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QNX just went open source, how will this affect mobile phone operating systems?

Categories: Platforms
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 11:44 AM

logoqnx.gifSymbian powers nearly 7 out of 10 smartphones on the planet. Nokia uses it and builds S60 on top to create devices that lead in multimedia. Sony Ericsson uses it and slaps UIQ on top to create devices that are smarter than typical feature phones. A major competitor to Symbian is Linux, an operating system that was built from the ground up to run primarily on servers. What I just said was a gross generalization, but play along for a moment.

QNX is an operating system built from the ground up to run on embedded hardware. It is a full blown real time operating system that is POSIX compliant. This sucker was made for low power, ultra responsive, never ever (hopefully) going to crash devices. In essence this operating system is an ideal candidate to lay the foundation for a new mobile operating system.

Sure the developer community may be small, yes it is relatively unknown, but the entire OS fits on a floppy disk. Remember those things? Hardware support, graphics subsystem, TCP/IP support, all that on a space smaller than 2 megabytes. Has QNX just set off an atom bomb in the mobile phone world or am I just plain wrong?

I would like to hear what you have to say as I certainly do not have the credentials to comment on something like this.

[Read the interview with the CEO of QNX, Dan Doge, over at OS News to get more information]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • olly

    I think you probably are mostly right here. I’d say the real challenge to getting Embedded Linux is, as you mentioned, the developer community — even among Linux, which has a HUGE developer community, embedded developers are much fewer and far between.

    Where Linux will really shine is on the portability of apps… just as you saw your people porting everything under then sun to the N770 and N800, if the code is there it’s only a matter of time.

    Good read!

    -olly