Intel Acquires Mobile Linux Developer OpenedHand 37
nerdyH writes with the news that Intel has acquired OpenedHand, the developer of 'Poky Linux' and Matchbox. "The UK-based embedded Linux services team will join the Intel Open Source Technology Center, and will focus on Moblin development for mobile Internet devices and other mobile devices." The article notes that Intel's Moblin initiative had "failed to generate much interest" among developers when first announced earlier this year; this acquisition might help it catch the attention of more Linux developers.
Openmoko (Score:3, Insightful)
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Weren't Openhand working closely with the Openmoko project? If so, will Intel pull them out of their work on the Neo/Freerunner?
We were, but our work with them finished quite a while ago now.
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Wow... I wonder how far the Clutter project was inspired by this:
http://slashdot.org/~heironymouscoward/journal/50829 [slashdot.org]
"The concept, which we're calling "Clutter" for want of a better word, is simple and yet general. First, the desktop is just a large space with random icons, which we call "motes". A mote is represents a link to some resource: a document, a directory, a web site, a BitTorrent link, whatever. Anything you can drag and drop can become a mote."
From November 2003.
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I would go with "not at all". ;)
Clutter is a UI toolkit, it shares nothing but a name with your link as far as I can tell.
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Openhand were involved with OpenMoko (their window manager matchbox was being used), but since then OpenMoko has dropped matchbox and shifted to Enlightenment Link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080522-openmoko-linux-mobile-phone-ditches-gtk-gets-qt-and-e17.html [arstechnica.com]. So for now, they are not involved with OpenMoko. Although their clutter, matchbox and poky projects are being used at many places.
yeah yeah (Score:1)
wanna bet this isn't gonna help intel much?
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It's interesting that Intel is venturing in the mobile world.
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They wouldn't have bought this company if they didn't think it would help them though. If not for the expertise or resources, it knocks one competitor out of the picture.
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Of course it's to knock out one competitor out, but not the one you'd think : Intel is going after ARM with it's Atom processor.
Re:yeah yeah (Score:5, Insightful)
wanna bet this isn't gonna help intel much?
Wanna bet it will?
I see this as pretty big news. Little-known Linux house gets purchased by Intel. They didn't stand a chance of getting bought by MS, Google, or any other powerhouse. Now, the little Linux vendors will be looked at in a new light. HP, AMD, and will start taking more notice of the little Linux vendors, and that means that VC's will too. This is great news and presents new opportunities for Linux startups.
How will this help Intel? Since when has trend-setting _not_ helped Intel?
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"and that means that VC's will too"
What?
You mean that the Viet Cong is going to buy Linux?
Damn.
Re:yeah yeah (Score:4, Funny)
You mean that the Viet Cong is going to buy Linux?
No, I meant Vatican City.
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The Holy See is committed to standardizing on linux on both its mobile and desktop applications. The pope was once overheard summarizing his opposition to the war in Iraq as "Make Install, Not War."
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The Holy See is committed to standardizing on linux on both its mobile and desktop applications. The pope was once overheard summarizing his opposition to the war in Iraq as "Make Install, Not War."
That makes a lot of sense. I've been known to call out the Lord's name while compiling.
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+5 Informative?!? Will someone please mod me down! I was obviously joking! VC is venture capital. Sheesh.
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What about this? [spunk.org]
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Since when has trend-setting _not_ helped Intel?
Maybe Itanium was an exception.
Matchbox is the Nokia N800 window manager (Score:2, Interesting)
I wish Nokia would now make an Atom-based Maemo tablet... cross-compiling is a pain in the ass, especially with Nokia's "scratchbox" environment.
They won't ignore me now... (Score:1)
Which sounds like the behaviour of a spoilt kid.
Its not that its linux thats important (Score:4, Insightful)
Its what type of Linux, they are buying a Linux vendor that primarily deals with handheld and embedded devices so intel maybe making a bigger move into these categories
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More importantly, I've been trying to decide which window manager to put on my eee-pc 901 (when it finally gets to Australia) I'd narrowed it down to 2 candidates for testing. I know which one I'm going to look at first! Take a look at Matchbox's 'desktop', then look at a default EEE-PC's. Have you seen a non-technical person interact with a default eee-pc install for the first time? (^-^) Their eyes are full of curiosity, instead of fear.
... a new genre in the PC market, and Microsoft is so far f
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Its what type of Linux, they are buying a Linux vendor that primarily deals with handheld and embedded devices so intel maybe making a bigger move into these categories
With Atom (now) / Moorestown (2009-10) for mobile and Canmore for multimedia (this year) I would say that's pretty much a given. The interesting part is seeing how far Intel will go into software as they've traditionally stuck to hardware and left others to deliver the OS. Obviously in the desktop market there's a 800lb gorilla in the room, but on mobile/embedded there's an opening for Intel to come in and deliver a total package using Intel hardware, Linux and Intel taking home all the margins. Alternative
Interesting... (Score:2, Interesting)
Anonymous for an obvious reason: I work for Intel.
I wonder if this means that Intel will start using it as the seed of a clearinghouse, instead of hiring their linux talent in-house.
It will be interesting to see if Intel takes the wide and different groups of programming teams, and just having this absorbed company make the generic apps, and in a way unify the applications corporate-wide (which is good for FOSS in general IMHO). Meanwhile, the individual groups can still make the drivers and chip-specific c
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If Intel wants grow in the embedded/mobile market the most significant decision they could make would be to start supporting the coreboot project. AMD has a far greater level of support there and so vendors are going with AMD.
I don't think AMD goes out of their way to support coreboot, they just don't go out of their way to not support it, like Intel seems to do.
http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices [coreboot.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode_(processor) [wikipedia.org]
hx2000 iPaq support finally? (Score:1)
Hopefully the Linux on iPaq hx2000 series gets finished now. That would be one sweet handheld computer then, decent amount of RAM and 620MHz processor in the palm of your hand - and not limited to winCE.
Linux boots on the device and GPE runs, but they had troubles with the WIFI module and a few of the Intel chips. Plus I think only one guy was working on it.
The age of roll-your-own firmware has begun (Score:1)