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tb1
"Contrary to the negative comments to the Tizen by the most in this blog, I'd ...
KB3001
I am not sure Android will be what it used to be after Google's purchase of ...
Linux groups launch Tizen to fight Android
Peter Clarke
9/28/2011 11:00 AM EDT
LONDON – Two Linux oriented non-profit groups, The LiMo Foundation and The Linux Foundation, have announced an open-source project called Tizen, intended to develop a mobile device software platform based on the Linux operating system.
In what appears to be an attempt to re-invent what search-engine giant Google has achieved with its Android platform, the groups said Tizen would be a standards-based, cross-architecture software platform that supports multiple device categories including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems. The initial release of Tizen is targeted for Q1 2012, enabling first devices to come to market in mid-2012.
Intel will drop its own MeeGo mobile OS initiative in favor of Tizen and reportedly Samsung, a heavy supporter of Android, will seek to reduce its dependency on Google by backing Tizen.
Tizen is set to combine the open-source offerings from LiMo and The Linux Foundation and add HTML5 and web development environment within which device-independent applications can be produced efficiently for cross-platform deployment.
The LiMo Foundation (www.limofoundation.org) was founded by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Orange, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone with the aim of increasing the adoption of Linux within the mobile industry. It includes ARM, Marvell, Renesas and Intel subsidiary Wind River as associate members.
The Linux Foundation (www.linuxfoundation.org) is much broader but has seven platinum members at the top of its organization: Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, NEC, Oracle and Qualcomm.
Morgan Gillis, executive director of The LiMo Foundation decribed Tizen as a "renewed ecosystem" for mobile Linux proponents. The Limo Foundation said that the mobile industry is embracing Linux and open source technologies, but the creation of Tizen appears to be an acknowledgement that the open-source Linux has failed to gain traction in competition against the open but Google-owned Android. The other successful approach towards mobile systems has been the proprietary one of Apple Inc.
The Tizen project promises to lower device realization cost, increase flexibility and improve time to market for system developers.
The Tizen project is being hosted by the The Linux Foundation but has its own website at www.tizen.org
Related links and articles:
www.tizen.org
www.limofoundation.org
www.linuxfoundation.org
News articles:
Intel Lags in Mobile Shift
Intel says will find partners for MeeGo
Nokia's Microsoft deal clouds Finn's future
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rick.merritt
9/28/2011 11:31 AM EDT
At IDF, Otellini said (speaking of MeeGo) there is still an industry desitre for another open mobile Linux ecosystem. Given the patent battles and uncertainty around Google/Motorola, and the need for the LiMo folks to have a roadmap, this makes sense. Still building a new Linux Mobile platform in 2012 is starting from waaaaay behind.
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chanj
9/28/2011 12:52 PM EDT
One of the many nice "features" of Android is it is being backed by Google. Developers don't need to deal with apps and OS level IPs. How're the IPs being dealed with in Tizen and LiMo?
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goafrit
9/28/2011 2:23 PM EDT
Who is funding that one? Maybe we need IBM, Intel and others to back this up. Google needs a challenger.
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yalanand
10/2/2011 11:20 AM EDT
You are right IBM, Intel may be the major investors. Along with them I guess Samsung and HTC will actively invest in this because they dont want to depend on Anroid which is owned by Google.
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tb1
9/28/2011 3:34 PM EDT
The operating system of phones doesn't matter any more. It is about what runs on it. It is just like the PC market and why Windows and OS-X are dominant.
The OS is the easy part. Who's going to come up with the application store infrastructure?
There needs to be a large company with a big financial stake in the continuing development of this OS. This is like a side project for Intel as a way to boost chip sales--not quite the incentive that Apple, Microsoft and Google (through advertising revenue) have.
LiMo and MeeGo couldn't keep up before. What has changed?
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Luis Sanchez
9/28/2011 4:24 PM EDT
What a good comment!
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patrick_yu
9/28/2011 5:02 PM EDT
I believe that the future will be a hybrid. Apps still run on OS, hence the "OS" still matter. The future should be Apps over OS (or runtime) and Apps over browser.
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yalanand
10/2/2011 11:25 AM EDT
Just curious to know if android apps will be able to run on Linux because both of them are open source? If android apps are compatible to Tizen then I think Tizen can give good competition to Android.
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KB3001
9/29/2011 8:13 AM EDT
Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility. I said at the time that they have made a mistake IMHO and I have not changed my mind. They offered their rivals an opportunity they could not dream of to compete with them on their own turf! As for the PC/Mobile analogy, I believe the mobile market has yet to mature and there is still a window of opportunity for competing OSes.
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Luis Sanchez
9/28/2011 4:25 PM EDT
I think each OS has it's flavor. Depending on this are the adopters. Tizen sounds a little Asian and 'steely'... Android is very Google-ish. get the idea?
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Kevin Zamora
9/28/2011 5:03 PM EDT
The reason all this is happening is because companies need to distinguish themselves. Following along doesn't show you're a leader. So what you do is provide distractions with slightly different concepts.....just enough to keep everybody confused and scrambling and thinking you're the next greatest thing. If it fails, then just invent something else.
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PJames
9/28/2011 5:03 PM EDT
"The Tizen project promises to lower device realization cost"
I'm curious what the bases of this is compared to Android.
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GPBobby
9/28/2011 10:29 PM EDT
Maybe they're referring to cost per platform in a cross-platform utilization?
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Robotics Developer
9/28/2011 6:56 PM EDT
I would like to understand the code footprint size differences and the performance differences between Tizen and Android. Does anyone know? I also wonder how full figured an OS Tizen will be...
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peter.clarke
9/29/2011 7:33 AM EDT
Is this also partly an attempt by the old guard, represented by LiMo and Linux Foundations to curtail the success of Google, by providing an alternative that can take market share.
For a long time the telecommunicaions giants fought to keep Wintel out of phones.
It just seems that in the case of Google the IT and communications giants may be trying to shut the stable door after the horse is off and running and half-way across the next county.
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yalanand
10/2/2011 11:29 AM EDT
@peter if market was always looking for alternatives then I wonder why did it kill symbian ? Was it such a bad OS ?
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peter.clarke
10/3/2011 7:57 AM EDT
@yalanland
I am no phone OS expert but I get the impression that, nicely formed as Symbian might be, it was architectured in an earlier era and optimized for less graphical displays (not 3-D for instance), less memory, lower performance processors, lower bandwidth and a simpler, radio environment.
So the market is looking for alternatives that provide headroom it turns of a rich mobile environment that can easily accommodate the latest developments like app stores, sharing data with consumer equipment, and high-security for rights management and wave-and-pay.
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collin
9/29/2011 12:35 PM EDT
After reding this article, my belief on learning and researching Embedded Linux is stronger. Hope the Tizen project could complete successfully and give certain pressure to Android.
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R0ckstar
9/30/2011 3:03 PM EDT
I don't get it. Wasn't it not that long ago that everyone was all GO Android GO! trying to beat the evil WinCE, Palm and IOS establishment? Now it seems Android has mostly delivered on it promises to 'liberate' the common end user from proprietary OS prison, and now here's everyone talking about yet another mobile OS wanna-be? Give it a rest. Android won, game over.
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KB3001
10/4/2011 10:20 AM EDT
I am not sure Android will be what it used to be after Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility.
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BobsUrUncle
9/30/2011 9:08 PM EDT
It's the dominance of the App Store that's the problem. Google gets a cut of every application, while the poor phone manufacturer becomes a commodity conduit for Google.
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tb1
10/5/2011 4:00 PM EDT
"Contrary to the negative comments to the Tizen by the most in this blog, I'd predict that Tizen will become dominant in mobile devices..." maxmin
Well, I disagree. In fact, LIMO already tried to create this 'open' phone OS that you say everyone wants, even before Android came out. And the LIMO proponents were very vocal about how Android was going to fail because it isn't truely open.
So your forecast has already been proven wrong.
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