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The iPhone as a platform for OpenSource

The iPhone is a great innovative step in mobile computing and combines a versatile and powerful combination of hardware.

Millions of people have purchased the iPhone, new markets are still being opened up. The AppStore is a big step forward in expanding the abilities of the iPhone and so is the Jailbreaking community.

However, due to Apples restrictive policies and the way the iPhone's OS has been designed, this superb device is very limited as a smartphone. In part due to power management and due to the walled garden principle, the iPhone in its default set-up leaves a lot to be desired.

Users who have bought the iPhone and expect a smartphone, won't get passed Jailbreaking the device in order to get pretty basic features:

• copy paste
• backgrounding
• installation of any software (not just from the AppStore)
• more control over the device (Terminal and tools such as BossPrefs)
• keeping services active even when the screen is turned off (apps such as insomnia)
• theming and customisation
• tethering and added networking capabilities

Apples marketing approach and handing of the iPhone is the Achilles Heel of this device.

Asking someone to pay for the ability to write using a widescreen keyboard, voice commands, or perhaps copy & paste might be a great marketing feat, and Steve "it's Wonderful" Jobs can pat himself on the back for this, but this is not innovation. Quite on the contrary, this serves only to put a damper on user experience.

Most of us who bought the iPhone thought we were buying a pretty smart and empowering device. The adds and commercials looked great and shiny, the iPhone looked like an übersmartphone. Instead we got a dumbed down device missing the most common and basic features and Apples intrusive (killswitch) and restrictive (AppStore and iTunes only) limitations.

OpenSource is the Answer

Apple has given us a great platform, let us build on it. The iPhone could serve as a superb and stable foundation for Linux based operating systems tailored to run on mobile devices. Intel has launched an initiative that could one day see Linux on the iPhone, and other projects exist as well with the same aim.

To be honest, the iPhone is what I want the Neo Freerunner to be.

Perhaps a symbiosis of the iPhone hardware platform and OpenMoko is the answer. How many would not say no to Ubuntu MID Edition on the iPhone, I sure dream of this on a daily basis as I battle to keep applications running in the background on my shiny iPhone 3G.

The advantages are obvious I hope:

• a solid and stable platform
• large developer, user and tester community
• speed of innovation
• fast updates
• hassle free upgrading
• thousands of applications to choose from
• opensource benefits
• customisation
• specialisation (distributions can be tailored to the needs of end users, for example business environments)
• no need to be subject to the whims of a massive corporation
• diversification

It cannot be, in the 21st century, that you need to void your warranty to have copy & paste or applications that run in the background. I'll leave it at that.