Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

I will buy the phone that allows me to run ubuntu with phone capabilities. So far n900 is the closest and will probably be for a long time. A 4 row keyboard, 4" screen and plenty of hard drive space is a must. Or els it would not be worth to buy a new one.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

Amen. I think software keyboards need to be abolished completely. They steal real estate from the screen and are not as accurate as physical keyboards.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

Of course, many users (myself included) actually prefer software keyboards. There are no absolutes when dealing with preference.

On another note (and arguably more on topic)....

Before this degrades into an N900 vs. Galaxy S thread, it would be advisable to read the following post (from Ubuntu's own chief -- no less) for a little added perspective:
Tribalism is the enemy within

In the spirit of openness, that the Galaxy S will have open sourced drivers and code is a benefit to the community as a whole.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

The title of this thread may be a tad misleading, or insufficient rather.

As I understand it, Samsung are throwing out some code for the Galaxy S platform which Captivate and Vibrant are simply different variants of.

Not forgetting the Samsung Epic 4G (with early hands-on by PCmag) with a physical keyboard... Five rows but apparently still pretty good...

The Epic 4G is expected to be released on August 20, this year. :p

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

I just read (not sure where, it may even have been from this board) that in general, non-x86 open-drivers are exceptionally rare to come by. If this is the case then kudos to Samsung for the intent to open source their drivers!

More kudos for the follow through. ;)

As a side note:

I'm thoroughly impressed with the Galaxy S as a whole after watching youtube vids and reviews on-line. The news of a full traditional CLI interface, and open drivers increases my impression that much more. The android eco-system is maturing quite well, with a great smattering of applications and a wonderful browser (I installed the SDK and emulator and tried it out myself). The Galaxy S is a performance monster (eg. psx4droid runs at full speed), and the hardware specs are to die for.

Samsung has a winner on their hands that should appeal to casual users and open-source junkies alike.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

I do believe the follow through is what important. I expect that critical drivers will be left out.

If enough were released that X11 could be ported, we could see MeeGo on these devices before long. I'd buy one then.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

You mean X11 video drivers. X11 itself was already ported over (as I'd posted previously).

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

Yes, X11 video drivers. Having to loop back via VNC defeats the point of having hardware acceleration for video.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

Agreed, and well said.

Open drivers would allow for multi-booting of OSs such as MeeGo, Ubuntu Netbook, ChromeOS. While these OSs still aren't much of a draw for me on a phone platform (android seems fine for what I'd actually use the small screen for), the upcoming Galaxy Tab (the tablet equivalent of the Galaxy S Smartphone) would comfortably run these OSs with an external keyboard for some real-world productivity. If battery life is good (5+ hours), it would be an interesting alternative to a low power laptop, and something that I would seriously consider.

Re: Samsung Captivate - Samsung is OPEN-SOURCING their drivers and other code!
 

Hmmmm... some new stirring going on...

"Samsung has released the drivers source for the I9000 phones but I'm not sure if they released the driver source for all of the US phones."

"As far as I can tell, it's only been updated for the I9000. Hopefully they'll update the rest of them soon. ... In any case, we now have the source for these modules."

"I took a look in the zip file for the I9000 release and it looks like the driver source is still missing, there is a new 3d module in the zip file but there is no source for the s3clcd module."

Interesting stirrings but not sure what to make of this quite yet.

Reference:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...=739823&page=8