[kwlug-disc] Linux is lagging behind

[John Van Ostrand]

----- "Insurance Squared Inc." <gcooke at insurancesquared.com> wrote:

> Well, I have a hard time seeing through my fully tinfoil covered head
> when it comes to Google. But in any event, having a monolithic
> corporation release 'linux' on what is basically proprietary hardware
> is exactly the problem.

The Open Handset Alliance says that Android is an open design. I don't know exactly what that means, but it suggests available for many manufacturers to use. If this, proprietary or not, becomes a defacto standard it will be hacked.

OpenMoko is the early open hardware design, but it's failed to penetrate the market. Its proponents see a future. I'd like to think there is too.

> What we don't have are two things:
> 1) phones that allow me to install my choice of OS

As long as your choice of O/S is one that is supported. Henry Ford might have said: "you can have any O/S on your android phone as long as it's android.".

> 2) a choice of OS flavours, created by the linux community - not
> Google.

Give it time we'll see others.

> I can't install mandriva linux, or ubuntu, or puppy linux, or so on
> and on. On the desktop and the server we have the choice of linux OS's
> that are driven by the community. That's entirely different than what
> we have from Google.

We might have said that when the Apple computers came out, or the IBM PC. It's pretty early I think we will see them come.

> I think the Linux development community really needs to spearhead
> something, though how that would be done in conjunction with mobile
> hardware is beyond me. The mobile OS is coming on strong, and it can
> still morph into something ipad like as well - and again the linux
> community is behind the times. It should be creating this, not
> reacting.

It really sounds like you'd like OpenMoko? You really should go to the Ontario GNU Linux Fest more often. The OpenMoko talk of 2007 would have interested you. I think we had Ian Darwin back in 2008 too.

-- 
John Van Ostrand 
CTO, co-CEO 
Net Direct Inc. 
564 Weber St. N. Unit 12, Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6 
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