Re: The future of mobile computing.

[Andrew Roffey]

Omar Radwan wrote:
> Since 1989 till about 2005, desktops where the main computing 
> platforms, and from then till about 2010, laptops where the main 
> computing platforms. The GNU project and other free software projects
> have been able to maintain a fully free operating system on both
> devices.

To an extent, but there are some areas that haven't been so successful,
e.g. WiFi, graphics, not sure about printers.


> But the problem now it that phones and tablets are taking up massive
>  market share from both laptops and desktops. And as of right now, 
> there is no way to run a fully free operating system on those 
> devices. And that's bad.

Completely agree.


> I was wondering if there is any plan within the GNU project to start
>  making GNU phone and tablet compatible. Like all the stuff under the
>  hood can be used, the problem is writing free firmware drivers to be
>  able to use the device.

There is Replicant, an Android/CyanogenMod distribution that aims to be
fully free. However, free firmware for some peripherals on most
smartphones is missing, typically for the modem part, which is a
significant setback IMHO. I actually don't know if Replicant loads up a
non-free blob or if the modem is independent of the main CPU.

AFAIK Replicant doesn't contain much GNU at all, but I don't necessarily
think this is important for providing a free smartphone OS.

Their website:
http://www.replicant.us/

[I'm just a GNU/Linux user, not authoritative on GNU or Replicant.]

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Andrew Roffey  http://andrew.roffey.org
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