Posts tagged os
Symbian OS to be Open Source
Feb 4th
The source code for the ten-year old Symbian platform will be completely open source and available for free starting Thursday. The transition from proprietary code to open source is the largest in software history, claims the Symbian Foundation.
“The dominant operating system provider out there is Symbian,” says Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, “and now we are offering developers the ability to do so much more.”
Symbian OS
Symbian, which powers most of Nokia’s phones, has been shipped in more than 330 million devices worldwide. But in the last few years, Symbian has seen more than its fair share of changes. In 2008, Nokia, one of Symbian’s largest customers, acquired a major share in the company. Nokia then created the Symbian Foundation to distribute the platform as an open source project, and began the process of opening up the source code that year.
Meanwhile, the operating system has seen new rivals crop up. Google’s Android, which is based on a Linux kernel, has become a favorite among handset makers such as Motorola and HTC. And it’s based on an open source foundation too.
Symbian’s move to open source has been completed four months ahead of schedule and it offers mobile developers new ways to innovate, says Williams. Any individual or organization can now take, use and modify the Symbian code for any device, from mobile phone to a tablet.
Similar as it may sound to Android’s promise, there are major differences, says Williams.
“About a third of the Android code base is open and nothing more,” says Williams. “And what is open is a collection of middleware. Everything else is closed or proprietary.”
Symbian is also ahead of Android in that it will publish its platform roadmap and planned features up to 2011, he says. And anyone can influence that roadmap or contribute to new features.
“Open source is also about open governance,” says Williams. “It’s about letting someone other than one control point guide the feature set and the asset base.”
But will that be enough for Symbian to steal away customers lured by a snazzier and younger rival?
Acer claim to become first to launch Chrome OS Netbook!
Dec 3rd
The world’s second-largest PC maker has designs on being the first to offer a Chrome OS Netbook.
Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said in an interview with Digitimes that he’s “confident” his company will be first out of the gate with Google’s open-source operating system pre-installed. The earliest it would be available is mid-2010, according to Digitimes’ unnamed sources.
Acer was just one of several hardware makers previously announced to be working with Google on implementing Chrome OS, along with Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba. Dell, which hasn’t committed to it fully yet, has released an experimental version of Chrome OS based on the source code that will work on the Dell Mini 10v Netbook, though it’s not an official product.
Though Wang didn’t offer details or specifications for Acer’s Chrome OS Netbook, the guys behind Chrome OS have already let on what they’re expecting.
At the OS’s first public demonstration last month, Google said its vision includes slightly larger keyboards and screens than what’s currently available, x86 or ARM processors, solid-state drives, and 802.11(n) Wi-Fi chips.
