Hi, Just for info: Harald Welte was the first system architect of OpenMoko, so he has built mobile phones in the past.
At OpenMoko they did try to build a GNU/Linux based mobile phone software stack...we all know the results. I know that I am being unfair here, there were many reasons why OpenMoko failed, but one of the reasons was that they failed to create a good software stack. Personally, I found in Android what I missed in GNU/Linux approaches: a clean architecture. Android was not designed to be Linux or GNU/Linux. It is a completely different system, which just happens to be using the Linux kernel. Also, if I am not mistaken, some of the Android architects came from Palm, where they already built embedded devices for some time. Regarding the lack of System V IPC: There is a clear comment in bionic, why it was not included. (It creates leaks in the kernel) Instead, you have Binder. There is a similarly clear comment about why e.g. pthread_cancel() is not implemented and why C++ exceptions are not supported. So Android did not throw out anything. It was simply built from the ground up by choosing already available components (Linux, sqlite ... etc.) and implementing others to fulfill the requirements. This also meant that they had to cut corners where necessary (e.g. time and resource constraints). Of course Android is far from perfect (both technically and as an open-source project), it is enough to just look into the android-platform list to see that. There are many ugly places in the code...etc. But its system architecture is clean and I like it way better to work with than the GNU/Linux alternative for mobile phones. Best Regards, Gergely PS: I think the linked presentation in the blog entry provides a fair overview: http://tree.celinuxforum.org/CelfPubWiki/ELCEurope2009Presentations?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Mythbusters_Android.pdf On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Al Sutton <[email protected]> wrote: > I read it, to me it sounds like its' written by someone who doesn't > understand the complexities of mobile 'phone development. > > Flexibility costs. It costs in terms of storage, processing > requirements, and battery life. I've yet to see a full Linux/GNU > installation on a phone sized device that can run for 24 hours without > a charge, and I doubt that it would be possible, but hey, I'm always > willing to be proven wrong if you can provide me with an example.... > > (and before anyone says N900, even Nokia don't try to call it a > smartphone, they call it a Mobile Computer). > > Al. > -- > > * Looking for Android Apps? - Try http://andappstore.com/ * > > ====== > Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the > company number 6741909. > > The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not > necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's > subsidiaries. > > On 5 Nov 2009, at 17:38, PeeDee wrote: > >> If you haven't seen this: >> >> http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2009/11/04/#20091104-android_mythbusters >> >> -- >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "Android Discuss" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en >> . >> >> > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Android Discuss" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
