Red Hat , 3G Lab to Make 'Wireless Linux'

An Anonymous Coward writes: "U.S. software and services company Red Hat and Britain's closely held 3G Lab said on Monday they will develop a 'Linux for the wireless world' as they team up to write an operating system for Web phones." The hypothetical "cell phone running Linux" might not stay hypothetical very long.

not quite...

...according to the article, it's going to be running eCos, not Linux. eCos is another one of RH's acquisitions, and the article says that it's open source too. Can anyone comment on developing for eCos?

Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",

vx works - symbian | vx works - ecos + GUI

ok most phones run VX works from Wind (wrs)

that ericsson + MOT + Nokia + panasonic all own Symbian and ericsson. are shipping phones built on symbian it will take a bit of a blunder on symbians part

BUT

the way Symbian has to do a custom GUI for each for factor i.e. recode all UE code + libs then recode apps mean that they are not starting that far behind although they have quartz + Peal + crystal, the point is that they have to do a GUI well symbian have done this for a while and have a good lib

IF and ONLY if they present a good GUI which can integrate JAVA well then they may well be onto a winner

the whole platform is changeing and now people are looking for a good solution where JAVA and native programing with JAVA looks good and is CHEAP

good luck to them

regards

john jones

p.s. please DONT use microgui or X but use a vector based solution with Fast Java (-;

Is this really Linux?

When they say "Wireless Linux" do they mean a version of Linux kernel for the wirless, or a Linux /like/ os for wireless? They mention that it would be part of eCos sources. eCos is RedHat's embedded os, which while being open source, is not linux. eCos does support "EL/IX Level I, a Linux compatibility interface", but while it adopt the name Linux ?

http://www.redhat.com/embedded/technologies/ecos/ [redhat.com]

Story Updated...

CNet posted an updated story.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20010730/tc/red_ha t_3g_lab_design_wireless_os_1.html [yahoo.com]

It no longer suggests that this will be "Wireless Linux" and now calls it just "Wireless OS"

The companies will jointly develop an open-source operating system, but Linux won't be part of the deal, Red Hat and 3G Lab plan to announce Tuesday. Instead, the companies will use Red Hat's eCos operating system, which is designed to work in smaller devices that don't have the computing horsepower Linux requires.

Re:Fresh Gear had a story about these new phones..

Don't sue me for not knowing the name of the male host

Ok, now be honest, how many people thought that was a typo...? ;-)

--
Aaron Sherman ([e-mail])

Oh goody

Now I'll have an even *niftier* excuse for rear-ending the guy in front of me.

I swear, officer, I'm not drunk! I was just trying to recompile the kernel on my cell phone!

--SC

Re:And why would I want Linux on my cell phone ?

The article mention the benefits of using OSS for the makers of the cell phone. Each company will be able to "tweak" the kernal to their needs without having to: cunsult software makers(faster turn around), pay for tweak(cheaper), pay liscensing(cheaper). that means cheaper phones for the consumers.
since Red Hat is in on it, then Linux is the natural choice.
the Linux kernel has been ported to many small devices, this should be no different. What I like best about this is having a base OS(whether or not they use Linux)that is open.

And why would I want Linux on my cell phone ?

It has been asked before, but it begs asking again. Why would such a thing be even desirable ? If anyone is really trying to suggest Linux is a half-way suitable OS for a cell phone, they have to be crazy or a zealot or both. Come on guys, the right tools for the right jobs, not the same tool everywhere at any cost.

See ? Linux really is cancer-like

Or, more precisely, if Linux makes it onto a cell-phone it may well prove to be cancer-causing. Guess the guys at MS will be rubbing their hands in glee at the press-hay they could make on this one. You see, Win CE wouldn't stay up long enough to irradiate your brain cells enough to cause mutations.

Re:And why would I want Linux on my cell phone ?

Depends on how you define "phone," I guess. If you're talking the typical tiny-as-can-possibly-be Motorola, then I agree, it's kind of hard to see the point. But if instead you're talking something more like the Kyocera SmartPhone [kyocera-wireless.com], I think it's a little less crazy.

To my thinking, the power and flexibility I'd want in a mobile device is pretty much proportional to the richness of interaction I can have with it. Cracking the rich-interaction problem on small mobile devices, it seems to me, is going to be a much tougher job than cramming in software and CPU power that used to only be available on the desktop.

Fresh Gear had a story about these new phones...

Don't sue me for not knowing the name of the male host. Anyway, he was showing off one of those new style mobiles phones and mentioned that they have a reset button akin to what desktop PCs have on them. While he was demonstrating the mobile phone it did indeed lock-up on him.

He brushed it off, saying that the technology is still rather new and that is obviously had some way to go. Personally, I would expect that from an Alpha or Beta product. The phone he was showing was a production model.

Why is everyone okay with production systems and equipment that crash and fail when it comes to information technology? BTW, I believe the phone was running WinCE.

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Re:Interesting...

...where the hardware is more or less directly tied to the service provider.

Just a little comment here... If you open up your North American eyes and look beyond the pond, you'll see a world where the hardware is not directly tied to a service provider. It's called the Wonderful World of GSM, where the same phone works more or less everywhere (with the obvious exception of NA unless your phone can do 1900 MHz).

Granted, the hardware is still directly tied to the manufacturer (surprise?!), so the universal OSS cell phone OS that runs on both Nokias, Ericssons and ... what's the name of the third one ... oh yes, Siemens, is not going to appear overnight. But don't confuse service providers and manufacturers, 'cause that's so TDMA.