Libre (free, open source) software for mobile devices

Talk about libre (free, open source) software for mobile devices, held on October 21st 2011 at "I Jornadas Universitarias de Programación Movil" (Madrid, Spain). Main topics covered are:
- What is libre software and how does it impact developers
- Brief history of libre software for mobile devices

Transcript

1. Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona jgb@gsyc.es http://identi.ca/jgbarah http://twitter.com/jgbarah GSyC/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos I Jornadas Universitarias de Programaci´ on M´ ovil Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, October 21st 2011 Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
2. (cc) 2011 Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona. Some rights reserved. This work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of full license, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 or write to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA. Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
3. Free software... Four freedoms: To run the program To study and change the program To redistribute copies To distribute copies of modified versions Formulated in 1983 (Richard Stallman) Tens of thousands of projects, worldwide Term “open source software” coined in 1998 Different motivations: ethical, practical, etc. Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
4. How does this impact developers? Much better and complete learning process Quick dissemination/acquisition of technologies Collaboration in communities (even informal) You can build, you can fix, you can improve Access to third parties effort (improvements, porting, localization, distirbution, marketing) Your work is your “presentation letter” The value of meritocracy... Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
5. Can you make a living on libre software? You can just be hired by some company You can join a project, earn a reputation, get paid for your expertise, consulting You can start your own project, get paid for improvements, adaptions You can start your own project, obtain the interest of a company You can start your own project, convert it into a successful business Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
6. Libre software for mobile devices, PDAs (1) Late 1990s, early 2000s Some PDAs running systems based on Linux Operating systems: Familiar Linux (Compaq iPAQ) OpenZaurus (Sharp Zaurus) Graphic environments GPE, GNOME/GNU Palmtop Environment Qtopia (based in Qt) http://tuxmobil.org/pda_linux.html Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
7. Libre software for mobile devices, PDAs (2) Late 2000s Until ca. 2008, no (mainstream) role, but several experiments: Maemo (Nokia, 2005) OpenMoko Linux (OpenMoko, 2007) Moblin (Intel, 2007) Apple changed the rules with iPhone (2007) Devices less controlled by carriers Devices more open to third parties (but tightly controlled) Software plays a new role Apple Store hostile to some libre software (GPL)... ...but some libre software for iPhone can be found iOS includes pieces derived from libre software Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
8. Libre software for mobile devices, PDAs (3) The turn of the decade (2008-2011) Android (2008) Based on Linux and ohter libre software pieces (Harmony, etc.) Delayed (2.x) no (3.x) or maybe (4.x) To some extent, vendor-neutral CyanogenMod: real libre software Android Market friendly to libre software Android applications: Sample Android Apps, Remote Droid, Tor Proxy, WordPress for Android, Mustard, Firefox http://source.android.com/ https://market.android.com/search?q=open+source Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
9. Libre software for mobile devices, PDAs (3) The turn of the decade (2008-2011) Others, including reactions to iOS and Android: Symbian OS (Nokia, Symbian Foundation, Accenture): published as libre software in 2010 WebOS (Palm, Hewlett-Packard): based on Linux, but proprietary software Meego (Nokia, Intel), now Tizen: community built libre software Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices
10. To probe further Introduction to Libre Software (Spanish, English) http://curso-sobre.berlios.de/introsobre/ Materials of the URJC master’s program on libre software http://master.libresoft.es Producing Open Source Software http://producingoss.com/ Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution http://commons.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/Open_Sources_2.0 Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution http://oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona Libre (Free, Open Source) Software and Mobile Devices