Samsung announces Linux smartphone OS

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 10th November 2009
Comments (12) Stumble
Samsung announces Linux smartphone OS

Future Samsung handsets will, in the majority, be running the company's freshly-announced Linux-based bada platform.

Google's Android is set to receive some competition with the news that Samsung is launching its own Linux-based smartphone platform dubbed "bada."

According to an article over on Electronista, Samsung's bada - which is derived from the Korean word for 'ocean' - is set to be a completely open platform, with nothing considered beyond the reach of wily developers: if the core system can achieve it, third party developers can access, expand, and even replace it.

Designed to compete against existing Linux-based open-source platforms including Google's popular Android, Nokia's Maemo, and the Linux Mobile Foundation's LiMo project, bada is due to ship some time in the first half of 2010 - with carriers receiving the ability to customise the operating system as they see fit, along with a sneak peek in December for interested developers.

While carrier customisation is certainly important if you want anyone to actually carry your handset, Samsung is going to have to walk a fine line: for a platform which prides itself on hackability and openness, a heavily locked down version from a paranoid carrier will harm bada's reputation - and could see the platform sink in an already fairly crowded marketplace.

As is de rigeur for smartphone platforms, bada will - of course - be receiving a centralised application store which offers downloadable software for all versions of the OS, no matter which carrier. So far the company hasn't detailed the process by which developers can get their applications on the store, nor the cut the company will take from the sale price. There is also no confirmation as to whether the openness of the platform extends to the ability to easily install applications from sources other than the official app store - something missing from rivals such as Apple's iPhone OS.

The move will see Samsung abandon Nokia's Symbian platform entirely, and reduce its use of Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform to just 20 percent of its handsets by 2012.

Do you believe that truly open Linux-based smartphones are the way forward, or should Samsung be helping to develop Google's Android platform rather than introducing another bit-player into the market? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote Singularity 10th November 2009, 10:20
Seriously? Why not just use Android?
No offence, but I don't really see how samsung could make a self sustaining mobile platform. I have a feeling they'll end up as slightly-better-than-dumbphones with just about enough applications to make it seem viable to the investors...
Quote alpaca 10th November 2009, 10:31
not sure if this is the best course of action either. i tend to believe they should support android, that way there are a few mature systems instead of a whole lot immature...
Quote Matticus 10th November 2009, 10:46
Come on guys, competition is a good thing. Do you think anything would ever have got invented or bettered with the "why not just use what we already have" attitude its human nature to try new things and improve older things.
Quote yakyb 10th November 2009, 12:07
but it also leads to problems in cross compatibility as there will only be a handful of useful apps for this thing
Quote Bauul 10th November 2009, 12:23
Competition is always good for the consumer, but I can't see this being wholly succesful for Samsung. Yes they're the second largest handset manufacturer, but Android is getting crazy amounts of hype from the other manufacturers: Motorola are moving practically all of their handsets over to the platform (not that Motorola really exist in the UK anymore, but they do overseas).

Rather uniquiely (ignoring Windows Mobile's lame attempts) a phone sporting Android is becoming a selling point unto itself. I can forsee Smartphones lacking it in the future struggling against those with it.
Quote steveo_mcg 10th November 2009, 13:57
I've just been in the carphone warehouse and had a play with both. The samsung OS isn't bad but Android is much slicker.
Quote l3v1ck 10th November 2009, 14:34
So you can put anything you want on it then?
That's miles better than Apple and their "only use what we say"attitude.
Quote War-Rasta 10th November 2009, 15:51
I agree with those who don't see this becoming really popular. I do think competition is good, but it's getting a little out of hand at the moment. Android will definitely out do Badas in my opinion. Why would I want to develop a piece of software for an OS that doesn't have the HUGE user base that Android already has? I'm not saying Badas won't be any good but it surely has a big opponent to beat.
Quote okenobi 10th November 2009, 16:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by War-Rasta
Why would I want to develop a piece of software for an OS that doesn't have the HUGE user base that Android already has? I'm not saying Badas won't be any good but it surely has a big opponent to beat.

Android doesn't have a "HUGE" user base relative to WinMo or iPhone. It's only fair Linux gets a shot at the phone market and I'll be interested to see how it turns out. Linux runs on way more stuff than the other two or Android anyway and a ton of dev time goes into the plethora of flavours already available.

Not to mention Samsung screens are where it's at right now and if they pair this thing with a capacative touchscreen it could be a real alternative to the iPhone for normal people, not just geeks.
Quote lkcl 16th November 2009, 18:59
Quote:
Originally Posted by alpaca
not sure if this is the best course of action either. i tend to believe they should support android, that way there are a few mature systems instead of a whole lot immature...

http://opensource.samsungmobile.com/index.jsp?page=1

there are _four_ smartphones with android source code released for each. the remaining phones, of which there are a further 15+, use the Carnegie Mellon University "MACH" Kernel, which is veeeery interesting.

that means that whatever they're developing will be sxxt-hot-fast, responsive, and a tiny amount of code.
Quote lkcl 16th November 2009, 19:05
Quote:
Originally Posted by Singularity
Seriously? Why not just use Android?
No offence, but I don't really see how samsung could make a self sustaining mobile platform. I have a feeling they'll end up as slightly-better-than-dumbphones with just about enough applications to make it seem viable to the investors...

google's own developers are struggling with android. it's getting way out of hand, and places far too much reliance on java.

you're forgetting that samsung has _twenty_ years experience in developing mobile platforms. they have their own ARM CPUs (samsung SC24xx series and newer) that are prevalent in PDAs and smartphones the world over.

it's an absolutely brilliant move given that openmoko is a failure, and with nokiaa getting a 500 million euro loan in january of this year from the EIB to buy symbian and trolltech.

_think_.
Quote lkcl 16th November 2009, 19:26
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bauul

Rather uniquiely (ignoring Windows Mobile's lame attempts) a phone sporting Android is becoming a selling point unto itself. I can forsee Smartphones lacking it in the future struggling against those with it.

in which markets?

you think that the market in the USA is important? the USA only has 250 million people: China has what... 4 billion+ and people there have bypassed landlines and gone straight to mobile phones. Brazil is a largely untapped enormous market on its own. so android is becoming popular in the USA and maybe in Europe - so what? there's more going on here than just a "whizzy java phone".

also you have to remember that android is NOT "completely open". you cannot get just any android phone and reflash the firmware, you have to do some reverse-engineering to get at the hardware.

and, you quite often find that some of the linux kernel modules added to android phones in some of these devices are _still_ proprietary, despite the GPLv2 license on the linux source code.

the first manufacturer that actually provides a _fully_ open smartphone platform as commodity hardware is one that free software developers will go nuts over (especially because of the failure of openmoko).
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