From LiPS to LiMo: The Mobile Linux Divide? - Page 2

"Talking about how pixels can show up on the screen may be interesting but it something that has been quite well understood for the last 10 years," Schillings argued. "How we allow an operator to experiment with new services or customize the user experience these are the interesting issues that LiMO can address."

Schillings also argued that the Google Android effort and the associated Open Handset Alliance is not necessarily a competitive approach to what LiMo is doing. Rather in his view he sees OHA as just another approach to move the industry forward.

When it comes to LiPS versus LiMo, the answer is similar in the view of Morgan Gillis' Executive Director of the LiMo Foundation. Gillis noted that LiPS and LiMo have similar aims in terms of the unification of mobile Linux.

"However, LiMo is following a code-centric approach - in other words producing a real software platform for the whole industry to use," Gillis told InternetNews.com. "Whereas LiPS is producing documented standards in the manner of a traditional standards body."

Bill Weinberg, general manager of LiPS, agreed that LiPS is a different approach to promoting mobile Linux. Weinberg told InternetNews.com that the LiPS approach to developing a standard is to have companies work toward complying with specifications and is not about building a complete application stack. The LiPS standard will end up having multiple implementations that are compliant.

Weinberg argued that LiMo, rather than trying to create an open standard, is trying to create only one standard implementation.

"They are taking chunks of open source and requesting contributions and then they will integrate it into a platform which could then be used to produce handsets," Weinberg said.

The big issue for mobile Linux adoption according to Weinberg really is all about defining what is mobile Linux.

"The challenge for Linux in mobile is not adoption at the base sense since lots of vendors have been deploying with it," Weinberg commented. "But so far there has not been a platform that promotes interoperability."

Weinberg explained that for ISVs today, they have the challenge of deciding how many different platforms to support. Traditionally, one of the common denominators has been Java which itself has multiple versions in use by operators and handset vendor. For Linux there may be a dozen or more versions in use.

"ISV's are hard pressed to pick one or two to write their applications for or specify for," Weinberg said. "The way to promote ubiquity is to give the same front of unity that you have for Microsoft Windows Mobile or the Symbian OS so operators and ISVs have a platform to look to and so they can have a meaningful conversation when they say they want an application to run on mobile Linux."