Business 2.0: Open Source Hits The Open Road

"Linus Torvalds should be proud. Several wireless industry manufacturers recently announced they would power their latest phones and personal digital assistants using mobile variants of the operating system first developed by Torvalds. Both Motorola and NEC have pledged allegiance to Linux, alongside a slew of smaller, less recognizable companies, making the open-source movement a viable alternative to proprietary operating systems offered by Palm, Microsoft, and others.

"So far, Motorola has emerged as the industry's biggest Linux advocate. Last week the Libertyville, Ill., company unveiled the A760, which runs Linux and a mobile version of the popular Java programming language. A cross between a wireless phone and a PDA, the A760 offers a built-in digital camera, an MP3 player, Internet access, and Bluetooth wireless technology. Available later this year, it's Motorola's first attempt to combine Linux and Java. By pairing the two, Motorola is hoping to leverage the fast-moving (and often overlapping) open-source and Java programming communities to rapidly develop games and business applications that will help differentiate the A760 from the competition..."

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