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Linux phones

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The Linux phones are coming, the linux phones are coming!

Openmoko has released CAD files and schematics for their Neo Freerunner and Neo 1973

Wish I had the multi-million dollar machines required to make my own

http://openmoko.com/

http://openmoko.com/download-cad.html

http://openmoko.com/download-schematics.html

Talk about an open platform, it's open source, open hardware, open everything!

In other news the not-so-open google android phones are set to launch soon.

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Can you elaborate a bit about android? I thought it was supposed to be an open source mobile phone version of linux with a custom SDK. Am I completely wrong here?

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

Android is coming sometime in 2009... will be kinda like Symbian OS... everyone will use it, will be kinda like iPhone's OS... only slightly more open... not open source tho... made by google...

Reply to amdfangirl

Yup yup! right on amdfangirl

Openmoko on the other hand is open source, open hardware, open pretty much all the way

Hey Zorak can I borrow your PCB making equipment for a while? I need to bake some Openmoko PCBs

Message edited by linux_0 on 08-17-2008 at 05:44:13 AM

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Reply to linux_0

Lol. I'll let you borrow my PCB making equipment right after they finish building my fab I guess the other odd man out here is Symbian, which as I understand it is actually becoming a full fledged open source platform?

I guess i'll just have to read up on all these new alternatives. I may not be one who will buy a smart phone any time soon, but still I hope that all these new choices (and the old hands in the smart phone market) will drive the scourge that is apple back to whatever dark hole it crawled out from.

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

Ok so it turns out I didn't know very much at all about the smartphone/pda space. Apparently SymbianOS is hardly a new force in that space and is currently installed on about 2/3 of all mobile devices. Symbian is supposed to become fully open source in 2010 so at that point it will be fully hackable. OpenMoko is a fully hackable system that was released for developers only at first and is now just starting to release consumer smartphones.

This just leaves android, which is based on Linux, is set to come out this year (supposedly) and is not fully hackable because it will require all programs to be written in java or a java-like language which is controlled by Google. This isn't all bad though because Linux is GPL'd software which means that if people don't like what Google is doing they can legally fork android and make it more hacker friendly. It really seems like it would only be a matter of time before this happens, too, because hackers have managed to put Linux on all sorts of systems that originally had zero linux support (think consoles here) and now Google has pretty much done most of the work for them.

The future is looking pretty exciting and competitive in the pda/smart phone arena. Hopefully they will gain a lot of ground and we can retire the ludicrous 'iPhone killer' phrase.

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

That's impossible. You can't have an Iphone killer. The phone market is almost all teenage...

The iPhone is a status symbol.

So is the ipod.

That's why Zunes, sansas and etc. fail. They're not 'cool'.

People like iTunes. It's easier to upgrade simply to an iPhone from an iPod.

Reply to amdfangirl

Well, the cycle will be complete (i.e. we'll know the limits of the new platforms) as soon as someone figures out how to get doom and/or quake 3 arena running on one of these things haha

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

I have an OpenMoko FreeRunner that I've been playing around with, just got to the point where enough stuff works (WiFi, GPS, imported contacts, etc.) that I now use it as a daily phone. Once I got some of the neater things setup and start porting some things I had planned on doing a writeup and linking it on these forums, so stay tuned.

Reply to bmouring

Alright, I look forward to seeing your guide on how to set up distcc on an OpenMoko so that you can use it as part of a compile farm for Gentoo compilations

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

Sure, I'll add it to my NeXTStation turbo, SGI o2, DEC Alphastation 500, and Arcom Viper compute cluster while I'm at it. Also, first post from the phone. Over GPRS.

Reply to bmouring

Awesome

Please hook us up with some $pix && $vids

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Reply to linux_0

First post from the phone while running Debian. It is becoming quite usable as a mobile computer that also happens to make and receive calls. Plus, as alluded to, there is the ever-important choice available (debian, gtk-based OM, qtopia-based rellease, and the thing has only been out for a month)

Reply to bmouring

*sneaks out of the shadows*
I bought an iPhone....
*fades back into the shadows*

------------------------------ Linux Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" BETA User
Respects: JumpingJack, Geeky_Byzantine, ltcommander_data, Linux_0, AudioVoodoo, DaSickNinja, Riser, MU_Engineer, Verndewd, Zorak.
Reply to knightrous

Iphone?! Booo! Burn the witch! >: )

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

I have an iPod.

Reply to amdfangirl

uh... What happened to linux_0's last comment about not having either but encouraging people to get BSD and Linux enabled phones over proprietary junk? I wanted to post my agreement with it yesterday but the forum kept saying "your action is invalid", and now that the glitch is gone, so is his post?

What the heck?

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

4 or 5 of my replies went poof

And the quick reply seems to be broken

EDIT: quick reply was broken

Message edited by linux_0 on 08-29-2008 at 03:28:07 AM

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Reply to linux_0

knightrous, I'm not one of those source-code thumpers that believes everyone should demand to see the sourcecode for everything and should be allowed access to the hardware bits and pieces, even though I personally want that. I see the allure of sleek, tasty tech that doesn't have rough edges and still offers some amount of flexibility through the apps store, but the release-and-retraction of the tether-enabling app (forgot the name) exposes why I want what I want, rough edges and all.

Reply to bmouring

I was a bit sketchy when I first made the choice on purchasing my iPhone, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. But all that has been pushed aside now, I can clearly say, this phone is awesome. I'm not a fan of Apple, because I hate the way everything on an Apple is like a prison, you have some freedom, but only what they want you to have.

What has probably got me the most enjoyment out of the phone are "Free" apps I've downloaded through iToons, I've picked up RDP which lets me remote to my servers at work and fix things on the fly, (No pc needed!). I use Palringo as my IM on the phone and happily chat to friends on MSN while I'm at work or travelling. I've ICETV on it to keep track of my fav shows on tv. I have iResist, a resistor calculator I use in the workshop quiet a bit to remember what resistor I have just scavanged off a circuitboard. I have SpeedBox, a GPS speedometer, usefull for my car (found my speedo was out 5km/h, (Saved me from a $150 fine and 1 demerit point). I have Car Finder, which is a GPS tracker that you set when you get out of your car and will provide you with GPS direction to find your car later. I also have a few cool games like Tap Tap Revolution (Like DDR/Guitar Hero) and some other fun games.

The iPhone in general is pretty nice, the software isn't too bad, the touch abilities are very nice, typing on this thing is reasonably fast and it's pretty good for surfing the net. There are some stupid things I don't like about it, but I'm slowly getting over them (like getting use to BSOD in windows, you just expect and accept...)

Really, the iPhone is a brilliant hardware plateform, I think all the big issues lie in the software, if we could get Ubuntu MID to run on this thing, I'd be in phone nirvana!

Last comment, battery life sucks... I charge my iPhone twice a day because I use it heavily, I'm in the process or wiring in USB ports into my Toyota MR2 AW11 so I can charge it while driving!

I had heard that the Iphone was powerful enough to get quake 3 running on it, which is pretty impressive when you think about it, but despite all the power, the lack of physical buttons and the locked in environments are HUGE dealbreakers for me, but then again that's just me. Anyways, as soon as I can find a way to justify getting a nice sleek linux phone I will try and dump my current POS phone (which reminds me of that Firefly phone they make for elementary schoolers).

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

We have a new toy to play with....

http://www.neopwn.com/index.php

From the bumf...

Quote :

Pocket Pentesting

Running on a well balanced mix of open source hardware and network security testing software, NeoPwn has been a long awaited pocket penetration testing platform. This is the first ever network auditing distribution for a mobile phone.

The NeoPwn uses the base platform of the Openmoko Neo Freerunner, which offers USB WLAN support, a GPS Modem, a GPRS Modem for cellular connectivity, and an CSR based Bluetooth module. The USB hostmode will also allow for a range of other devices and peripherials.

Neopwn runs on an optimized FULL custom Debian operating system that boots off of a microSD card with a custom Linux kernel, with a vast support range for module drivers, allowing the network security tester the ability to perform various network penetration auditing tasks that are normally carried out on a notebook or desktop workstation.

We offer complete hardware setups as well as a standalone customized operating system (with custom driver module and kernel support). We can also deliver custom features and support options upon request for hardware or software that isn't standard with our systems.

and for those that like such things you can find the slashdot article here

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Reply to audiovoodoo

That looks deceptively like the openmoko http://openmoko.com/

Am I imagining things?

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Reply to linux_0

funny thing is, on my debian release, I already have a lot of that software installed and a few helper scripts. Also, I laugh at their claim that it's optimized for finger-only operation: the menus in XFCE are neigh-impossible to use for all but those with the most bony fingers or longest, stylus-like fingernails

Reply to bmouring

It is based on OpenMoko. From what I have read they have done a lot with the menu but this will always be a limitation of the hardware. I just thought it was a nice example of the bluring of the lines between dedicated laptops / PC based solutions and modern phones. The open pandora project is another example that shows the raw power of some of the modern handhelds.

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Reply to audiovoodoo

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