Linux on mobile phones is a touchy subject. The only reason there is an effort to port the penguin on your cell phone is to reduce licensing costs. Sure Linux advocates will talk about openness and freedom, but at the end of the day you have to collect your receipts and see where you’re leaking money. The world’s most popular smartphone os, Symbian, requires a licensing fee. If phone manufactures and carriers are given the choice to use a free alternative than what exactly can stop them?
President of the Linux Phone Standards Forum, Haila Wang said: “Ongoing elaboration and adoption of the LiPS standards specifications will sustain the impressive growth of mobile Linux deployment, enhancing interoperability among devices and software, and streamlining time-to-market and rollout for Linux-based devices and services.”
There are plenty of standards, the problem is we don’t pick one and run with it. Welcome to the world of mobile phone fragmentation. It plagues Java and now it will plague Linux.
[Via: Ars Technica]