Ars Technica has taken a first look at the upcoming OpenMoko phone, a Linux-based open source smartphone. The conclusion? It offers lots of possibilities and it’s very flexible, but also very confusing.
Like Linux for desktop computers, the OpenMoko operating system offers different operating environments, called “software stacks”, each one of wich offers different possibilities. Because of the open source architecture, more environments can be expected.
OpenMoko’s own GTK-based stack is intented to be as intuitive as possible. It comes with a range of applications, including a command line shell, wich isn’t common at all on a cellphone. Developing applications for it is quite tricky as you’ll need to set up an elaborate set of cross-platform development tools on a Linux system, but you can avoid this by using Python, wich is also available as third party software.
The ASU environment isn’t as appealing graphically as the GTK stack, but is supposed to work better with the touchscreen interface and is more stable. It’s a lot more difficult to develop software for it, though.
Finally, there’s the FSO stack, wich is in the early stage of development but is expected to become the preferred environment in the future. Application development will be easier for this stack, as it will be possible with any programming language.
The phone will be shipped with the GTK-based environment on it, but users can replace this with any platform of choice. At the moment, though, none of them is truly complete. The phone clearly isn’t recommended for someone that wants a good smartphone that works without much hassle. For developers and hackers, though, it’s a dream come true!
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