Last week I had a summer vacation. Which I spent on a walking holiday in the North of Scotland. I'm not one for sitting on a hot beach, so myself wife and two children walked the Great Glen which amounted to about 80 miles of hiking over 6 days.

So what's this got to do with Linux and Mobile! Well when we got to the planning stage there was an itemized list of 'must have' accessories that we took. But my central piece of equipment that allowed me to gather information on the holiday was a cheap Ultra Mobile Device from Asus. The EeePC 700 series costing about 250 pounds. It runs a customized version of Linux from Xandros. Our total must have 'gadget' list for this 8 day hiking holiday for an 8 year old girl, 11 year old boy, and two adult parents were:

4 mobile phones one with GPS! ... :-) Getting lost in the highlands of Scotland can be scary!
2 Nintendo's for kids to play with in the evenings
1 i-pod nano for the wife to listen to when I start talking about Linux.
1 D-SLR Olympus 510 camera to hopefully take nice pictures.

At this stage we had no requirement for a laptop. However, we now had chargers for 8 devices that we had to carry with us and hopefully use at our B&B stops to charge up our devices. We also may want to store pictures onto 'something'. Shooting in RAW format for a 10 mega-pixel camera creates very large files. My wife wanted to take a large music selection. The children wanted to watch movies in the evening if possible, and finally I thought it might be handy to get internet access to read mails, blog, upload photos, read tech news etc...
Hence we ended up taking the ASUS EeePC as our 'commissioner'.

Out of the box the machine recognized USB drives, hence connecting the Olympus 510 D-SLR camera directly allowed me to upload pictures from the device. Removing the Micro Drive from the camera and placing in a USB card reader onto the ASUS also allowed access to pictures.
Connecting the I-Pod Nano to the ASUS immediately spawned Amarok Music Manager allowing my wife to access the I-Pod, play songs from it, and add new ones. This also allowed my wife to use the ASUS as a mini music player for the I-Pod to play in the Log cabin we stayed at for two nights.
We no longer needed chargers for the HTC Mobile, I-Pod, and Nokia's as they charged up from the USB connection to the ASUS.
With the added help of my Vodafone USB Data card I also had internet access to read mails, tech blogs, upload photos, etc...
We also had some DIV-X encoded movies on the ASUS which we thought the children may want to watch while we stayed on the bunk-house boat. So no need for a mini DVD player and DVD's then!

All in all the Ultra Mobile Linux Device turned out to be an extremely versatile machine. The things that surprised me the most is that I did not have to purchase software to:
1) give me word processors, spread sheets, or power point apps this was pre-installed as part of Open Office;
2) allow me to listen to my I-Pod or use it on my computer;
3) to allow me to view my photos an manipulate then in a photo-album format. This was done by gwenview photo manager, again installed out of the box; and
4) DIV-X moves played out the box with no extra installation and setup required.

After reflecting back on this fantastic trip what things did I really learn? Well my list follows:
1) GPS is a great tool when you have an 8 year old girl asking 'are we there yet?' on an 18 mile hike.
2) A picture viewer is a fantastic device to discus over a relaxing meal in the evening of all the interesting things you may have seen.
3) You are more likely to enjoy playing your I-Pod through a music player in the evening over a glass of wine than you are to have it plugged in to your ears during a 12 mile hike.
4) 3G is hard to find on top of mountains! :-)
5) Great views can be found at every turn, make sure you take a good camera!
6) You are always to tired to watch movies in the evening. Don't bother wasting Flash Drive space on DIV-X movies on your Ultra Mobile!

So would I bother taking an ultra mobile running Linux again on a walking holiday where weight and space in a ruck sack is a premium! For trips longer than 2-3 days most definitely yes.

A very bold title for what is a blog about a Linux driver for a 3G/HSDPA Network card. But I think if you read on you may start to understand that the telco giant 'Vodafone' whom I depict as a 600lb gorilla is now looking rather favourably at the Linux penguin. Let me explain...

It's been a year since Betavine put the Linux data card drivers on the site. During this time the forum has had 9 threads, many thousands of views and more than 80,000 downloads. This could mean that your average Linux user is technically more adapt than your Windows users, or that the software is quite easy to use. Personally I'd go for the latter! However, from a Vodafone perspective it's been a remarkably cost effective product to produce and bring to market. Even the development costs are hidden behind 'R&D' costs what a win-win situation....
The software is as robust and responsive as it's Windows counterpart, although installation for the many different distributions of Linux is proving to be challenging!!!

So are Vodafone coming out of the closet and saying 'Yes we support Linux Drivers now', well support is a very strong word! :-) ... What I can say is that Vodafone and Betavine are now very active in our support of the Open Source software project relating to the Linux Drivers!

While you dwell on all this, think how you would build software that goes on a MAC and/or Windows PC and reports metrics back to a Vodafone controlled server on how well your hardware and network are performing. Think of the hurdles you would have to jump when talking to Microsoft and/or Apple about the software running on their OS! Think of the development costs in maintaining this.

Now think of the reaction you would get if you say to the Linux community:

"Hey we're building an open source driver for our data cards, we want to make sure we can improve our radio coverage, network quality, handover and reliability. Mind if we collect the metrics when you use the card?"

I'm guessing there would be a cheer from the community about the very fact a major Telecom's vendor recognising Linux.

So what could we expect in the coming months from Vodafone and Betavine? Presently the talks are still at a preliminary stage. But it looks like there is a strategy developing on how Vodafone can move forward in helping to support this product, and take a more active role. This could be:

1) Dedicated support on forums, and email enquiries;
2) Sponsored development of languages for the software;
3) A better portal for an easier deployment;
4) Engagement of major Linux distributions to get the software into their repositories for automatic download via package management such as synaptic and adaptic managers;
5) Improvements in the UI; and
6) Support of metrics gathering for product improvement as is done in the Mac and Windows version designed to help Vodafone to justify increased support for the Linux activity!
7) Expansion in support for UMPC's.

When will this all happen? You will just have to wait for the next blog to find out!
But it has to be said, the 600 pound gorilla has woken up to Open Source technology, and the growth in Linux computing both in the mobile and PC space!

This month I've noticed a lot of activity from the Linux distro community, namely Ubuntu! It seems that there is an acceleration in convergence from the computer world and the mobile world with respect to MID'S (Mobile Internet Device).

In one corner the computer industry are making smaller devices with typically WIFI access known as a MID. Small computers, that are connected via various wireless technologies. Anyone interested in this can have a look at moblin which has a lot of information on this subject.

In the other corner is the large mobile players like Nokia who are producing devices like the Nokia N800 family. Looking at the smartphone market, these devices are very much like a MID in terms of screen size and functionality. The Apple Iphone a device that blurs the edges. In fact I'm in the camp that makes no distinction, they are all communication devices with different form factors, and integrated technologies.

I believe that this year will be the year that small computer tablets will start to be used as a total communications device for early adopters. Starting with devices that are Wifi enabled, using Voice Over IP clients.

We can start to see this already with Canonical supporting a Ununtu MID device using an adapted Ubuntu Linux distribution. To try match the usability of the Iphone multi-touch display Canonical are talking about using Flash or Clutter as the finger touch interface to the device.



To power the device the new Intel chipset Silverthorne is going to be used. But will the typical end user trust such a device to deliver a robust voice service such as the typical GSM/UMTS handsets provide? Maybe in certain circumstances this will provide a viable alternative for some users. Should large operators be concerned about this? Currently I'm not too sure. I believe in the short term it could provide a vehicle to show what can be done with the UI on small devices, and how to build a whole new compelling suite of services on small devices. Operators typically do not get involved to much in the development of software for devices, but like to keep themselves at arm's reach, in part due to the difficulty of trying to support the diverse number of devices on a network. Maybe this will encourage a bit more participation in getting involved on the coal face! After all it can only be a good thing for operators to have more intelligent and user friendly devices on their network.

In the longer term, I believe the Ubuntu community is strong enough and big enough to really produce a compelling MID. It's interesting to see how Canonical have gone for building the device using an intel chipset, while the Android initiative have gone for having their device build by a typical mobile manufacturer.

Well it's been a hugely busy month at Betavine. Both in terms of work, and interest from parties external and internal to Vodafone in the site.


However, the most interesting turn of events that's happened by far in my mind is easily within the Mobile Linux space. Which has culminated in Nokia's wish to purchase Trolltech, the Open Source software company famously known for it's QT Widget's, Qtopia Widgets for mobile devices and it's work with KDE. Apparently Nokia have valued it's worth at 105 million euros!

For me this is a very strategic move by Nokia. However when you start to look at the history in the past year does it seem to be unusual?

1) Trolltech abandon further development of Green phone. Concentrating more on the their Software framework. This seemed like the most logical course of action. They proved a point, that a relatively small software company who specialise in Open Source software could deliver a Linux mobile device.

2) Trolltech then ported their software to run on the OpenMoko Neo device. Very nice indeed! They now proved that it can work on different devices.

3) At the Trolltech conference in October 2007 they demonstrate gesture-touch functionality that exceeds my expectations, and in some respects contain some very innovative ideas that would put the I-Phone to shame (the touch keyboard for sending SMS is truly the best I've every seen, and that includes the I-phone!).

4) Google bring out Android. This is probably quite a major blow to Trolltech. To put things into perspective, Google now have a very large carrot to entice open source developers. Open source developers are the life blood to companies like Trolltech. Google also puts forward a Linux/Java-LikeSDK, where Trolltech still have a C++ based environment (Although Jamba is in someway trying to redress this).

5) It is at this point Trolltech are in a poor situation. On one side you have LiMo who are edging towards a GTK windowing solution, Android in the other, and Trolltech siding with LiPs. For many people LiPs look very much like taking a 'specification' based approach to bringing mobile Linux under one umbrella. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to guess what Trolltech did. They left LiPs.

6) Trolltech setup partnership agreements with F-Origin later in the year. (And you can read a previous blog about them by me if you like.)

7) Trolltech licence predictive eZiText from Zi-corporation and incorporate into their Qtopia framework.

8) Trolltech setup partnership agreements with Red Bend.

9) Trolltech joined LiMo.

10) Nokia buy Trolltech..........

Once you actually analyse the behaviour of this small company it does not seem so surprising that someone like Nokia attempt to purchase all shares. The behaviour of Trolltech is quite aggressive in it's strategy to partnership, and build on it's product portfolio.
I'm still hoping that Nokia have not done this as a defensive ploy, but rather to strategically build a small company who is still exhibiting massive innovation in this area. Nokia have the expertise to deliver fantastic devices (N810, and N800 are truly ahead of the times). Trolltech seem to me to have expertise in delivering platforms that developers love to develop on. They have a very good focus on UI which is the most important aspect to get correct for a device that is designed to be feature rich.

I'm still wondering how this will impact relationships with companies such as ZTE and Trolltech? How does this fit into Nokia's strategy since they also part own Symbian? With my Vodafone hat on, it raises questions in the LiMo camp.

I can just see the new marketing slogans coming out now... ' Nokia phones...The future's bright, the futures green!.... '

I'd like to hear views from anyone on this amazing turn of events in the Mobile Linux space. So please click on 'reply' and drop me a line.


Nicholas Herriot.

From the title you can be forgiven that this article is about mobile surfing! I've used the term Web to describe the entanglement of companies, organisations, and versions of 'Mobile Linux' that have appeared. Added to the confusion is that many are claiming to try help stop fragmentation. It could be argued they are simply adding to it! So what's different and blog worthy?



In the past few months there has been a lot of activity in actually producing 'something' from two of the organisations, and a bold step by a few of the foundation members. In my mind this has been a lot down to the publicity of Android pushing the organisations and companies into actually moving things forward. I'm not saying that Android caused them to take action, just that it's put pressure on them to show how their work is progressing.

1) The Linux Phone Standard (LiPS) Forum said last week it was releasing 1.0 specifications with a 'telephony' emphasis, in contrast to Android's very 'data' centric view of the world.

2) WindRiver has been selected as the CIE (Common Integration Environment) solution for the LiMo Foundation. It is said that this will allow LiMo to easily manage components, maintain quality, reduce debugging, test and validation cycles for it's members. Allowing for OEM's and Operators to exchange components easily so they may differentiate their handsets while still remaining within the LiMo standard.



3) Access has started a feasibility study into using Access Linux Platform (ALP) as a basis for a shared software platform for Linux Mobile Phones. This is being driven by NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic and ESTEEMO. The shared platform will be based on ALP and MOAP(L) (Mobile Oriented Application Platform based on Linux), which is DoCoMo's existing Linux platform.

The interesting thing is that many of the companies are already members of 'Linux Foundations' but seem to be acting in a very 'uni-lateral fashion! It looks like Android has really put a rocket up the back side of most Linux foundations. This could be perceived as fear that Android may become a de-facto standard in the Linux race in the not so distant future. My personal belief is that whoever 'courts' the developer community with the highest degree of success may gather enough support to generate the momentum required to 'spin the wheel'! That puts Android in front by a long way.

I look forward to 2008 with interest to see what kind of hardware will be running what kind of software in next years mobile devices!