LiMo Foundation News

  • Open Letter to the Wholesale Applications Community

     

    Dear Industry Colleagues:

    Further to the public announcement of 15 February 2010, I am very pleased to write this open letter to the initiators of the Wholesale Applications Community on behalf of the Board of LiMo Foundation offering a) our full support, b) our committed participation, and c) our immediate practical assistance in a spirit of whole-industry cooperation.

    It is clear to us that the highly complementary areas of focus, shared belief in true openness and common industry vision create an exceptional opportunity for deep and long-term collaboration between LiMo Foundation and the Wholesale Applications Community to release unfettered innovation across the industry and fully ignite the mobile internet in a way that is compelling and life-enhancing to consumers everywhere.

    LiMo Foundation was launched in 2007 as a constitutionally open, transparent and non-discriminatory industry consortium with the sole purpose of collaboratively delivering a competitive Linux-based device software platform to the industry upon which commercial innovation can freely thrive without brand or business model conflict with the underlying platform. Since LiMo’s launch, three major releases...
  • LiMo Foundation Handset Lineup Expands With New Feature-Rich Devices From ELSE, NEC, Panasonic

    Newest LiMo handsets combine style, durability, and in-demand high-performance functionality

    BARCELONA, Spain, February 15, 2010 – LiMo Foundation™, a global consortium of leading companies from throughout the mobile industry, today announced new LiMo compliant handsets from manufacturers ELSE, NEC, and Panasonic Mobile Communications. These models bring the number of LiMo devices announced to date to fifty.

    “We welcome the arrival of these innovative new devices which attest to the richness and versatility of LiMo Platform™,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation. “The continued growth of LiMo devices is further endorsement of LiMo’s vision, mission, and technologies.”

    Designed to appeal to consumers seeking elegant, feature-rich handsets, the new models combine next-generation functionality and reliable performance in an array of sleek, sophisticated device designs. Integrating advanced user interface technologies and critical functionality and reliability elements such as keypad-to-touchpad conversion, high-megapixel auto-focus cameras, waterproofing, and extended battery life will ensure a more immersive...
  • Mobile Industry Leaders Collaborate for On-Time Delivery of R3 LiMo Platform

    Latest release of mobile industry’s only independent handset platform imminently available

    BARCELONA, Spain, February 15, 2010 – LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of leading companies from throughout the mobile industry, today announced the imminent availability of the new R3 release of LiMo Platform™. The updated platform features new support for Location Based Services (LBS) and contact management and extends existing features including support for application management, advanced UI and multimedia technologies, and enhanced security and networking.

    “Delivery of R3 of LiMo Platform is a further important delivery milestone and again for LiMo Foundation demonstrates that powerful likeminded companies can work together practically to create a common platform that is evolved and governed through a truly open and independent process,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation. “This latest update to the LiMo Platform also furthers LiMo’s leadership in commercially unifying mobile Linux technologies for the benefit of the whole industry.”
Free Software vs Open Source? The Real Issue is Pragmatism
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Written by Peter Vescuso, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Black Duck Software   
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 08:02

 

Free software vs. open source software?  It’s a frequent ideological debate in the media.  Matt Asay, a CNET reporter and VP of Business Development at open source company Alfresco, had a good blog on this recently called “Free software is dead. Long live open source”.

Comparing free software to open source software is difficult and, fortunately for most developers, irrelevant.  One is more of a social movement (free software) and the other is more of a development approach (open source software).  The reason it’s mostly irrelevant to developers is pragmatism:  developers are busting their butts to create some cool new innovation and what they care about is finding good code they can use.

We’ve been talking about pragmatism and open source software for some time now at Black Duck. Pragmatism sounds like a dry topic, but for software developers and LiMo members it represents a smarter way of getting work done. Finding good code to use -- whether it’s described as free and/or open source, where it meets business requirements -- speeds development in today’s multi-source development model, reduces costs, and frees developers to be more creative. It’s not an ideological discussion - it’s a pragmatic decision to use the best code available, regardless of source, as long as it meets requirements for functionality, security and quality.

The trick, of course, is managing free and open source software in today’s multi-source development process.  Licensing, quality, security, and code provenance are areas of uncertainty that must be managed when using any software component. Process and policy are necessary, but not sufficient, to deal with these challenges; technology is needed to support decision making, process automation and governance of components over an application’s lifecycle.  We partner with LiMo Foundation to address these challenges.

Choosing “free software” vs “open software” is not a question a developer will often wrestle with, but rather “does this code meet my requirements” and “can I/my company comply with the stated license obligations?” For organizations using free and open source code in their development streams, ideology is a distraction, pragmatism is a best practice, and management is a necessity.

 

 

 
 
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