Closed source drivers as in not open source, cannot readily access the source code, ergo closed.

Although, if you are developing your own tablet then I should imagine that you are also developing your own drivers for all the subsidiary components?

and what about the closed-source apps?

Nice to see some interest in Maemo5, but you do have to know that the platform is no longer supported by Nokia. It might be useful on a tablet though, but you'd probably want to contact Nokia for this matter, as not all components are open-sourced.

Plus, as already said, you should do some research on MeeGo, wich is supposed to be a 'successor' of this platform, and it has custom versions for tablets. Although not put into products for end users, it is almoast ready for consumers (I am expecting it to be ready this year, hopefully before Q3 and correct me if I'm wrong.)

Can you hint us here what you're working on? I'm sure we are all curious. Good luck with your project!

Cheers

Mmmk I get the closed source drivers now. Nokia owns them and they're saying shoo get your own. Cool makes sense.

And I imagine that you are imagining correctly, from the way it sounds that is a very basic yet vital requirement if this is going to work. I am open to bringing another person more experienced onto this project if anyone stopping by is looking for extra work but I also am planning to do as much of the work myself as possible. So yes I will be taking steps to develop my own drivers. Thanks for hint.

I am looking at meego now actually, and have come across them before in my research along with linpus which is based off meego.

Basically I have two very trusted contacts who have expressed interest in buying large quantities of a low cost tablet device. I won't go into more detail so as to protect their privacy.

As for the product - it will have a front facing camera and mic and only the most basic I/O ports. I am already working with a trusted Chinese manufacturer for the hardware and assembly. Now I am trying to figure out the drivers and software.

You're creating something like a tablet you're planning to distribute on a large scale but you're asking a community whether an OS is closed source?

You sound like it's a pipe dream and you're cobbling this together. Develop your own drivers, take the linux kernel, add software, tweak as needed.

This will be a lot LOT simpler than using something where you're in a companies pocket and where you have to port everything.

Okay thanks

David, without wishing to be condescending or in any way implying that this may the incorrect way of developing a product that you intend to mass market, if you don't understand the interactions of hardware and software through a kernel and understand application specific driver code, not to mention interdependencies within a software environment then perhaps you would do better to get some technically minded experts on board to assist you in this launch.

That in itself has drawbacks but to be brutally honest, I don't believe you have the necessary expertise or skillset to develop a tablet from scratch based on what you have posted in this thread.

Like I said, nothing malicious in my statement, just an observation of fact, and I wish you the very best of luck in your endeavours

Short answer: no. Large parts of the OS are proprietary, and the owner is not interested in licensing them to third parties. You may find MeeGo a suitable alternative though.

See also the MeeGo porting guide.

In response to switch, I don't take offense to anything you just said. I believe you were simply looking out for me and trying to give useful advice. Thanks and I completely understand what you are saying and where you're coming from.

Ummm for a good chunk of time I have been considering the option of if I would need to bring on someone with years of experience with this sort of thing or if I could simply spend weeks back to back grinding on google ya know.

At this point I'm going to continue my research - couldn't hurt right. But at the same time check our my network of entrepreneur friends both locally and on the www to see if anyone is looking to join up.

Again I appreciate the honesty, don't have time to beat around the bush these days!

Do you know if android uses the same kernel/hardware interaction as Linux? If I understand correctly android is based on Linux but then it's also based on java so I'm not sure there.