an open phone from nokia ?

[Shachar Shemesh]

Eli Marmor wrote:
> Hetz Ben Hamo wrote:
>
>   
>> ...
>>
>> 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 ..
>> Microsoft, but OTOH writing/porting an app to N900, is IMHO way easier
>> then to Android/WebOS/iPhone.
>>     
>           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>   
>> ...
>>     
>
> By the way, don't forget that:
>
> 1. Android is Linux.
> 2. WebOS is Linux (Palm left their proprietary OS).
> 3. iPhone is BSD.
> 4. ...and not only Nokia's Maemo is Linux/UNIX based....
>   
While technically true, it is also totally irrelevant.

When you write a phone application, you rarely interact with the kernel. 
Your main interaction is with the GUI. As such, which are the toolkits 
and what languages can you use:
Neo: C/C++/Python/Anything. GUI is ETK, GTK, QT, wxWidgets or whatever.
WebOS: I don't know what language (C?). GUI is Palm OS
iPhone: I don't know what language (Objective C?). GUI is iPhone
Android: Java. GUI is Android
Windows Mobile: C, GUI is Win32ish
Nokia: C/C++. GUI is QT.

Of this list, only the first and the last provide you with a development 
environment that is the same for the phone and for you (or, at least, 
my) desktop. In some cases I literally run the same software on my 
laptop and on the phone.

With Windows mobile, the framework is somewhat the same (but it is a 
horrendous framework to develop desktop applications with, and it's even 
worse for phones).

Then again, after spending the past two months doing Android 
development, there are also advantages. On the Neo, by far the best 
environment to actually send and receive phone calls is QTopia, which 
specifically deviates from the "standard your desktop is running". I 
have two SIMs connected to one number. With most environments, my "dumb" 
phone would ring first. The exceptions were QTopia (if the phone was not 
asleep while the phone call came) and the Android device, both would 
actually ring before my dumb phone would.

In all honesty, I would rather have a phone that works than have a phone 
that runs my applications. I am much more worried about Android's lack 
of friendliness to third party applications (unless they come through 
the Market) than I am about the fact it is running a non-standard 
environment. I am sad to say that, in that respect, Windows Mobile is 
better.

Shachar

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

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