Palm gives us a demonstration how they have _not_ understood Open Source

As you can see in this post by Jamie Zawinski, Palm is doing as much as they can to prevent any Free / Open Source application development on their WebOS.

One really has to ask himself whether they have completely lost their mind. This very Free Software and Open Source development model has created the kernel, libc and many other components of their software stack. So Palm can clearly see and experience the benefit this model has to them.

Yet they chose to deprive all third party developers and their users from that very same freedom by

• Not providing a way to install applications from third party websites or even physical storage media, thus
• forcing all application programmers to use their application store, and
• requiring that those application programmers do not disclose the software source or object code on any other website

This is so screwed, I literally want to bang my head on the wall for this level of stupidity. Can somebody please get some sense into Palm? They seem to have not only forgotten what has made their old PalmOS so successful (thousands of 3rd party apps that anyone could write + distribute), but also seem to lack any understanding of Free and Open Source software.

Migrating from Panasonic CF-R5 to CF-R8

I've just received my new laptop, a Panasonic CF-R8. As you may remember, some time ago I ranted about the lack of reasonably small laptops with decent number of pixel lines in the LCM. Since I was not able to find any other product that really qualified according to my requirements, I had decided to buy the CF-R8, the successor of my 3 year old CF-R5.

The specific configuration of this unit is:

• Intel Core 2 Duo CPU U9400 (1.4GHz, 3MB Cache)
• 4GB of RAM
• 320GB 7200RPM SATA drive (Hitachi HTS72323)
• Intel 82567LM Gigabit Ethernet
• Intel ICH9 chipset
• Full black color case / keyboard / everything

It's a nice device, the dual-core CPU and much faster/bigger hard disk as well as the 4GB RAM make a real difference. At the same time I still have the same 4:3 aspect ratio display, and the same keyboard layout, i.e. I don't need to get used to different location of function keys or the like.

Comparing it with the CF-R5, I think the following main differences have to be noted:

• the case design is more modern and looks more ruggedized
• on first sight, it seems a bit thicker than the old model, but careful comparison reveals that this is just an 'optical trick' and in reality the height is the same
• The battery form factor has been changed completely. This means that the display can be folded further back than it used to be the case. Great!
• There is no need for the pcc_acpi/panasonic-laptop ACPI driver in the kernel anymore, display backlight and function keys are just controlled using regular/standard ACPI methods.
• They did actually add a very small fan to the back of the device. However, it is so silent that it's actually hard to notice during normal operation.
• The new hard disk is even more silent than the CF-R5 one
• The power switch has been moved to the inside, i.e. under the LCM. This prevents accidental power-on/off while shoving the device into a notebook bag/sleeve. Again, a very useful modification.
• The old 100-Base-T Ethernet has been replaced by 1000-Base-T. 100MBps was pretty embarrassing for the CF-R5 even 3 years ago, considering my 3 years older powerbook G4 already had Gigabit Ethernet...

One week visit with Ben Dooks at Samsung System LSI

I have just spent one week with Ben Dooks (the mainline Linux kernel maintainer for the Samsung s3c24xx and s3c64xx system-on-a-chip devices) in Korea, meeting extensively with Samsung System LSI and discussing future cooperation and a way to get support for all Samsung SoCs into mainline.

This is a remarkable step, considering that in the past, Samsung was working on their own Linux kernel ports, done in a typical semiconductor-vendor style and not very mainline-compatible - while Ben Dooks was writing his own independent code, accepting contributions from various individuals and companies.

Now everybody was on one table, discussing and defining a strategy and workflow how we can achieve complete support for all Samsung SoCs in the mainline kernel. It was a very constructive discussion, and hopefully we can follow quickly with a just as constructive and productive integration.

I'll report back to this blog once there is some visible result in terms of 'show me the code'.

Flying with KLM: Feeling like time-travel to the past

Today I found myself on my way back to Korea. This time not on the Finnair flight that I'd used before, but on a KLM flight. What was a big surprise and almost a shock to me is that KLM operates airplanes on long-haul intercontinental routes (Amsterdam - Seoul/Incheon) which do not have a personal in-flight entertainment system in economy class.

I think the last time I have experienced this must have been 6 or 7 years ago. And actually, now that I'm thinking of it, even while I was working in Brazil in 2001 many planes already featured this.

How on earth does KLM think they can compete with that level of service? I mean, European airlines suck as opposed to Asian airlines, I have realized this... but even among European airlines I have not seen something like this for a long time.

It's not so much that I absolutely need the personal entertainment system. It is more a shock about how KLM can risk looking that old-fashioned against all of their competition.

Today, many of the planes on the EU-Asia routes that I frequently use already have the second generation of in-flight entertainment with the 7" or bigger wide screen displays, or even have 110V power outlets for laptop power supplies in every seat...

LiMo foundation analysis explains business value to merge changes upstream

The LiMo foundation has released an economic analysis that (among other things) explains business and economic reasons for 'deforking', i.e. contributing vendor-specific changes back into the upstream projects.

If you don't want to read the full paper, skip to Chapter 4.3 (Page 20) where they say things like: It is important that mobile industry platform providers engage with the open source communities as early as possible so that platform maintenance strategy is fully aligned with the upstream development agenda of these communities, which is far more cost efficient than managing the entire maintenance burden in-house.

I'm looking for Ericsson BTS (RBS) A-bis OML traces

After supporting Siemens (BS-11) and ip.access (nanoBTS) from OpenBSC, I'd like to add support for Ericsson BTS's (RBS).

What is needed to do that is to implement those 1% of A-bis that are typically vendor-dependent. And in order to do that, I'd need protocol traces of the A-bis OML (organization and maintenance layer) while an Ericsson BTS (RBS) is brought up. The data format doesn't matter, and the RBS model doesn't matter. My biggest interest would be in the RBS 2308, though - as this is what I can actually test with real hardware.

So if anyone is able to provide that kind of trace, it would help OpenBSC to grow more hardware support. Thanks in advance.

Cancelling my trip to Linux plumbers conference

I might have told some of you that I'd be visiting Linux Plumbers conference this year, but unfortunately I'm not able to make it, despite earlier planning. There's simply too much work at the moment :(

So to everyone who will be there: Have fun.

My personal conference schedule for the remaining year 2009 is something like this:

• CELF Embedded Linux Conference Europe, Grenoble, France
• Linux-Kongress, Dresden, Germany
• Deepsec, Vienna, Austria
• FOSS.in, Bangalore, India
• 26C3, Berlin, Germany

ST-Ericsson Open Source Community Workshop 2009

ST-Ericsson is the maker of an ARM based SoC family called Nomadik. Over the last couple of months they have been working with members of the community to get their support into mainline Linux and u-boot.

They have recently announced the ST-Ericsson Community Workshop 2009, a small event limited to only 25 seats, where members of the community, together with ST-Ericsson present on the development of GNU/Linux on their Nomadik SoC platform.

The workshop registration fee is 200 EUR, but it includes a full NHK-15 development kit for the Nomadik platform!

I really think ST-Ericsson is doing the right thing, reaching out to the community, actively trying to get their code mainline, plus providing subsidized development boards at a to interested community members.

If you're interested, make sure you register soon, seats are limited...

FOSS.in turning from Linux/FOSS only event into more general hacker conference

As can be seen from the FOSS.in/2009 "Omelette Post", in addition to the regular FOSS.in schedule until 5pm every day, there will be additional hacker talks until 10.30pm, which might not necessarily be directly connected with FOSS.

Since I'm personally a member of both the hacker community (in the very specific sense of working and uncovering weaknesses in communication systems) as well as a 100% Free and Open Source person, I obviously like this kind of combination. To me, both go hand in hand - even though I know not everyone will have the same opinion.

In the end, learning about and playing freely with technology is what both communities want to do.

I'm looking forward to see the FOSS.in CfP...