[Liverpool] Linux on ARM

Sat Oct 9 13:59:19 UTC 2010

>I do understand the need for phone manufacturers and networks to lock these
devices down - to minimise costs.

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.

I also hate Java (To much syntax not enough code) so i hope that the SL4A
project (http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/) bears fruit soon.  I
know they are working on a way of building packages based on SL4A that can
be uploaded to the market.

On 8 October 2010 18:31, Sebastian <shop at open-t.co.uk> wrote:

>
>
> On 10/08/2010 04:44 PM, oscillik wrote:
>
>> again, the N900 would fill most of what you seem to want here. it's just
>> that Maemo 5 does have it's caveats, and the alternative options
>> available all have their own caveats too. Maemo 5 even has a fully
>> integrated SIP client.
>>
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Sebastian
>
>
>> On 8 October 2010 16:35, Sebastian <shop at open-t.co.uk
>> <mailto:shop at open-t.co.uk>> wrote:
>>
>>    In many ways (and I know this might just start a flame war - but
>>    bear with me) I am thinking that Android is nowhere near what *I*
>>    would have hoped from a Linux based os for portable devices.
>>
>>    I do understand the need for phone manufacturers and networks to
>>    lock these devices down - to minimise costs. But strictly from a
>>    technical perspective, I am looking forward to a device which is
>>    truly shrunken down computer. Smaller size, long battery, but still
>>    the same level of connectivity and compatibility of an x86 based
>>    Linux machine. Even if it would only be a small tablet form (but
>>    with 3g data link integrated and access to a good sip client) which
>>    works on a standard platform - so that devices from 10, 20 or 50
>>    different manufactures can be upgraded with the same
>>    distribution/software set - that would be really good. Otherwise the
>>    community effort will have to be really fragmented, each project
>>    working to support the vagaries of each ARM micro-platform - be it
>>    NSLU's, various tablets, mini-gaming console or anything else. The
>>    community development and support of these ARM devices would surely
>>    be far more effective if all of them would be based on the same
>>    booting method, same firmware upgrade method etc.
>>
>>    Well, a bit rhetorical really.
>>
>>    Sebastian
>>
>>
>>    On 10/08/2010 02:00 PM, Ste wrote:
>>
>>        On 08/10/2010 13:56, Sebastian wrote:
>>
>>
>>            Thanks Graeme. In a sense that is an answer to my question.
>>            I have
>>            installed Linux on some NSLUs a while ago (which are ARM
>>            based). I
>>            know it can be done in many cases. I was just wondering if
>>            there will
>>            ever be some sort of universal method which will work on all
>>            of them.
>>            I guess you have already answered that - the short answer is
>> no.
>>
>>            Well, one can keep on hoping. I guess until that will be
>>            that case, I
>>            don't see ARM breaking out of the 'device' type market, into
>> the
>>            general computing market - where x86 is. Not that the
>>            'device' market
>>            is not lucrative, or large enough, or fairly useful to all
>>            of us as it
>>            is now :-)
>>
>>
>>        I think a best-case scenario would be if every arm-based
>>        tablet/phone/device could boot into a standard 'recovery' mode (by
>>        holding down a 2nd button when powering the device on, for
>>        example) - in
>>        which, you'd be able to flash the on-board storage with either
>>        an image
>>        on an attached USB stick, or over a USB connection to a host
>> running
>>        something similar to android's 'adb' thingy which you get with the
>>        development kit. These images would all be nice and standard,
>>        like how
>>        bootable CDs are made with .iso files now.
>>
>>        Hands up if you can see this ever happening!
>>
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