[revolink24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanielCox /img/forum/go_quote.gif As mentioned above Linux dominates the phone market - Symbian and Android are Linux based. Linux on the desktop is great but I don't think it's quite there - in my book Linux runs behind the scenes and its successes are in phones, servers and other embedded devices.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm confused. Are you unaware that Android is Linux with an application running on top of it?

I'm completely aware of that. But there's only one of them (in the smartphone sense). Unlike desktop linux with hundreds of distros.

Android is as much Linux at its core as OS X is BSD.

 

[marvin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not quite. Nokia are required by law to provide licences to their phone patents, otherwise nobody would be allowed to make a mobile/cell phone at all. However, with Apple they refused unless Apple also licensed their iPhone patents to Nokia, so Apple told them where to go.

Not much of a difference though. Crosslicensing patents is a common deal with technology companies or no one would be able to release a product without getting sued into oblivion. Apple didn't want to play by the rules of the game and so it's off to the court system since MAD didn't work.

/See: Why patent troll companies are so terrible: MAD doesn't work with them since there's no product to threaten.

This is also why Apple picked HTC as a target instead of Google, Palm, Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft or any of the other major players. HTC's short history as a Taiwanese ODM means that its patent portfolio is rather small and hasn't acquired the patents of mass destruction that the other players have. Sounds like a good time for HTC to raise about a billion or so to acquire Palm...

Also amusing that Microsoft seems to be supporting Apple in the fight against Google. How quickly things change... Maybe we'll see Bing on the iPhone after all.

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by revolink24 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm completely aware of that. But there's only one of them (in the smartphone sense). Unlike desktop linux with hundreds of distros. Android is as much Linux at its core as OS X is BSD.

You missed my other post - there are many phones that run linux as their core OS. Most of the time the manufacturer doesn't exactly inform the press.

What you've said is true, but, it's just as true to say "Ubuntu is as much linux at it's core as OS X is BSD".