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A Chance To See How Much "Openness" Matters To The Non-Geeky
With OpenMoko’s new Freerunner phone now available, Google’s Android scheduled for the end of this year, Symbian becoming open-source, and LiMo phones already entering the market, it looks like the time when a significant portion, perhaps a majority, of smart-phones will be completely open.
Apart from being any Linux/open-source enthusiast’s dream, this will also be a chance to see how much the average smart-phone buyer values an open-platform.
While most users are unlikely to pick a phone because they like the idea of openness, as things play out, the open phones are likely to become the best phones. Instead of being locked down with third-party applications only avaliable from one censored source (*cough* iPhone), applications will be developed and distributed without limitation. Plus, the platform itself will be improved by hundreds or thousands of developers who are coding because they want to, not because they are being paid to. In the end, this is likely to lead to a better platform and, thus, a better phone. Of course, that is just my opinion. With so many open phones entering the market, we will soon get to see what the rest of the world thinks.
Live Mesh and Linux's Gain on Phones and Mobile Devices
If you have been following the Linux news as I am sure most of you have been, you probably will have noticed two trends: Linux is taking over mobile devices such as UMPCs and Linux is becoming increasingly well positioned, though Google Android and LiMo, to take over the phone market.
If you have been paying any attention to the Windows news, as I am sure fewer of you have been, you may have seen Microsoft’s announcement a little while ago about Live Mesh. If you don’t know what Live Mesh is, you’re just like the rest of us. I am, quite frankly, not sure if anyone really gets what it is supposed to be. OK, I am sort of joking about no one knowing what Live Mesh is. Part of what makes it so confusing is that Live Mesh is in a very early “tech preview.” Basically, as best I can understand it, Live Mesh is a kind of synchronization tool. The idea appears to be to keep all the devices people use in sync with each other so that you have your files and stuff wherever you go. I am sure people who understand it better would disagree with that level of simplification, but that is how I understand it right now.
So what do these two apparently unrelated pieces of news have to do with each other? Lots. Live Mesh attempts to connect your computer with your phone with all your other devices, but what if your phone and your devices all run Linux, a situation that seems entirely possible by the time Live Mesh really comes out.
This pushes Microsoft into one of two possibilities. Embrace other operating systems or fight them. It is difficult to predict what Microsoft will do if a situation like this comes up. Personally, I believe that choosing to fight would be a mistake, but Microsoft has made similar mistakes before and may do so again.