Follow the Money

Recently a major publication house published an article about how the Tizen smartphone "flopped – and open source is to blame" [1]. If you did read the article, however, you found that even the author did not really believe open source was "to blame." The author blamed the companies behind the projects for a lack of commitment to the use of Open Source, which created a lack of follow-through and (given the number of alternative closed and partially open operating systems they could use) the final use of either Android or Microsoft instead. Of course, this headline particularly infuriated me because even iOS is based on FreeBSD, and both Android and Firefox OS use kernels "based on" Linux. So, "Open Source Failed"?

Developing a world-class operating system and development tool chain is not easy, folks! And, it is particularly difficult when various manufacturers are not "open" about their hardware, creating binary blobs of firmware or device drivers that often require non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) for developers to sign even before they see the documentation.

The article mentioned other Open Source solutions, such as Maemo, and pointed out how Open Source had failed the telephony market. I used Maemo on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Given the time period, the hardware that was available, and everything else, it was a great "phone" – except, it did not have a cellular modem. Was this the fault of the Open Source community, or was it more the whim of a company that should have been able to put a cellular modem into an "Internet Tablet"?

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