November 3rd, 2009

Skype open source? Ain't gonna happen

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 10:37 am

Categories: Commercial, Community, General, Licenses, Linux

Tags: Skype Technologies S.A., Linux, Open Source, Internet, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Burnette

The blogosphere was all a-twitter yesterday when rumors surfaced that Skype, the popular internet telephony application, would be released as open source “in the nearest future“. It turns out that Skype’s plans are not so grandiose, and even if they were, questions about who owns the code would prevent it from happening.

In a clarification posted today on Skype’s Linux blog, developer Stanislav Karchebny (aka berkus) wrote:

Yes, there’s an open source version of Linux client being developed. This will be a part of larger offering, but we can’t tell you much more about that right now. Having an open source UI will help us get adopted in the “multicultural” land of Linux distributions, as well as on other platforms and will speed up further development. We will update you once more details are available.

The key words here are “open source UI”. Oliver Faurax, who initially broke the story Monday, posted a Q&A on his site which explains:

Q. Will the protocol be open?

No. Berkus commented on my blog and on the Skype Linux blog that they will open the GUI code, and not the library. The most likely outcome is that they will provide a libskype closed binary library that will allow someone to communicate with a GUI.

One reason the library will not be open source is that Skype doesn’t, um, have the source. According to a lawsuit filed in September over Skype intellectual property,

An executable-only object code form of the GI Software was licensed by Joltid to Skype, a well-known Internet-based company that provides users throughout the world with free or low-cost telephone services over the Internet. Skype did not obtain a license to the GI Software source code, however, and the license it did obtain was terminated based on Skype’s breaches of the license agreement.

In other words, Skype doesn’t own their own core technology. If you believe Joltid, Skype is not even supposed to have the source code. Unless copyright holders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom (founders of Joltid) agree, Skype cannot change the license on that code and release it as open source. And given that Skype recently sold for $2 billion it’s not likely they’re going to hand it over for free.

Related articles:

• Skype plays footsie with open source

October 22nd, 2009

Stallman admits GPL flawed, proprietary licensing needed to pay for MySQL development

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 12:14 am

Categories: Commercial, Community, General, Licenses, Linux

Tags: GPL, MySQL, Richard Stallman, Stallman, Tools & Techniques, Open Source, Databases, Management, Enterprise Software, Software

Software freedom activist Richard Stallman and others are trying to block Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL. Why? Because MySQL is covered by the GNU Public License (GPL), and the purchase has exposed a flaw in the GPL that Stallman says will cause a “major setback” to the development of the free database if the acquisition is allowed to go through.

Under the GPL, the copyright holder (usually the author) has special privileges that no one else has: they can use the code in a proprietary product. In an open letter to the European Commission, Stallman admits that revenue from this proprietary licensing is necessary to fund development for the free version (emphasis added):

MySQL uses the parallel licensing approach to generate revenue to continue the FLOSS development of the software. If Oracle acquired MySQL, it would then be the only entity able to release the code other than under the GPL…. As only the original rights holder can sell commercial licenses, no new forked version of the code will have the ability to practice the parallel licensing approach, and will not easily generate the resources to support continued development of the MySQL platform.

The letter was signed by Richard Stallman and representatives from Knowledge Ecology International and the Open Rights Group.

Stallman’s position is exceptional when viewed against his long history of evangelizing Free (as in speech) software as the “morally correct choice” that trumps all other considerations. Compare the letter above with this sermon on his gnu.org web site:

Proprietary software developers have the advantage of money; free software developers need to make advantages for each other. Using the ordinary GPL for a library gives free software developers an advantage over proprietary developers: a library that they can use, while proprietary developers cannot use it…. Proprietary software developers, seeking to deny the free competition an important advantage, will try to convince authors not to contribute libraries to the GPL-covered collection…. But we should not listen to these temptations, because we can achieve much more if we stand together.

We free software developers should support one another. By releasing libraries that are limited to free software only, we can help each other’s free software packages outdo the proprietary alternatives. The whole free software movement will have more popularity, because free software as a whole will stack up better against the competition.

Even if MySQL were owned by Oracle because of its purchase of Sun, the database would still be Free Software. Anyone could use the source code, build their own version, and distribute it to others. But finally Stallman has recognized that may not be good enough because somebody has to pay for this stuff. Score one for pragmatism over purity. Hallelujah.

(Photo illustration by Zack Whittaker)

June 25th, 2009

Program for Android in C/C++ with the Native Development Kit (if you dare)

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 1:46 pm

Categories: Android, General, Google, Java, Linux, Programming

Tags: C, Library, Native Development Kit, C/C++, Programming Languages, Java, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Ed Burnette

Not a big fan of Java? Well, get over it, because that’s the primary and recommended way to write applications for Android devices. It’s portable and… what’s that? Android’s Dalvik Java VM not fast enough for you? Granted, it’s an interpreted engine and as of version 1.5 there’s no Just-In-Time compiler. But Dan promises… oh, can’t wait for the JIT to come out? Ok, ok, we’ll let you program in C if you’re really sure.

Introducing the Android Native Development Kit (NDK). With it, you can implement *parts* of your application using native-code languages such as C and C++. You’re familiar with the Java Native Interface (JNI), right? JNI lets you load a shared library and call C code from within Java. The NDK lets you compile and build those libraries for the ARM CPU chip used in all *current* Android devices.

The NDK provides:

• A set of tools and build files used to generate native code libraries from C and C++ sources
• A way to embed the corresponding native libraries into application packages files (.apks) that can be deployed on Android devices
• A set of native system headers and libraries that will be supported in all future releases of the Android platform, starting from Android 1.5
• Documentation, samples, and tutorials

Users downloading your program from the Market will not be able to tell whether or not you used native code. In fact, some apps already on the Market use it. However, native code is not for everyone. Google engineer David Turner writes:

Keep in mind that using the NDK will not be relevant for all Android applications. As a developer, you will need to balance its benefits against its drawbacks, which are numerous! Your application will be more complicated, have reduced compatibility, have no access to framework APIs, and be harder to debug. That said, some applications that have self-contained, CPU-intensive operations that don’t allocate much memory may still benefit from increased performance and the ability to reuse existing code. Some examples are signal processing, intensive physics simulations, and some kinds of data processing.

You have been warned. Stay away from the NDK unless you really need it. Try optimizing your Java code first. Try profiling. Acupuncture, cold compresses, anything but… what did you say? “Shut the…,” hey, there’s no need to be rude. Have at it.

April 28th, 2009

Google: Upgrade now to Android 1.5 "Cupcake" SDK

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 6:55 am

Categories: Android, Community, General, Google, Java, Linux, Programming

Tags: Google Inc., SDK, Ed Burnette

Google has released the final version of Android 1.5, in the form of an SDK for developers and a bootable system image that can be downloaded and installed on Android Dev Phones. All Android developers are advised to upgrade to the new SDK immediately:

There are several compelling reasons to upgrade, such as new SDK tools that make developing more efficient and new APIs that allow you to expand the feature-set of your applications. However, even if you or your applications don’t require these enhancements, it’s important that you upgrade to ensure that your applications run properly on the Android 1.5 platform.

The Android 1.5 platform will soon be deployable to devices around the world. If you have already released Android applications to the public, you should test the forward-compatibility of your applications on the latest version of the platform as soon as possible. It’s unlikely that you’ll encounter breakage in your applications, but in the interest of maintaining the best user experience, you should take no risks. So, please install the new Android SDK and test your applications on Android 1.5.

The Android 1.5 SDK can be used to build and test applications that run on Android 1.1 or 1.5 system images, or both. Currently the G1 phone from T-Mobile runs 1.1, but an over the air upgrade to 1.5 is expected Real Soon Now. All other Android phones come with 1.5 (or later) pre-installed.

Related articles and sources:

• Top 5 features in Android 1.5 (Cupcake)
• 1.5 Non-Working Apps List (as of 06apr2009)
• Android 1.5 Version Notes
• Flashing your Android Dev Phone with a Factory System Image
• Planet Android
• Follow Planet Android on twitter (@droidfeed)

April 14th, 2009

Top 5 features in Android 1.5 (Cupcake)

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 1:32 pm

Categories: Android, Community, General, Google, Java, Linux

Tags: Cupcake, Android 1.5, Keyboards, Hardware, Peripherals, Ed Burnette

Google has released a preview SDK for the long awaited next version of Android: version 1.5, a.k.a “Cupcake”. I’m happy to report that this time it’s for real, and not just another rumor.

Android 1.5 is expected to be featured on the new HTC Magic that is coming out in Europe next month from Vodafone. There are unconfirmed reports of other several other Android phones this year (from Samsung, Lenovo, Motorola, Dell, and others), and it would make sense for them to be pre-loaded with Cupcake too, but we’ll see.

Check out the New and Improved page for a full list of the new features in 1.5. For this article I’ve picked 5 of my favorite features: 3 for users and 2 for developers.

From a user’s perspective the new features include:

• Support for an on-screen soft keyboard (like the iPhone). This will be essential, of course, for phones that do not have a hardware keyboard (like the Magic). But even if you do have a physical keyboard it’s sometimes not worth the trouble to slide it out just to type in a couple of words.
• Video recording and upload to YouTube. Now you can capture your barbershop frog quartet in action and post them for all the word to see.
• Faster and more polished user interface in all applications. It was already fast, but now it’s even more fasterer. Double-plus fast. With smoother, creamier controls and gradients.

Cupcake serves up a number of goodies for developers as well, including:

• Android Virtual Devices (AVDs). This is a convenience for developers who need to create and test their applications for multiple types of devices running the Android platform. For example you could create an AVD configuration for a G1-like emulator running Android version 1.1, a second AVD for a Magic-like emulator running Android 1.5, and a third for your Tesla Model S. Ok, maybe not the Tesla, but in any case several AVDs can run at at once on your development computer, so you can design multi-player games or other client-server applications.
• APIs for creating home screen widgets. Android 1.5 comes with several widgets built-in including a calendar, music player, and picture frame, but now developers will be able to write their own for users to download and enjoy.

In the coming days I’ll be digging into the new Android 1.5 “Cupcake” early release SDK and if I find anything interesting I’ll be sure to share it with you.

So what’s after Cupcake? The next development branch is called “Donut”. I sense a pattern developing.

October 2nd, 2008

Apple lifts iPhone NDA to dull Android's edge

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 6:37 am

Categories: Android, Apple, General, Google, Linux, Programming, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Android, Tools & Techniques, Management, Ed Burnette

Responding to a crescendo of criticism from the developer community, which saw books canceled, long time fans lose enthusiasm, and some calls for defections to Android, Apple finally relented Wednesday:

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software. … The NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so.

Before the announcement

Developer frustration had been mounting in recent weeks at Apple’s recalcitrance. Craig Hockenberry wrote on September 24th: “I’m feeling ambivalent about developing new applications for the iPhone [and] many of my colleagues are starting to feel the same way.” Don Reisinger said iPhone developers should defect to Android, writing: “Unlike Apple’s draconian policies, Android is an open platform and Google and the rest won’t spend time trying to stop as many third-party developers from producing apps for the platform.” The Pragmatic Programmers (Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas) even had to cancel a book they had planned for iPhone development: “It now appears that Apple does not intend to lift the NDA any time soon. Regrettably, this means we are pulling our iPhone book out of production.”

After the announcement

The reaction to Apple’s decision was swift and positive. Hockenberry bubbled: “‘[REDACTED]‘: Thank God that’s the last time I’m going to type that word for a while.” Fraser Speirs wrote: “thanks to Apple for the moves on the NDA. I’m looking to the future of iPhone development with immeasurably more optimism now.” The Pragmatic Programmers un-cancelled the iPhone book and Dave wrote in his blog: “After a rocky start, I have to say we’ve had nothing but help and support from folks in Apple. And eventually the senior management listened to the community and did the right thing.”

iPhone development is still not quite as open as Android. Pre-release iPhone software (like upcoming SDKs) cannot be discussed in the open, and Apple still controls the gateway to the iPhone App Store. There are far more books on Android development than there are on iPhone development even though the iPhone has been out over a year longer. But one of the major obstacles to developer collaboration has been lifted, and along with it one of the advantages of Android. For now, iPhone developers and publishers are breathing a big sigh of relief.

September 23rd, 2008

T-Mobile announces iPhone killer: G1 with Google

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 7:11 am

Categories: Android, General, Google, Linux, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., T-Mobile, Keyboards, 3G, GPS, Linux, Bluetooth, Wireless LANs, Wi-Fi

In one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry, T-Mobile announced the G1 at a press conference today in New York. Made by HTC and powered by Linux and Android, the G1 is poised to give the Apple iPhone a serious run for its money.

According to HTC’s Peter Chou, the G1 has a “unique iconic design unlike any in the market”. Think of it as a cross between an iPhone and a SideKick. It’s designed to maximize the mobile internet experience through open applications. The G1 is the world’s first Android phone. “The Android platform is nimble, flexible, and powerful,” said Chou.

Cole Brodeman at T-Mobile said that 3rd party open applications will really drive the adoption of the mobile internet. Android developers such as Jeff Sharkey, Gary Pong, Jason Hudgins, Jeff Kao, Joseph Rider, and Jason Wong were featured in a video highlighting the platform.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also made a surprise appearance at the event. Sergey talked about how much fun it was to program (one program he wrote measured how long it took for a phone to come back down after you tossed it in the air) and Larry challenged the audience to do a web search on their phone and said Android would let you do it much faster.

Here are the technical details:

• Slide-out keyboard with dedicated search button
• Trackball
• Touch screen
• 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• 3.1 Megapixel camera
• Applications:
  • “Chrome-Lite” browser (as described by Google’s Andy Rubin)
  • Amazon MP3 music store
  • Google Maps with directions, traffic view, street view, and compass mode
  • GMail
  • YouTube
  • Calendar
  • Instant messaging for Google Talk, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL
  • On-line presence in the phone book
  • Reads Word, PDF, Excel documents
  • Android Market with free and paid apps
• Size: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
• Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Display: 65K color screen, HVGA (480×320)
• Dual-band GPRS, Quad band GSM
• Talk Time: 5 hours
• Standby Time: 130 hours
• 1GB microSD memory card (expandable up to 8GB)
• Price: $199 $179 with 2 year contract
• Plans: $25 unlimited web, $35 unlimited messaging (in addition to voice plan)

The T-Mobile G1 will be available at T-Mobile stores within or close to 3G coverage zones, or online at t-mobile.com. Pre-orders are available now. Commercial launch date is October 22nd in the US and early November in the UK.

August 27th, 2008

Suddenly, Android is hot again

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 11:26 am

Categories: Android, Community, General, Google, Java, Linux

Tags: Phone, SDK, Shout-out, Ed Burnette

After months of silence, the double-whammy of new software and hardware has gotten everyone talking about Android again.

Earlier this month Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch was wondering if anybody cared about Android any more. Now TC is practically gushing over the mobile platform. What happened? Two things:

First, Google released a long awaited update to the Android software development kit. Developer Advocate Dan Morrill wrote:

The beta SDK that we’re releasing today is the first big step on the SDK’s road to compatibility with 1.0. Since this is a beta release, applications developed with it may not quite be compatible with devices running the final Android 1.0. However, the APIs are now pretty stable and we don’t expect any major changes. If you’re one of the many developers who were waiting for something a bit more mature, this might be a good time to take another look.

You’re probably wondering what’s actually new in the SDK. Well, you should read the Release Notes, the Change Overview and the API Delta Report for all the details.

Unfortunately the details released by Google were, shall we say, incomplete, but the good folks over on the Android discussion groups have been striving to fill in the gaps.

The second thing that happened is that news started to leak out about the new G1 phone from T-Mobile (formerly known as the HTC Dream). A shout-out goes to the folks over at AndroidGuys who broke the story. Rumor has it that the phone will be available for pre-sale in September and we might have it in our hot little hands by October. Of course, if a demo unit were to *happen* to be sent to a certain ZDNet blogger before then, that would be much appreciated (hint, hint). Hopefully current SunCom customers will be able to use it too.

According to the latest update, the T-Mobile G1 handset will pack a ton of features including:

• A slide-out QUERTY keyboard and trackball
• 3 megapixel camera
• Dedicated YouTube player
• SMS and MMS support
• 3G for fast Internet
• 3.17″ screen (480×320 resolution)

Two features which aren’t confirmed yet but everybody is assuming the G1 will have is GPS and a touch screen. Remember that this is just the first Android phone; because Android is an open platform any number of manufacturers will be free to create their own version.

New software… new hardware… Android is back, baby! (Now if they could just find someone to update that crappy OHA web site…)

[ Read: More about Android on Dev Connection ]

June 24th, 2008

Nokia Symbian deal winners and losers

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 4:14 pm

Categories: Android, Apple, Commercial, Community, Eclipse, General, Google, Java, Linux, Microsoft

Tags: Nokia Corp., Symbian Inc., Eclipse, Android, Eclipse Public License, Eclipse Foundation, Open Source, Java Development Tools, Development Tools, Software Development

After an expansion phase that saw the introduction of the iPhone, Android, LiMo, and JavaFX Mobile, the mobile phone platform landscape is shrinking again. Nokia today announced it plans to spend $410 million to acquire the pieces of Symbian Ltd. that it doesn’t already own, and then give it away as open source under the Eclipse Public License. If that weren’t enough, they got several of their competitors to chip in their own front-end assets and join a new Symbian Foundation that will provide overall governance to the combined project.

At first the Symbian Foundation will simply repackage the existing software and assets, allowing it to produce product right out of the gate next year. Everything won’t be open source from day one. But eventually the differing interfaces will be unified, and within 2 years we should expect to see a single open-source platform supported by all the Foundation members. You can read the details on the Foundation’s web site.

So who does this deal benefit or hurt the most? How will this affect the iPhone, Android, and other mobile platforms? Read on to find out…

Read the rest of this entry »

June 4th, 2008

Patrick Brady dissects Android

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 12:03 am

Categories: Android, Community, General, Google, IO2008, Java, Licenses, Linux, Programming

Tags: Google Inc., Library, Hardware, Patrick Brady, Android, Bionic, Surfaces, Audio Flinger, Dalvik, Linux

Patrick Brady of Google’s partner group provided a detailed technical tour of the internals of the Android platform during his recent talk at Google I/O 2008 titled “Anatomy and Physiology of an Android”. Topics included Linux kernel enhancements, the Bionic library (Google’s slimmed down version of libc), Android functional and runtime libraries, native servers, and more.

[ Read: More coverage of Google I/O 2008 and Android. ]

Linux kernel

At its foundation, Android is based on Linux 2.6.4. Patrick said they would stay with that release until there was some reason to move. Google made a number of kernel enhancements for Android including: alarm, ashmem, binder, power management, low memory killer, kernel debugger, and logger. All the kernel enhancements have been contributed back to the community under the GNU Public License (GPL), so if you’re interested in looking at the code you can find the source repository at http://git.android.com .

Bionic library

Google developed a custom library for the C compiler (libc) called Bionic. This was necessary for three main reasons: Read the rest of this entry »