LiPS and LiMo mobile Linux groups join forces, acronyms

Looks like there's only room for one mobile Linux standards body in these here parts, and LiMo's recent momentum and partnership deals have apparently swept up the members of the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) -- the two groups just announced that as of July, LiPS will be folded into LiMo. That'll give the Foundation even more ammunition as it gears up to do open-source battle with Android and that fruit-flavored mobile whose name we keep forgetting. There's no word on what's going to happen to LiPS's 1.0 specs, but we'd guess they'll be folded into the LiMo platform -- now all we need are some actual phones.

[Khris @ Jun 26th 2008 3:39PM]

"LiPS will be folded into LiMo"

There's just something wrong with that line.

[Krush @ Jun 26th 2008 6:15PM]

yeah .... btw these toads DO taste good - another lick?

[fanman @ Jun 26th 2008 3:48PM]

Acronyms?

Lol kthxbai

[Josh L @ Jun 26th 2008 4:25PM]

Their intentions are laudable, but I'll reserve judgment on them until I see some phones in action.

Either way, I hope they don't flounder and die. More competition in the mobile arena is always welcome, and can mean only good things for consumers.

[thedesolate1 @ Jun 26th 2008 4:33PM]

YAY Competition! The consumer will soon be king again! Now gimme some of that spectrum Verizon....

[Fernando @ Jun 26th 2008 4:56PM]

"That'll give the Foundation even more ammunition as it gears up to do open-source battle with Android and that fruit-flavored mobile whose name we keep forgetting."

D:

They won't fight apple cause they don't license their iphone os. They'll instead fight the Symbian Foundation.

You can hate nokia/symbian, I'm alright with that. But what really breaks my heart is when Symbian is ignored :'(

[Mikael Andersson @ Jun 26th 2008 5:14PM]

When mobile phones fortcoming years will come with a lot of more inside memory, they will be even more small notebook alike or netbook as Intel call the concept, it will be really competion between Google - Android mobile concept and on other side Nokia with symbian.
Nokia bought the small Norwegian company Trolltech last year.Trolltech developes programs in Linux for mobiles.
This competion is good for customers and even better if Nokia (in phones), Ericsson (in mobile systems) and Microsoft (not large in programs for mobiles,yet) will get more competion.

[Matias Korhonen @ Jun 26th 2008 5:37PM]

Thanks for the lead. http://blog.draco-vulgaris.net/2008/06/26/lips-joins-forces-with-limo-foundation

[SteveS @ Jun 26th 2008 5:52PM]

Trying to keep track, did I miss anyone?

WinMo (and it's various shells)
OSX (iPhone)
Android
Symbian
LiMo
OpenMoko
PalmOS
ALP

[Krush @ Jun 26th 2008 6:17PM]

Access ?

[Steve Paine @ Jun 26th 2008 6:39PM]

Moblin (maybe a few years down the line for smartphones)
Maemo
Mobilinux (MontaVista)
TuxPhone
Qtopia?

Is Access also part of LiMo now though?

Chippy.

[Frank @ Jun 26th 2008 6:09PM]

This is taking things away from the linux spirit. Why we need 4 different incompatible versions of Linux for phones? (Palm OS Linux, LiMo, Android, ALP)

On the desktop one of the main bennefits of Linux is the compatibility. I can choose any distro and any desktop environment and the apps I choose will work on it.

Phones should follow the same rule when doing a linux OS.

[engadget @ Jun 26th 2008 7:55PM]

ALP (the ACCESS Linux Platform)... ACCESS is a member of LiMo and claims that ALP is LiMo compliant and stated that it intends to stay in compliance with with LiMo as it evolves.

[microlith @ Jun 26th 2008 9:42PM]

Compatibility is irrelevant, as they're all very divided environments and extremely proprietary and closed (despite their open base.)

Palm OS Linux I've not heard of, and it seems mostly irrelevant.

Android is sandboxed, with the only supported method for doing anything being in Java. This forcibly keeps you away from the interesting bits of the system while giving the appearance of being open.

LiMo is similar, in that any apps (if there is ever a publicly available SDK) will be severly sandboxed in some fashion. In fact, LiMo seems to be developed largely as a means of limiting the GPL license to only the kernel, the rest of the software stack is as closed as it gets.

[BluesK1d @ Jun 27th 2008 12:30PM]

Don't worry, since the megabastage empire known as Verizon snagged the last position on the LiMo board of directors, they will find a way to ensure it only appears to be open and it'll be obscured by the truly open Android platform.