Sleeping under all this is a very, very important boost for Linux:
drivers and libraries for commercial devices.
It took YEARS before Linux could be run on laptops. Why? Because
all the drivers (the interface between the Linux software and the
devices) -- mainly peripherals like disk drives, keyboard/mouse,
audio, and displays -- were unique to the laptop, giving it an edge
in the laptop market. Very bleeding edge. This led to the drivers
being only for Windows, and indeed, only for the version of Windows
they supported for that device.
This lack of Linux support has diminished somewhat, mainly due to a
few manufacturers trying to build linux laptops, but is still a
problem with really new devices.
Phones are also an area where Linux had no foothold. Apple uses a
kernel that is basically a *nix (linux/unix) hybrid called Darwin.
It decided to build a phone around this technology, the iPhone. Boy
did it impress, especially first time "smart-phone" users.
Google is doing something even more interesting: trying to build a
universal software architecture for phones. Sun did part of that
job, building a subset of Java for phones, and it is quite successful
for phones, especially games, but also for very sophisticated phone
applications like email readers, web browsers, and a google maps
edition. But Google's effort is even more ambitious: build an entire
phone "stack" .. ALL of the software needed for the phone, with the
manufacturers providing the glue (mainly drivers and screen/keyboard
interfaces) needed to adapt the Google Android system to their phones.
This is HUGE! Phones are communications devices with applications
not even dreamed of, or at least not even attempted by the horrid
carrier/manufacturer lock currently in place.
As a first example: Apple's iPhone has a wonderful "visual voicemail"
feature, bringing the voicemail your phone carrier provides (very
bad, generally) to a very swift scrolling interface without annoying
"push 1 for delete, 2 for save, 3 for blow up you phone" and further
idiotic-nesses.
We're now on the verge of an open phone. Google IS still a bad-guy,
but less so than either Apple or Microsoft, and they will likely do
horrid things. And it will take the idiotic manufacturers years to
catch up with the iPhone, which believe me is not resting on its
laurels. But this could be way, way cool. And I bet Google will
have lock-downs that the community will spend HUGE amounts of time
breaking, also just like the iPhone.
Should be fun!
-- Owen
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