Beaverton, Oregon-based OSDL’s new Mobile Linux Initiative sits alongside its existing Data Center, Carrier Grade, and Desktop working groups to target the growing interest in Linux as a mobile device platform.
Like the OSDL’s other working groups, the MLI will provide a forum for creating requirement specifications based on existing implementations and invest in existing and new mobile Linux projects to identify and fill gaps in the open source operating system’s functionality.
The non-profit OSDL said the initiative had been formed in response to input from its members, which include Linux distributors, hardware and software providers, services firms, and Linux users. Existing OSDL members lined up to participate in the MLI include MontaVista Software Inc, Motorola Inc, PalmSource Inc, Trolltech Inc, and Wind River Systems Inc.
The MLI will focus on both technical and economic issues related to mobile Linux deployment. Technical areas of focus will include real-time, power management, security, memory footprint, and fast boot functionality, while economic issues will include bill of materials, open reference stacks, royalty-free components, time to market, and competitiveness.
Deliverables already targeted by MLI include analysis of gaps in Linux kernel functionality, identifying use cases to support requirements specifications, and the creation of formal requirements specifications.
The MLI will also create a registration process by which distribution suppliers and ISVs will be able to demonstrate that they have implemented the key requirements in their mobile Linux platforms, devices, and applications.
Linux is seen as a significant platform for mobile devices given the small footprint of the Linux kernel and its low cost, but the proliferation of numerous vendor-driven distributions has so far limited its impact on global brands such as Symbian and Microsoft Corp’s Windows Mobile.
It is clearly seen as an important platform for some of the biggest names in the mobile industry, however. Motorola Inc has said that Linux is at the heart of its long-term handset strategy announced its membership of the MLI by praising Linux’s ability to enable it to differentiate its products and services at a lower cost.
Motorola is in the process of suing PalmSource Inc for $8.69m for pulling out of merger talks last month. PalmSource instead sold out to mobile browser and content delivery software developer Access Co Ltd leaving Motorola fuming over its failure to land PalmSource’s community of 400,000 mobile application developers and a Linux kernel following PalmSource’s acquisition earlier this year of China MobileSoft Ltd.
The MLI will give Motorola a chance to work with PalmSource on mobile Linux technologies after all, but not to the extent Motorola would have wanted. For its part, PalmSource welcomed the announcement of the MLI and its potential to unite vendors around an agreed Linux implementation for mobile devices.
