Openmoko Linux
Openmoko Linux is an operating system for smartphones developed by the Openmoko project. It is based on the Ångström distribution, comprising various pieces of free software.[1]
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Developer | The Openmoko Team |
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OS family | Linux distribution |
Source model | Open source |
Marketing target | Smartphones |
Kernel type | Linux kernel |
Default user interface | Graphical user interface |
License | GNU General Public License |
Official website | www |
The main targets of Openmoko Linux were the Openmoko Neo 1973 and the Neo FreeRunner. Furthermore, there were efforts to port the system to other mobile phones.[2]
Openmoko Linux was developed from 2007 to 2009 by Openmoko Inc. The development was discontinued because of financial problems. Afterwards the development of software for the Openmoko phones was taken over by the community and continued in various projects, including SHR, QtMoko and Hackable1.
Components
Openmoko Linux uses the Linux kernel, GNU libc, the X.Org Server plus their own graphical user environment built using the EFL toolkit, GTK+ toolkit, Qt toolkit and the illume window manager (previously Matchbox window manager).[3] The OpenEmbedded build framework and opkg package management system, are used to create and maintain software packages.
This is a very different approach than that of Android (in which everything except Linux, Webkit, and the Java language inside of Android seems non-standard).[4] Applications targeted for Android must be substantially rewritten and are largely not portable. Many existing GNU/Linux desktop apps can be easily ported to Openmoko. (However the limited computational power and screen resolution require substantial reworking of existing applications, in order to render them usable in a finger-oriented, small-screen environment.)
References
- Archived 2009-03-19 at the Wayback Machine [openmoko-announce] Free Your Phone
- OpenMoko supported phones Archived 2015-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
- "List of software used by OpenMoko".
- It uses Bionic as libc, the Dalvik virtual machine for Java, a new frame buffer system, and new proprietary ways of dealing with HID and other peripherals. Google is also accused of not giving their changes of Linux back to the community https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw Greg Kroah Hartman on the Linux Kernel