OStatic

As news of Openmoko's harsh but realistic look at the road ahead ripples through the open source and mobile technology sectors, there will be, beyond a doubt, much speculation on how the project's challenges could have been minimized and its successes built upon. Perhaps Openmoko's attempt to bring a completely open mobile phone to the world was Quixotic. Perhaps it was a good idea that simply launched at a bad time. Perhaps it was (and still is) a very workable idea -- or maybe it will always have an extremely niche appeal. Openmoko's pulling away from FreeRunner phones (and looking toward its Plan B ) might well work out just as Michael Lauer writes on his blog -- not at all as a death sentence, nor as any sort of indication that free platforms don't work (or aren't desired) on mobile phones.

Earlier this year I wrote about the Chumby internet appliance/open source alarm clock. Though Chumbys have been available in the US for a little over a year now, Chumby Industries hasn't been able to officially sell these products internationally.

Chumby Industries intended all along to open sales outside the US, but electronics standards (and approval procedures) vary from country to country, and it's been time consuming. Some international users turned to friends in the States or third party shippers, but now, at least in a few countries, this is no longer necessary. Chumby is available at select retailers in Japan, and a Japanese language Chumby portal was launched last month.

On the O'Reilly Media site, there is an intriguing interview with kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Kroah-Hartman says he has evidence that Linux now supports more devices than any other operating system.

In the lengthy interview, he talks about why this is true now, and how hardware suppliers and open source developers can work together to bring more peripherals to life.