On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 08:50:56AM +0300, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> Da et oyevja. What is the _advantage_ of ETK? Besides the fact that it
> i the pet project of an openmoko dev, what real advantages does ETK
> have?
That may be enough. The whole point ofthe company is to SELL their
product. If, in order to do that, they have to one toolkit and
concentrate on that, they have IMHO made a wise decision which will
benefit everyone.
Having worked with handheld devices and designed (and failed to bring
to market) one, I can see that. Since it's an "open" device there is
nothing that prevents a developer from using the other two toolkits
available for an application. It also does not prevent someone porting
another existing toolkit or developing a new one from scratch.
If you have ever developed for Nintentdo, Sony PSP, iPhone, etc,
you know exactly what I mean.
IMHO choosing the least popular option may be the best one. It encourages
people who want to develop applications using a more popular toolkit to
BUY one of their phones, and develop their applications. The more phones
sold, the more applications developed, and the more committed their
developers, the better off the manufacturer and the public in general
are.
>From personal experience, I would never develop a device again that used
GPL'ed software as a base. First it enables the less than honest people to
steal your work, second it prevents people from raising money to develop
commercial applications for it.
I much prefer the BSD "artistic license" or LGL, both of which put the
CHOICE of opening source and to whom with the DEVELOPER of an application.
It also gives the CHOICE of which applications to support/pay for, and lets
the market decide.
Having more than one toolkit available, puts the CHOICE in the hands of
the developer. If you want your application to be GPL'ed and based upon
GPL software, you can release it that way. If you don't you can select
an LGPL, etc toolkit and CHOOSE your own license.
I also asked Michael, and never received an answer, if the unit will
support some sort of DRM, even if only a unique serial number. While in
general I am not a fan of DRM, there are some applications where it has
merit [1] and there is a large base of commerical material which would
not be available without it.
That's why IMHO the Zune flopped. The iPod supported DRM, iTunes used it
(and even hid in the file the purchaser's identifying information), but
IT DID NOT REQUIRE IT. The Zune did, nonDRM'ed files became DRM'ed.
The market spoke.
Geoff.
[1] For example, a library allowing over the Internet checkout of eBooks
and audiobooks using DRM to limit access time. This would allow
people who are not able to go to the library (for example disabled people)
to read/hear the book, while people who do not want a DRM'ed
version could go to the library, get a physical copy and
return it when done.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM
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