LiMo foundation

[Richi Plana]

On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 16:02 -0500, Anthony Taylor wrote:
> Well, now. This is interesting:
> 
> http://www.limofoundation.org/sf/sfmain/do/home

I would like to know whether OpenMoko intends to meander its way towards
following one of the eventual standards. Personally, I'd like to see a
common platform that developers can develop to. When an ecosystem like
this is starting out, I don't think it's such a good idea to have more
than 1 or 2 choices. It makes it easier for well-established companies
with clout (WinCE? Symbian?) to stomp out competition if they're all
small and busy with in-fighting. Just browse down to the bottom of this
article: http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2923387573.html ... 'Mobile
Linux "standards" -- an embarrassment of niches?'

I was just browsing through Planet Gnome a few days ago when someone
asked why the Neo1973 wasn't using Maemo ... another fine and open
application / development platform. As a developer and user, I find the
scattered, non-cooperative efforts towards developing embedded Linux
devices, in general, and Linux-based phones, specifically, to be
appalling.

Don't get me wrong. I've already decided to contribute my time and
effort towards developing for OpenMoko because it's the first
Linux-based cellphone to offer an open development platform and is cheap
enough that I can afford it (the ImCoSys doesn't count 'cause I can't
even buy the blasted thing). But it saddens me to think of how the same
apps get written over and over again just because they're on different
platforms (even though the underlying kernel is still Linux) and none of
these efforts go towards helping each other much.
--

Richi