[lug] cell phones with linux

[karl horlen]

since i'm not familiar with cell phone development or cell phones generally, what good would having an open OS for a cell phone provide  without the gui or driver source?

would i still be able to develop app(let)s for it?  

would i be able to directly access, copy and edit my contact list or address book using bash cmds / filters?


> > What are the ramifications of having a linux cell
> phone? Does it mean that
> > (1) You have all the source code to the cell phone?
> >   
> For the openmoko, yes.  For almost all other linux
> cellphones, no.  For 
> most linux phones, the linux OS itself is available, but
> the GUI code, 
> device drivers, etc are definitely closed.


> > (2) You can alter and recompile any/all the source
> code and redeploy it to
> > your phone without permission of the manufacturer? (I
> heard stories about
> > how nokia/brew developers have to have special
> permission from nokia to
> > develop applications).
> >   
> For openmoko you can do what you want.  There are at least
> 4 different 
> flavors of OS/GUI available to install at present.  For
> most other linux 
> phones I think you are pretty much locked out.
> 
> > (3) You can subvert the pricing structure where the
> carrier charges double
> > or triple for data transfers (compared to voice) and
> develop wireless
> > embedded applications that transmit their status every
> 15 minutes.phone cards.  
> The answer here is maybe.  I think carriers might be a
> little sloppy 
> with network enforcement because most cellphones are
> crippled and unable 
> to take advantage of the network like a real computer
> could.  For 
> instance, on the openmoko wiki it says that TMobile
> doesn't offer data 
> plans on its pre-pay sims.  However, by manually
> configuring GPRS it is 
> possible to get data access anyway. 
> 
> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Carriers/TMobile
> 
> > (4) If the answer to #3 is yes, will linux cell phone
> become a favorite of
> > terrorists?
> >   
> If by terrorists you mean technologically capable users
> then yes. 
> 
> > Thanks!
> > Siegfried
> >
> >   
> 
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