Deframenting the Mobile Linux Market: LiMo Foundation
Rarely do I post about news that fall under two (2) topic categories on this blog. But, today is one of those rare moments. Again after the usual daily dose of personal, tech and political news updates, I bump into the formal announcement of the Linux Mobile Foundation. This foundation was annouced a few months back but was kept ultra-secret. It is about time it stepped out of the dark.
Six of the world’s largest telecommunications companies have officially launched a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a common mobile Linux software platform. Founded by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone, the LiMo Foundation is inviting membership and participation from application and middleware developers.
This is a good step in the right “Linux” direction as it hopes to defragment the mobile Linux market today which is riddled with many different and incompatible Linux systems. The only common component in the market today is the kernel. This foundation hopes to go beyond the kernel and into a rich application interface layer. I hoped it where only a bit more open to non-members.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Here is an interesting take from InformationWeek about the merger of two (2) Open Source foundations as being part-lawyer and part-peacemaker. I believe that this is true.
On another note, the Linux Mobile Foundation looks like the same thing too. Part-lawyer. Part-peacemaker. Most of the documents released to the public are not necessarily easy to understand for the regular Juan on the street with its intense legalese. Also an important part of objectives of this foundation in the Patent Pact (Patent Pool). There seems to be a growth in the number of Linux foundations being lawyer and peacemaker in the market today.