Re: The future of mobile computing.

[Brandon Invergo]

Omar Radwan <address@hidden> writes:

> 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. 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. 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. Another
> problem is UI, which doesn't seem like that much of an issue. But is there 
> anything currently in the works

GNU already works on mobile hardware.  Most phones/tablets are running
on CPUs with ARM architecture, on which GNU software builds and runs
without problems.  Specifically, for example, the Sailfish OS (on Jolla
phones) uses a lot of GNU software.  Unfortunately, they put a lot of
proprietary code on top (UI stuff) and below (drivers), so the phones
can't be recommended in the end.  As for UI, GNOME has obviously been
putting in a lot of effort towards touchscreen compatability.

I think the chief challenge is that in the mobile field, everyone is
following Apple's lead and tightly integrating hardware and software,
making it difficult to implement free replacements for the software
without significant reverse engineering effort.

There is the Replicant project for making a libre Android (it's not an
official GNU project), but I think even there you are stuck with
proprietary drivers to run some essential hardware bits.  Could anyone
who has used Replicant confirm/deny/elaborate on that?

-brandon

-- 
Brandon Invergo
http://brandon.invergo.net

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