Mobile Linux Initiatives

May 1, 2007 |

There seems to be several mobile Linux initiatives. Isn’t the goal of these initiatives to provide a consistent standardized platform for mobile devices?

The term “standardizing Linux” is a huge beast and the mobile industry has had a very difficult time getting their arms around it. What the industry is really saying is that they want a robust mobile platform that does not fork or fragment which provides a consistent application framework for both telephony capabilities and user-visible applications.

Several mobile initiatives have formed in the past five years to address consistency/standardization in the mobile software stack and in some cases to define reference implementations of these stacks. The major
handset vendors, telephony SW providers, Linux distributions, and chip vendors are members of each of these initiatives and are well aware of what each of these groups are trying to accomplish. While there may be some overlap in mission, there is quite good synergy between these initiatives.

The Linux Foundation Mobile Workgroup finds its niche in defining guidelines and capabilities around an open source Linux platform, including areas such as filesystems, security, virtualization, and
development tools. The CELF group is fairly broad over the entire consumer electronics marketplace and while it focuses on the platform, it addresses capabilities such as power management, realtime
infrastructure, and quick “time to splash”. The LiPS initiative is a multi-vendor group that focuses on a mix of proprietary and open source software that provides an application framework/architecture for
telephony applications and user-visible applications. The newly formed LiMo organization is developing a Linux-based mobile reference implementation that can be used or leveraged by their member companies. Lastly, the newly announced Gnome Mobile And Embedded initiative is producing a completely open source application stack that can be used in developing open source reference implementations or even complete mobile handset or tablet products.

So is the mobile Linux stack fragmenting because of these many mobile initiatives? While just about every embedded implementation uses a customized Linux core, we have not observed a huge fragmentation in the market. Embedded products which use Linux as a base are continually updating from the linux.org version of the Linux kernel and NOT forking out on their own. The combination of all the mobile initiatives are working hard to provide a consistent application environment, whether the stacks are completely open or a combination of open and proprietary components.

What should these consortiums do to avoid fragmentation? As I mentioned earlier, there is quite good “cross-pollination” among the initiatives. For instance, the chairman of the Linux Foundation Mobile Linux workgroup also serves on the LiPS initiative and is active with the new GMAE initiative. Other LF Mobile Linux leaders are active in CELF and LiMo. These initiatives are consistently cross-reviewing each other’s
specifications and meeting to interact with the various mobile and desktop communities. For instance, each of the mobile initiatives will be represented at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in June.

http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Linux_Foundation_Collaboration_Summit

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