Black Duck Mobile Open Source Study: Out of the Attic, Into the Spotlight
Guest Blog for Black Duck Software
Mobile Open Source:
Out of the Attic, Into the Spotlight
Only a few years ago “open source in mobile” was like a crazy cousin or unpleasant uncle, barred from family gatherings and discussed in whispers. While the first Linux-based handsets appeared almost a decade ago (like the Motorola A760), open source remained in the background, lurking in platform code, far from application developers and the mobile end-user experience.
Mobile is different, or is it?
Mobile, while standards-based, has for over two decades been a proprietary affair. “Mobile is different,” I was told repeatedly by operators and platform suppliers at the Linux Phone Standards Forum. “Operators and the FCC mandate closed devices for secure networks,” they continued. “Mobile IP needs special protection,” lectured lawyers at consortia and handset OEMs, imposing impenetrable 100+ page IPR documents whose sole purpose was to corral community code and maintain legacy status quo. . .
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