Tag Archives: embedded

About the FSF’s stance on the iPhone and Embedded Mobile software

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An FSF member has published his stance on the iPhone in the wake of the 3G release.

I’ll say that I agree with johns on his points concerning the iPhone blocking free software and free media; also I could see the problem with a phone that continues to provide feedback for proprietary mobile phone/navigation networks even when you turn it off.

However, then the article offers the FreeRunner device (which has the OpenMoko Linux distribution pre-installed) as an alternative to the iPhone.

Now, the OpenMoko platform has, for the last two years, been extolled on news websites as the quintessential free software smartphone OS, but I wonder about it and its proponents.

Primarily, I wonder why an “embedded” Linux distribution should be the poster child for the free software movement’s somewhat-consistent principle-based opposition to the devices preinstalled with the iPhone OS, considering that most times when we read about some GPL violation being taken to court by the Software Freedom Law Center, it is usually concerning some GPL’ed software being “embedded” into the hardware without full compliance with the GPL’s letter. When Richard Stallman talks about “Tivoization”, he is specifically talking about Embedded Linux being “too” locked down to comply fully with the GPL’s spirit.

Plus, when it was being extolled as the geek’s ideal mobile OS on Digg, one of the primary reasons for why the OpenMoko was extolled in such a way was because it supposedly followed the “PC” model where software and hardware modifications and extensions were allowable and addable.

So, if OpenMoko Linux is “more” extensible than the iPhone OS, then does it remain an “Embedded Linux” or does it become a simply “Mobile Linux” of the likes of Ubuntu MID?

And if the iPhone OS is “embedded” in how it supports SIM cards which are proprietary to the carrier (in this case, AT&T), then why should the FSF endorse an embedded Linux device that supports the same for a different carrier? Can you say “four more years“?

Instead, I wish that the FSF would endorse the development of PMP OSes that could compete with the iPhone OS via the iPod touch rather than via the iPhone.

Such PMP OSes like the iPod touch installation of the iPhone OS would be able to install free software, play/edit/distribute free media, and not give off a homing beacon that is proprietary to some carrier’s network.

Plus, it would (ideally) allow you to sync with any desktop client on any operating system of your choosing, not restrict you to syncing one library at a time, and even let you download files from the Internet from within the device’s browser.

Finally, the purpose of the speaker and receiver on the free software PMP OS would be to talk through open IM-based VOIP protocols, record conversations, and play sound out loud if the user chooses such an option.

It would essentially bypass the current focus of the majority of smartphone OSes on connecting with “data providers” and carriers, and give computing platforms to those who may not desire a laptop or anything bigger but aren’t as wild about getting cell phones (like myself).

At least, until cellular data plans are as cheap and as fast as a home Cable Internet plan (which won’t happen anytime soon).

OK now, is it Mobile Linux or Embedded Linux?

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There are two categories on Wikipedia: Embedded Linux (with its own article) and Mobile Linux (without its own article, don’t know if it’ll be redundant to create one).

I’m confused about this because Mobile Linux (which is meant to go onto “mobile”, “traveling” devices such as smartphones, PDAs/”palmtops” and PMPs) is generally assumed as being a specific form of Embedded Linux (which goes on both mobile and stationary devices, such as networking hubs, robots and non-GUI machinery).

However, you also have the “Netbook“, “MID” and “tablet PC” Linux distributions that are coming out. These are meant to be “mobile”, in both the laptop sense and the phone sense, since you can carry such smaller “-tops” in a small bag, a purse, or other place where you can often find a mobile phone located (except for the pocket….apparently, they won’t get to that point until multitouch “-tops” will replace the “-book”‘s keyboard, and that will take years to put out to market).

Furthermore, while this smaller type of “-top” may (like the MacBook Air) or may not lack an optical drive, it will also have a way to install an operating system from some physical device, whether it is through a wireless optical drive that syncs to the “-top” or through a USB flash drive stick that can be stuck into a port on the side of the “-top”. Mobile Linux devices – at least the smartphones – don’t have this option, as don’t other smartphones with different operating systems installed, although Linux has been installed (through various jerry-rigged ways, onto PMPs and PDAs which aren’t locked into a carrier).

So where does the mobile Embedded with no user-software flexibility end and the mobile Netbook/MID with user-installable OS and software begin?

If the smaller luggable laptops are becoming as small and compact as the Mobile Embedded devices, then should the Netbooks and their operating systems be included into the “Mobile Linux” Category, alongside the smartphones, PDAs and PMPs?

(I also notice that with the current hoopla being given to Linux-based smartphones and Linux-based subnotebooks, one doesn’t hear that much about Linux PDAs or Linux PMPs, although that may only be because of the respective lack of native Linux support for PDA-compatible wireless and PMP-compatible codecs that won’t wear down batteries. Oh well.)