<div>><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(80, 0, 80); ">I do understand the need for phone manufacturers and networks to lock these devices down - to minimise costs.</span></div>
<div><br></div>The locking down of android is depressing. I think google got spot on with the nexus one. You can fully unlock the device with one command "fastboot oem unlock". However this will void your warranty. I believe it add something to a bit of write-once memory and changes the boot screen to show a padlock. So its easy to see if the phone has been unlocked. I would call this a fair compromise.<div>
<br></div><div>I also hate Java (To much syntax not enough code) so i hope that the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">SL4A project (</span><a href="http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/">http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">) bears fruit soon. </span> I know they are working on a way of building packages based on SL4A that can be uploaded to the market. </div>
<div><br></div><div> <div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 8 October 2010 18:31, Sebastian <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:shop@open-t.co.uk">shop@open-t.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div class="im"><br>
<br>
On 10/08/2010 04:44 PM, oscillik wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
again, the N900 would fill most of what you seem to want here. it's just<br>
that Maemo 5 does have it's caveats, and the alternative options<br>
available all have their own caveats too. Maemo 5 even has a fully<br>
integrated SIP client.<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
I agree with your point, except for the fact that there aren't any other manufacturers out there which do devices fully compatible with the N900 platform at the moment - and even worse - there is no guarantee that Nokia's next tablet/pad/thingie will be compatible with it. I won't be free to just keep on buying into the same platform - and transfer all my data, settings and skills to another compatible device when the N900 dies. Until one platform/standard truly ends up dominating the ARM market (in terms of compatibility) - you will still have never ending segmentation of software support and required skills.<br>
<br>
I could even settle for sticking with one single manufacturer - as long their devices would be based on some widely accepted standard which would seem most likely to last a very long time - to guarantee compatible upgrades within an open standards platform. But at the moment none of that seems to be happening - even Nokia isn't committed to their own Maemo.<br>
<br>
Android does seem to have best chances of long term survival - but their degree of openness - as stated by the other posters and by what has been happening recently - is really questionable from where I'm standing. It isn't even a community driven open source project - as far as I can tell, most control and direction is really coming from Google.<br>
<br>
Sebastian<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">
<br>
On 8 October 2010 16:35, Sebastian <<a href="mailto:shop@open-t.co.uk" target="_blank">shop@open-t.co.uk</a><br></div><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<mailto:<a href="mailto:shop@open-t.co.uk" target="_blank">shop@open-t.co.uk</a>>> wrote:<br>
<br>
In many ways (and I know this might just start a flame war - but<br>
bear with me) I am thinking that Android is nowhere near what *I*<br>
would have hoped from a Linux based os for portable devices.<br>
<br>
I do understand the need for phone manufacturers and networks to<br>
lock these devices down - to minimise costs. But strictly from a<br>
technical perspective, I am looking forward to a device which is<br>
truly shrunken down computer. Smaller size, long battery, but still<br>
the same level of connectivity and compatibility of an x86 based<br>
Linux machine. Even if it would only be a small tablet form (but<br>
with 3g data link integrated and access to a good sip client) which<br>
works on a standard platform - so that devices from 10, 20 or 50<br>
different manufactures can be upgraded with the same<br>
distribution/software set - that would be really good. Otherwise the<br>
community effort will have to be really fragmented, each project<br>
working to support the vagaries of each ARM micro-platform - be it<br>
NSLU's, various tablets, mini-gaming console or anything else. The<br>
community development and support of these ARM devices would surely<br>
be far more effective if all of them would be based on the same<br>
booting method, same firmware upgrade method etc.<br>
<br>
Well, a bit rhetorical really.<br>
<br>
Sebastian<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/08/2010 02:00 PM, Ste wrote:<br>
<br>
On 08/10/2010 13:56, Sebastian wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks Graeme. In a sense that is an answer to my question.<br>
I have<br>
installed Linux on some NSLUs a while ago (which are ARM<br>
based). I<br>
know it can be done in many cases. I was just wondering if<br>
there will<br>
ever be some sort of universal method which will work on all<br>
of them.<br>
I guess you have already answered that - the short answer is no.<br>
<br>
Well, one can keep on hoping. I guess until that will be<br>
that case, I<br>
don't see ARM breaking out of the 'device' type market, into the<br>
general computing market - where x86 is. Not that the<br>
'device' market<br>
is not lucrative, or large enough, or fairly useful to all<br>
of us as it<br>
is now :-)<br>
<br>
<br>
I think a best-case scenario would be if every arm-based<br>
tablet/phone/device could boot into a standard 'recovery' mode (by<br>
holding down a 2nd button when powering the device on, for<br>
example) - in<br>
which, you'd be able to flash the on-board storage with either<br>
an image<br>
on an attached USB stick, or over a USB connection to a host running<br>
something similar to android's 'adb' thingy which you get with the<br>
development kit. These images would all be nice and standard,<br>
like how<br>
bootable CDs are made with .iso files now.<br>
<br>
Hands up if you can see this ever happening!<br>
<br>
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