Linux-based Motorola cell phones frustrate third-party developers
Motorola first announced its intention to migrate its mobile "smart" phones to embedded Linux in 2003. The first such phone to reach the market was the A760 in the fourth quarter of that year. Today there are a dozen or so models (differing product numbers in different markets and minor hardware variations lead to different counts), but there are still no significant ecosystems for third-party applications or developers. Is Motorola's switch to Linux a hit for the company but a miss for end users? This is not to say that there is no development happening on these phones. There is a fairly active community of interested Linux hackers at MotorolaFans.com, and Harald Welte of GPL-violations.org fame has started an OpenEZX project in hopes of developing a completely free alternative environment for the phones. But Motorola seems to be putting up roadblocks rather than encouraging programmers to develop for the platform.
