Openmoko Linux

For the project that includes both hardware and software development, see Openmoko.

Openmoko Linux

Company / developer	The Openmoko Team
OS family	Linux distribution
Source model	Open source
Latest unstable release	June 2009
Marketing target	Smartphones
Kernel type	Linux kernel
Default user interface	Graphical user interface
License	GNU General Public License
Official website	http://www.openmoko.org/

Openmoko Linux is an operating system for smartphones developed by the Openmoko project. It is based on the Ångström distribution, comprising various pieces of free software.^[1]

The main targets of Openmoko Linux were the Openmoko Neo 1973 and the Neo FreeRunner. Furthermore there were efforts to port the system to other mobile phones.^[2]

Openmoko Linux was developed from 2007 to 2009 by Openmoko Inc. The development was discontinued because of financial problems. Afterwards the development of software for the Openmoko phones was taken over by the community and continued in various projects, including SHR, QtMoko and Hackable:1.

Components

Openmoko Linux uses the Linux kernel, GNU libc, the X.Org server plus their own graphical user environment built using the EFL toolkit, GTK+ toolkit, Qt toolkit and the illume window manager (previously Matchbox window manager).^[3] The OpenEmbedded build framework and opkg package management system, are used to create and maintain software packages.

This is a very different approach than that of Android (in which everything except Linux, Webkit, and the Java language inside of Android seems non-standard).^[4] Applications targeted for Android must be substantially rewritten and are largely not portable. Many existing Linux desktop apps can be easily ported to Openmoko. (However the limited computational power and screen resolution require substantial reworking of existing applications, in order to render them usable in a finger-oriented, small-screen environment.)

References

1. ^ [openmoko-announce] Free Your Phone
2. ^ OpenMoko supported phones
3. ^ "List of software used by OpenMoko". http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/OpenMoko. 
4. ^ It uses Bionic as libc, the Dalvik virtual machine for Java, a new frame buffer system, and new proprietary ways of dealing with HID and other peripherals. Google is also accused of not giving their changes of Linux back to the community http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw Greg Kroah Hartman on the Linux Kernel

External links

• Official website