking/ developing apps for FreeSmartphone if it's on a non-open HW platform, then? Or should I wait till I can put it where it belongs - on a truly open HW platform?

[swifty]

>So do you know if FreeSmartphone is primarily what people are using to get
>OpenMoko running as a basic "feature phone" with the ability to make/receive calls?
to know more about FreeSmartPhone and Openmoko goto:
Michael Lauer - Freelancer / GTK, ASU, FSO? TMTLA!

>Looks like you also flashed the A780 and got it running on that?
not me, it was DR. Michael Lauer.

>Also connecting to a GSM service provider?
i think yes!

>What do you think the cheapest compatible platform would be?
>Maybe an old motorola on Ebay, or something?
the A780/E680i is the most supported at the moment.

[swifty]

Oh - one more thing - if you've got FreeSmartphone running on your A780, what's the point of putting it on an OpenMoko? Is it just that you have to hack/reverse engineer for each hardware platform, and OpenMoko is completely open so it will be easier to standardize FreeSmartphone against? Would there be any point hacking/ developing apps for FreeSmartphone if it's on a non-open HW platform, then? Or should I wait till I can put it where it belongs - on a truly open HW platform?

it is about the possiblitys one have
not useful, but it makes fun to see what i can do with the hardware.
(and i learn a lot about Linux)

think of a real Debian installation on NEO1973.