It’s No Shock that Verizon Wireless Chose LiMo over Android
May 16, 2008
© phauly
I was listening to Alec Saunders' Squawk Box podcast today when a bombshell was let loose – something that makes the news that Verizon Wireless chose LiMo over Google's Android make total sense: LiMo is arguably not open source.
Skip ahead to about the 21:30 mark on the 16 May 2008 Squawk Box podcast.
The major points:
- The only thing open about LiMo is that it runs on Linux and that the APIs are relatively open, but the APIs only allow very limited functionality.
- A fee of $400,000 a year is required to be able to contribute source code to the project.
- You can only use commercially-friendly open-source licenses in your code.
Sounds a bit like what people thought about verizon Wireless: they say they want to be open, but really, they're not going to open up. This surprise any one?
Crossposted from The Mobile Technology Weblog