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Posts: 2,802 | Thanked: 4,491 times | Joined on Nov 2007
#181
Originally Posted by qgil View Post
In any case, feel free discussing the topic with them. Free software in the hardware adaptation layer is something that companies like Nokia would be also interested about.

See this blog post by Harald Welte, who has spent a lot of time discussing the topic with various chip makers. Selective quote:

So despite senior R&D management at the chip makers understanding those dynamics, and knowing that they could achieve superior product quality, reliability, security and encourage innovation - the companies don't do it until the requirements show up on the major buyers shopping lists.
[...]
As a chip maker, you first and foremost concern should be to sell as many units as possible. You don't care what kind of software your customers use. You don't care where they get their software from, or what development methodology they use. So if you can take any step to encourage more alternatives and more competition/innovation on top of your chip, you can only gain market share, but not lose it. And if you don't gain market share, well, you didn't have to make any investment. So no matter what you do, you can hardly loose anything.
Nokia may not be interested in licencing Maemo to third parties at the moment, however there are now several Linux-based options available for device makers and therefore increased pressure for hardware that works with Free drivers out of the box. There's also a manufacturer or two that makes their own chips as well as devices. I expect the situation to improve dramatically over the next year or two :-)
 

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