an open phone from nokia ?

[Shachar Shemesh]

I should make it clear that my previous email was a guess based on my 
experience with mobile platforms. I may well be surprised yet. Having 
said that:

Hetz Ben Hamo wrote:
> Also, within the last few days, they signed and sumbitted new drivers
> to be included in the standard kernel.
>
>   
The question is whether all drivers running on the machine will be open? 
Will I be able to compile, from scratch, my own kernel and have all 
hardware working? I somehow doubt it, though I would love to be proven 
wrong.
> The technology that they use is open and it's right there on your
> linux desktop: Xorg, gstreamer, pulse audio, bluez, telepathy, they
> use upstart instead of sysinit, matchbox window manager, X terminal,
> busybox, GLX.
>   
Yes, that is definitely the case, but how about the core services of the 
phone?
> Will it be totally open? I don't think so because they have to support
> their DRM'd music/video which you buy, and their DRM is from ..
>   
I'm a bit confused about that. The guy on his blog says you get simple 
and easy root. If I have root, what good is a DRM software, closed 
source or otherwise? I can always just grab the data as it makes its way 
to the audio driver (or connect as a debugger and grab the raw data from 
the program's memory, or any number of other techniques).
> writing/porting an app to N900, is IMHO way easier
> then to Android/WebOS/iPhone.
>   
I'm not sure about easier, but it is definitely running a bunch of 
already existing applications, and has a huge selection of Linux/Unix 
applications that have an easier port (assuming you don't consider the 
adaptation of an application to the limitations of a phone the hardest 
part, which I do happen to). From my limited experience with the Neo, 
that is a major advantage (not to mention it will natively run all 
applications written for the Neo, as they share 90% of the technology).

Shachar

-- 
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
http://www.lingnu.com

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