I think any news of this kind is good. Mobile devices have so many cool and liberating possibilities, but one thing preventing them from being realized is the heavy control over usage and applications from both the phone vendors and cell phone carriers. For example cell phone providers will turn certain features OFF, or users of capable phones have to try to hack them to bring out their potential (e.g. see http://motorolafans.com or http://handhelds.org ).
Palm was the first really popular mobile OS, capable and standard enough to attract a zillion developers and users. A lot of apps developed for versions 3.5+ are still used by people every day.
Now that people need something better technologically, Linux is a pretty exciting choice as a basis... because of the huge enthusiasm of the Linux development community. If compatibility with old Palm apps helps mobile Linux compete with Microsoft, I'm all for it.
The real capabilities of mobile devices aren't really gonna be realized unless some relatively open and noncommercial standards develop -- both for hardware and software.
Me, I'm holding out for a Linux treo with gsm, wifi, grafiti, and zinf. :]
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I think any news of this kind is good. Mobile devices have so many cool and liberating possibilities, but one thing preventing them from being realized is the heavy control over usage and applications from both the phone vendors and cell phone carriers. For example cell phone providers will turn certain features OFF, or users of capable phones have to try to hack them to bring out their potential (e.g. see http://motorolafans.com or http://handhelds.org ).
Palm was the first really popular mobile OS, capable and standard enough to attract a zillion developers and users. A lot of apps developed for versions 3.5+ are still used by people every day.
Now that people need something better technologically, Linux is a pretty exciting choice as a basis... because of the huge enthusiasm of the Linux development community. If compatibility with old Palm apps helps mobile Linux compete with Microsoft, I'm all for it.
The real capabilities of mobile devices aren't really gonna be realized unless some relatively open and noncommercial standards develop -- both for hardware and software.
Me, I'm holding out for a Linux treo with gsm, wifi, grafiti, and zinf. :]