| Mobile Linux groups merge |
Jun. 26, 2008
 [Updated: Jun. 26, 2008] -- The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum announced that it will fold its standards-development activities and membership into the LiMo Foundation in July. The merge appears to bring British Telecom and Telecom Italia to LiMo, along with several key technology vendors.
The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum was founded n 2005, and quickly doubled its membership. It met a key milestone when it released LiPS Release 1.0 in December.
LiPS attempted the ambitious goal of defining actual open industry standards. That is, it aimed to fight Linux phone software fragmentation by defining a filesystem that application software developers and phone integrators could standardize upon. In that regard, it resembled the Linux Standards Base, but for mobile phones rather than desktops and servers.
The other two industry groups focused on Linux mobile phones are LiMo (Linux Mobile Foundation) and the Google-backed Open Handset Alliance, which maintains Android. Both of those groups are writing actual code for cross-licensing among members, with the hope that their platform will become the de facto standard for Linux phones. Of the two, LiMo is more comprehensive, and arguably further along, with a number of similarities to the LiPS specification. Android, meanwhile, is a somewhat higher-level Java-based middleware and application stack that, in addition to Linux, could probably in time run on a variety of mobile phone operating system kernels.
As LiMo and Android continued to draw widespread industry support over the last year (although rarely by the same companies), it became clear that the industry was not prepared to wait for a protracted standards development process. Now Linux has two de facto standards, with LiMo gaining momentum recently with the widespread support of phone manufacturers including Motorola, NEC, and Panasonic (see image at top of the vendors' LiMo compliant phones). LiMo also released version 1.0 of its own LiMo Platform spec, and more recently has signed up of Verizon Wireless, a top-two U.S. carrier, along with other new members.
LiPS Release 1.0 architecture
(Click to enlarge)
Over the last year, a number of key LiPS members have joined up with LiMo, including Access, ARM Limited, Azingo, France Telecom/Orange, Huawei Technology, MontaVista Software, NXP Semiconductors, Open-Plug, Purple Labs, and Texas Instruments. The only company to rescind their membership in LiPS when moving to LiMo was Trolltech, which has now been acquired by Nokia. The Finnish handset giant is unlikely to participate in LiMo since it has acquired the rest of Symbian's assets, with plans to launch an open source version of Symbian OS.
Although the LiPS Forum stated that its membership would be folded into LiMo, the LiMo Foundation says it has yet to annnounce which companies will be new members. Among the remaining LiPS Forum members that are expected to join LiMo in July, only two are members of the Android OHA: Telecom Italia and Esmertec. The likely new members are as follows:- Operator and services providers:
- Equipment and chip manufacturers:
- Software Vendors:
Stated Haila Wang, LiPS Forum president and CTO, of Orange Labs in Beijing, "LiPS Forum is proud of our standardization efforts, development activities and other achievements of the last three years. Today, our membership agrees that LiPS' greatest impact can be realized by adding our members' expertise and resources to LiMo Foundation. Together, the member companies can better strive for a unified and ubiquitous Linux-based mobile platform."
Stated Morgan Gillis, executive director, LiMo Foundation, "We welcome the LiPS member community into LiMo Foundation, augmenting the momentum, resources and expertise of our group. The international and cross-industry scope of LiPS Forum helps LiMo greatly in the global rollout of our platform, devices deploying that platform, and creation of applications for it."
Related Stories:
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
FUEL Database on MontaVista Linux
Whether building a mobile handset, a car navigation system, a package tracking device, or a home entertainment console, developers need capable software systems, including an operating system, development tools, and supporting libraries, to gain maximum benefit from their hardware platform and to meet aggressive time-to-market goals.
Breaking New Ground: The Evolution of Linux Clustering
With a platform comprising a complete Linux distribution, enhanced for clustering, and tailored for HPC, Penguin Computing¿s Scyld Software provides the building blocks for organizations from enterprises to workgroups to deploy, manage, and maintain Linux clusters, regardless of their size.
Data Monitoring with NightStar LX
Unlike ordinary debuggers, NightStar LX doesn¿t leave you stranded in the dark. It¿s more than just a debugger, it¿s a whole suite of integrated diagnostic tools designed for time-critical Linux applications to reduce test time, increase productivity and lower costs. You can debug, monitor, analyze and tune with minimal intrusion, so you see real execution behavior. And that¿s positively illuminating.
Virtualizing Service Provider Networks with Vyatta
This paper highlights Vyatta's unique ability to virtualize networking functions using Vyatta's secure routing software in service provider environments.
High Availability Messaging Solution Using AXIGEN, Heartbeat and DRBD
This white paper discusses a high-availability messaging solution relying on the AXIGEN Mail Server, Heartbeat and DRBD. Solution architecture and implementation, as well as benefits of using AXIGEN for this setup are all presented in detail.
Understanding the Financial Benefits of Open Source
Will open source pay off? Open source is becoming standard within enterprises, often because of cost savings. Find out how much of a financial impact it can have on your organization. Get this methodology and calculator now, compliments of JBoss.
Embedded Hardware and OS Technology Empower PC-Based Platforms
The modern embedded computer is the jack of all trades appearing in many forms.
Data Management for Real-Time Distributed Systems
This paper provides an overview of the network-centric computing model, data distribution services, and distributed data management. It then describes how the SkyBoard integration and synchronization service, coupled with an implementation of the OMG¿s Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard, can be used to create an efficient data distribution, storage, and retrieval system.
7 Advantages of D2D Backup
For decades, tape has been the backup medium of choice. But, now, disk-to-disk (D2D) backup is gaining in favor. Learn why you should make the move in this whitepaper.
|
|
|
|
|
news feed