AfterDawn: News

Research predicts Linux as mobile OS of the future

Over the next five years Linux is expected to be the fastest growing smartphone OS according to research firm ABI Research.

According to a study, Linux will have a compound annual growth raite of more than 75% by 2012.




"We were very aware that the growth in mobile for Linux was huge, but we didn't know it was so astronomic," said Amanda McPherson, marketing director for the Linux Foundation. "These are very encouraging numbers."

"These are very encouraging numbers." Why Linux has drawn significant support from the community of handset manufacturers can be explained on several fronts, McPherson said.

As mobile devices include more and more powerful applications, having one or more standard platforms for them to run on seems essential. Developing applications for things like media delivery almost requires that devices be compatible with each other. It's hard to imagine a more robust environment than Linux for them to use.

If this study is correct, we may see a software boom for such devices. That would ultimately be good for consumers, as well as potentially creating a new software market that would also be good for technology related industries.

Source: TechNewsWorld

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 5 Sep 2007 15:15

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• 14 comments

• Unfocused

  I can't wait for the day when we can choose what OS our phones run on.

  5.9.2007 16:38 #1

• ooZEROoo

  In my opinion the flop called vista is making people switch to a new os such as linux or stay with a an old os such as xp. The more I use linux the more I am starting to prefer it over vista. I'm curious to see how well it's implemented into mobile devices.

  5.9.2007 18:00 #2

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by ooZEROoo: In my opinion the flop called vista is making people switch to a new os such as linux or stay with a an old os such as xp.Yeah, Linux is great on the PC if all you do is type papers and browse the internet. You might be able to watch a movie or listen to music too. Outside of that, when the common person tries to do anything else, like print to their printer, connect to a WiFi network or convert a movie from one format to something compatible for their iPod, they are going to need Windows.
  
  Problem with Vista is that a lot of third parties are late to the show and MS didn't implement enough new features, or prove that this wasn't a buggy OS from the start. So why would anyone switch from XP? You know what they say, if it's not broke, don't fix it!

  5.9.2007 18:17 #3

• aragorn29

  Quote:Yeah, Linux is great on the PC if all you do is type papers and browse the internet. You might be able to watch a movie or listen to music too. Outside of that, when the common person tries to do anything else, like print to their printer, connect to a WiFi network or convert a movie from one format to something compatible for their iPod, they are going to need Windows.
  
  What? That may be the dumbest thing I've read today, as I post this from my laptop running Linux, on my wireless network, which I'm going to use to remotely print in about 10 seconds, and right before I convert a divx file to play on my cell phone, all without Windows. Do yourself a favour, don't make comments on things you know absolutely nothing about, it just makes you appear stupid.
  
  To the topic at hand, of course Linux is a great choice for mobile devices. Its robust, scalable, stable as anything on the market and its FREE, which can help any company's bottom line. Its a no-brainer.

  5.9.2007 20:59 #4

• kptkirby

  Quote:
  What? That may be the dumbest thing I've read today, as I post this from my laptop running Linux, on my wireless network, which I'm going to use to remotely print in about 10 seconds, and right before I convert a divx file to play on my cell phone, all without Windows. Do yourself a favour, don't make comments on things you know absolutely nothing about, it just makes you appear stupid.
  
  To the topic at hand, of course Linux is a great choice for mobile devices. Its robust, scalable, stable as anything on the market and its FREE, which can help any company's bottom line. Its a no-brainer.I believe what he is saying is that to someone who switches to Linux after using XP and having fairly little knowledge of all those issues will find it hard and most probably give up and switch back to XP.
  I must say when I first switched to Linux I couldn't do anything that I wanted, but you know what I did? I hit the internet in search of answers and they were given to me.

  6.9.2007 02:50 #5

• tefarko

  not a surprise since I used a Windows Mobile based smartphone...

  6.9.2007 06:26 #6

• aragorn29

  Quote:
  I believe what he is saying is that to someone who switches to Linux after using XP and having fairly little knowledge of all those issues will find it hard and most probably give up and switch back to XP.
  I must say when I first switched to Linux I couldn't do anything that I wanted, but you know what I did? I hit the internet in search of answers and they were given to me.Which is exactly the same thing I did, but to flat out say that you CAN'T do those things without Windows, is just plain wrong and really boils down to being FUD.

  6.9.2007 08:24 #7

• JaguarGod

  I didn't have a hard time printing in Linux. Actually Linux did a better job recognizing all my hardware than windows. I didn't need to download anything extra. I guess it depends which Linux distribution you use.
  
  I switched back to Windows, but only cause I invested so much in Windows software (Maya, C4D, PhotoShop CS2, DVD Maestro, DVDLab Pro, etc...).

  6.9.2007 10:33 #8

• vtowner

  Quote:Yeah, Linux is great on the PC if all you do is type papers and browse the internet. You might be able to watch a movie or listen to music too. Outside of that, when the common person tries to do anything else, like print to their printer, connect to a WiFi network or convert a movie from one format to something compatible for their iPod, they are going to need Windows. Let me guess, you are one of those people who has used Linux once and because it was different than Windows, you said screw it and went back to xp without even trying to learn anything about it.

  6.9.2007 12:20 #9

• wampired

  Are you reading this Bill?
  
  Your going down with your useless power hogging OS.
  
  Viva La Tux

  6.9.2007 15:59 #10

• hermes_vb

  Originally posted by ooZEROoo: The more I use linux the more I am starting to prefer it over vista.Amen brother!!!!
  
  I started playing with Ubuntu after the multiple headaches Vista gave me. I'm double booting XP and Ubuntu right now, and I'm using them almost 50-50. My goal is to phase out Windows and become a total Linux user before Microsoft releases the "Next Big Thing".

  7.9.2007 18:14 #11

• borhan9

  linux and mac operating systems should be the way to go when it comes to mobile devices knowing that those operating systems can not be effected by viruses.

  10.9.2007 16:50 #12

• vtowner

  Quote:linux and mac operating systems should be the way to go when it comes to mobile devices knowing that those operating systems can not be effected by viruses.Actually there are Linux viruses but not nearly as many as windoze has. There are probably like 30-35 linux viruses, compared to tens of thousands for windoze.
  
  But in Linux you can get away without having a virus scanner. But in windoze you have to have virus scan, anti-malware , anti-adware, anti-spyware, and pretty much anti everything else.
  

  
  

  10.9.2007 18:41 #13

• aragorn29

  Quote:But in Linux you can get away without having a virus scanner. But in windoze you have to have virus scan, anti-malware , anti-adware, anti-spyware, and pretty much anti everything else.There goes 10% of your system resources, right off the top. Pretty soon you'll need a quad-core to keep up with aero, Norton this and that, whatever....No thanks. My old athlon 2000 w/ 765MB ram and an old NVidia Ti runs prettier eye candy than vista AND serves up apache, jabber, sql...There really is no comparison.

  13.9.2007 20:27 #14