Cellular Companies Join to Improve Linux 95
TrdrJoe writes to mention a Reuters article about a group of cell companies joining up to develop an open-source Linux-based OS for many of the market's phones. From the article: "Linux software currently occupies only a tiny proportion of the mobile market, mainly in China, while market leaders Symbian and Microsoft dominate the space. The attraction of Linux for handset makers is that as the code is not owned by any one company competition is likely to be fierce between firms supplying ready-to-use embedded Linux versions for phones, driving down fees, whereas Symbian and Microsoft can keep prices higher."
Free applications locked out? (Score:5, Interesting)
In North America, the vast majority of mobile phones are subsidized by a network operator. Developers of operating systems for mobile phones generally allow a network operator to use lockout features to control what software may be run on a subsidized phone. Such systems include "Get It Now" in implementations of BREW on phones sold by Verizon and "Mobile2Market" in Windows Mobile smartphones. The features exist purportedly to improve the "security" of a network, but in practice, network operators use them in order to require that all applications be purchased at jacked-up prices from a network operator's online store, and so that free software or other freeware self-published by a hobbyist developer (who generally cannot afford the code signing fees) cannot compete.
Will this Linux OS for mobile phones support the same kind of lockout, where the hardware verifies an approved kernel and the kernel verifies approved apps?