Linux set to make mobile splash

It's emerging as a primary platform, says Linux Foundation exec
Linux is set to make a major impact in the mobile computing realm, the executive director of the Linux Foundation stressed at a conference Monday morning.

Speaking at the Open Mobile Exchange portion of the O'Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON) in Portland, Ore., Jim Zemlin, executive director of the foundation, touted the trends and technologies pushing Linux into a leadership position in mobile systems. He was followed by Jason Grigsby, Web strategist at mobile and Web design firm Cloud Four, who emphasized the coming influence of the mobile Web but countered that developers are not ready for it.

Zemlin said Linux has emerged as a primary platform, even on the desktop, but it has also spread to devices such as gas pumps and medical equipment. It is also being deployed in Wall Street trading, consumer electronics and in space-based equipment.

"It's clear that Linux is going to be a leader in the mobile space," Zemlin said.

Linux, according to Zemlin, offers a unified product platform, flexibility, and a software stack. It also has experienced an increase in the volume of software content, with the lines of Linux handset code doubling every year.

"Really, what's happening in mobile is instead of having a hardware-up approach, you're starting to see a software-down approach," with the software experience driving the mobile marketplace, he said.

By supporting Linux, developers don't have to contend with compatibility issues of supporting different platforms. The industry wants to get away from that, he said.

"It's just a nightmare to support all these different OSes and try to maintain some degree of compatibilty," Zemlin said.

Different middleware packages and application development frameworks are available for Linux. "There's a huge freedom to mix the core Linux kernel," he said.

Business drivers for Linux include reduced deployment costs, room to differentiate, and an ecosystem of development around phone platforms. "It's obviously a royalty-free platform. That's a huge business driver, Zemlin said.

"Linux really allows device manufacturers and new people to come in and create their own brand," he said.

Symbian's move to open source has had a negative impact on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, leaving it the only royalty-based mobile platform, Zemlin said .

Linux application development is starting to coalesce around initiatives such as Google's Android and LiMo (Linux Mobile Foundation), he said. Other Linux efforts are afoot such as Openmmoko, to create a smart-phone platform, and Ubuntu Mobile, Zemlin said.

"There really isn't any major player from a corporate point of view who doesn't have their foot in some way in the Linux camp," other than Microsoft, Zemlin said.

Other efforts involve development of Linux mobile devices such as notebook systems. "You're going to see 50 of those companies launch next year," Zemlin said.

Grigsby, meanwhile, emphasized that the mobile Web is coming, but Web developers are not ready yet.

There are 3.3 billion mobile devices on the planet, he said. "That's one for every two people," and more than the number of PCs, cars, televisions and credit cards, he said.

He lauded the capabilities of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and what it has done for mobile computing. "The iPhone is really the Mosaic of the mobile Web," opening people's eyes to opportunities on the mobile side the way Mosaic did with browsers, Grigsby said.

But the mobile Web is being held back by UI issues and access to the device characteristics on the phone. Standards and performance also are issues.
Grigsby predicted more fracturing, proprietary extensions, and a return to the browsers wars on the device side. There are many different browsers, he said. A lot of mobile browsers are designed around WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) rather than featuring full desktop rendering technology such as JavaScript, Grigsby said.

Web developers, he added, have become bandwidth gluttons, spoiled by high-speed broadband connections they won't have on mobile devices.

In other developments at OSCON:

Microsoft later this week plans to discuss plans for the upcoming IronRuby 1.0, which is a version of the Ruby programming language compatible with the .Net software development platform.

Canonical officials said they would introduce version 2.0 of the Launchpad hosting platform for software development projects. The 2.0 version includes a beta Internet services API enabling external applications to authenticate, query and modify data stored in the Launchpad database programmatically. The Bazaar distributed version control system featured in Launchpad has been enhanced to improve handling of larger code bases.

The makers of Icecore, an open source collaboration platform, are changing the name of the technology to Kablink and adding functionality for workflow. The name change was inspired by the addition of workflow and also is intended to avoid confusion with first-generation technologies, the company said in a statement.

Critical Week for Canonical and Ubuntu Linux

Canonical CEO and Ubuntu Linux backer Mark Shuttleworth will step into the spotlight July 22, when he keynotes OSCON (Open Source Convention) in Portland, Oregon. It will be a critical moment for Shuttleworth and the Ubuntu movement. Here’s why.

Canonical was originally scheduled to host Ubuntu Live — a mini convention — as part of the broader OSCON this week. Instead, Canonical canceled the mini-event and promised to introduce smaller regional and online events over the next few months.

When Canonical canceled Ubuntu Live, however, The VAR Guy wondered if Canonical was conceding that it had bitten off more than it could chew this year. Just look at all the projects on Canonical’s plate:

1. Ubuntu Desktop Edition: Any new preload deals coming, Mark?

Ubuntu got a big mainstream win in mid-2007 when Dell agreed to pre-install Ubuntu on selected Desktops. The VAR Guy and other Ubuntu followers expected (perhaps foolishly) that Dell rivals like Hewlett-Packard would quickly jump on the Ubuntu desktop bandwago. HP has won some Ubuntu-related customer deals, but has said little about its Ubuntu plans.

When Ubuntu’s latest release arrived in April 2008, we expected the upgrade (version 8.04) to generate more pre-load news from big PC makers. But even Dell took extra time before starting 8.04 preloads.

2. Ubuntu Server Edition: Ubuntu on the server is going to be a very long, slow-moving initiative that will require more software developers, hardware makers and integrators to climb on the bandwagon.

The VAR Guy is starting to hear from folks who are successfully deploying or running Ubuntu Server Edition. But Ubuntu on the server remains in its infancy.

The VAR Guy on April 24, 2008, stated that The Ubuntu Server Revolution Starts Today. But companies like Dell took a wait-and-see approach to Ubuntu on the server, and Sun is the only major server maker to truly endorse Ubuntu.

3. Ubuntu Netbooks: This is one of Canonical’s more promising strategies. Netbooks — or sub-notebooks with Ubuntu pre-installed — have drawn interest from customers and hardware makers alike.

But Microsoft will surely pressure sub-notebook makers to stick with Windows Vista by steeply discounting Windows, especially in emerging markets.

4. Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device Release: Canonical has to do a better job communicating how Ubuntu for Netbooks and the Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) release are related — if at all.

It sounds like Ubuntu for Netbooks is purely for sub-notebooks, but Ubuntu MID is for touchscreen devices like smart phones or iPhone-sized devices that have WiFi but no cell service. Also, how will Ubuntu MID compete with Google Android — or is there little overlap between the platforms?

So many questions for such a small company like Canonical. The VAR Guy wonders if Shuttleworth should simplify Canonical and simply focus like a laser on desktop Linux.

Or does Canonical really have the developer backing, financial resources and patience to compete on desktops, mobile devices, smart phones and servers?

Hopefully, Shuttleworth will provide some answers July 22.

Oh, and by the way, this is just the start of Canonical’s summer blitz for Ubuntu. Expect to hear more about Ubuntu and server software partners at LinuxWorld in August.

Why replace that gadget? An upgrade may be better

Obsoleting obsolescence: One of the holy grails for parsimonious gadget lovers is a device that can be perennially upgraded - instead of buying a new one, just swap out the software. Joshua Martin, an analyst at Yankee Group in Boston, thinks the consumer electronics industry may finally be waking up to the importance of this, citing Microsoft's plan to overhaul the software interface of its Xbox 360 game console.

The industry is recognizing the need for an upgrade path to keep older devices relevant. There was a time that you needed a new iPod every year. Now the devices are small enough, store enough, offer ample features, and have their capabilities upgraded often enough that keeping a device longer is not unreasonable. The emergence of upgradeable software presents a number of possibilities that consumer electronics manufacturers must consider: selling less hardware, becoming part of a new revenue stream, and requiring CE companies to become software experts.

Ultimately, the lesson to be garnered from the change is that the experience matters most and the device is becoming secondary. blogs.yankeegroup.com

YouTube slippage: Venture capitalist David Beisel pulled apart some recent data hinting that YouTube's dominant market share of online video-viewing may be waning.

I believe we're entering a second phase of the online video space in which the discovery mechanisms for (semi-)professional content, coupled with the increase of professional content available online in a distributed fashion, will facilitate a willingness of users to venture beyond YouTube to consume video across the net. But it won't happen overnight. Especially when I hear that the dirty little secret from many independent video producers who maintain their own destination sites is that an overwhelming number of their views come via YouTube and not on their own distribution. While Google's universal search in theory should facilitate this transition, given that in this case Google owns the both content (YouTube) and the discovery mechanisms (Google search), their incentive to push the latter is in conflict with their other own interest. Herein lies the problem - how do you find good video without going to YouTube?

This open question has inhibited the shift in video consumption past its original portal through to the distributed net - where the rest of web content consumption occurs. Perhaps the results of the past two ComScore surveys have signaled a change in consumers habits in which they're finding video content wherever they just happen to be surfing anyway. The best (or at least a better) discovery mechanism will come in time, perhaps via a startup which eclipses Google while it's conflicted . . . but regardless, eventually measuring "video sites traffic" will be redundant given that video will proliferate to all corners of the web on a predominant number of pages.

There's a good chance we'll look back at this summer then and point to it as when it all really began to happen.
genuinevc.com

Embracing dissimilarity: Are Americans sorting themselves into homogeneous bins? Michael Feinstein, managing director of the Waltham investment firm Sempre Management, posted some reflections on an NPR interview that featured the author of a new book called "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart."

When I think about entrepreneurship, I always associate it with new ideas, high energy, and commitment. This is exactly what you get with new immigrants who come to the U.S. to make their lives better. My grandparents were immigrants, and my paternal grandfather was an entrepreneur. He built up a pretty big wholesale and retail grocery business after coming to the country with very little. While there is nothing stopping native-born Americans from being just as entrepreneurial, our privileged upbringing probably removes some of the inner hunger that an immigrant who has to overcome large obstacles probably has.

But, even more important than making sure we continue to have a steady stream of immigrants coming into the U.S. with new ideas and new energy, we all need to continue to expose ourselves to new people and new ideas to avoid complacency. We tend to settle into our comfort zones where life is predictable and less challenging. That's a recipe for stagnation. Instead, we need to force ourselves to meet new people, from different backgrounds, and embrace new ideas.
thefeinline.com