Leading items

A toy and a promise from Nokia

Let it not be said that free software projects can't keep secrets: it would seem that quite a few people in the GNOME community knew that Nokia was working on a Linux-powered, GNOME-based gadget, but they sure didn't let the rest of us in on the story. In any case, Nokia has now broken cover and announced the (third-quarter) availability of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, a new toy with a great deal of promise. What seems even more promising, however, is how Nokia is going about the development and marketing of this device.

The 770 is a 230-gram device with an 800x480 color touchscreen display. It has an ARM processor, 64MB of memory, 128MB of flash for storage and a slot for a 64MB card, a wireless network interface, a Bluetooth interface, a USB connector, and an audio output. Despite being a Nokia product, one thing this device does not have is a cellular phone. It can access the net via its wireless interface, or via a GPRS link over Bluetooth. The software side includes a wide array of free software, starting with a core Linux distribution (said to be Debian-based) and adding in GStreamer, D-BUS, matchbox, GNOME, GTK+, Helix, and more. Interestingly, the 770 is said to contain a version of Webcore with GTK grafted on, and the Opera browser as well.

So far, this looks like just another Linux-powered gadget. Nokia has gone beyond that, however, with its creation of maemo, a development environment for the 770 (and its successors). Maemo includes all the source and binary packages needed to create applications for the 770; there is even an apt repository. The development environment allows most work to be done on an x86 system, which should speed the process considerably - and help ensure that applications are available from the first day that the 770 begins shipping.

Last week, LWN called for the creation of a truly open media gadget which could be hacked on by its users. We were a little surprised to get a response this quickly. The 770 is not exactly the device we were looking for, but it is a big step in the right direction. In particular, it does, indeed, appear to be a fully open device with full support from its manufacturer for improvements by its users. This openness, combined with (seemingly) nice hardware and rational pricing, could lead to the formation of an enthusiastic developer and user community for the 770. Expect to see a lot of these gadgets at Linux conferences in the near future - starting with GUADEC, where Nokia is expected to have a large delegation and some samples to give away.

Meanwhile, some observers have wondered how Nokia is able to square its clear support for free software with its equally clear support for software patents in Europe. Nokia has given a partial answer in the form of this patent statement:

This "non-assertion" pledge does not apply, however, to anybody who is pushing patent claims against the kernel, meaning that Nokia is leaving open the possibility of using its patents to defend the kernel against an attack from elsewhere. The patent grant falls far short of what the community would like: it applies only to the kernel, and, for future kernels, it only applies as long as Nokia feels like letting it apply. The wording of the statement would seem, even, to exclude most distributor kernels. But, as an overt recognition of the problem and a partial grant, it is at least a step in the right direction.

Comments (27 posted)

Dispatches from the software patent front

The software patent battle in Europe is heating up again as the July 6 vote in the European Parliament approaches. There will be a demonstration in Brussels (and elsewhere) on June 2 as a way of pressuring the parliament on this issue. The day before that, the FFII and others will be hosting a conference on patent policy making, again in Brussels.

Meanwhile, here's a Reuters article on the debate. "However, companies such as Microsoft and Apple Computer argue that they need broader patent protection to prevent open-source companies, which give away their software and make money through service, from effectively expropriating their development costs."

Comments (5 posted)

The launch of EnterpriseDB

The EnterpriseDB Corporation announced the public beta release of its EnterpriseDB 2005 on May 23. The company has been in "stealth mode" for some time, and is just now coming out to launch the EnterpriseDB product.

EnterpriseDB is based on PostgreSQL 8.0.3, with modifications to make it more compatible with Oracle. The company's press release touts EnterpriseDB's open source roots, so we decided to get in touch with the company and find out what differentiates EnterpriseDB from PostgreSQL, what terms it is offered under and how EnterpriseDB works with the PostgreSQL project. In particular, we talked to the company's CEO Andy Astor. We also talked with PostgreSQL team member Josh Berkus about EnterpriseDB's involvement with the PostgreSQL project and the effect of increasing corporate attention on PostgreSQL in general.

What does EnterpriseDB add to PostgreSQL to make it interesting? Compatibility with enterprise databases, specifically Oracle, and a GUI Studio application.

The exact license for EnterpriseDB has yet to be determined. Note that the PostgreSQL project uses the BSD license and does not require that distributors make changes available. Astor confirmed that, despite the company's press release focusing on open source, EnterpriseDB itself will not be available under a license that would be OSI compatible.

Pricing is also up in the air. Astor couldn't give us specific pricing, but said that it would be "in the single thousand dollars" for a license. He did say that it would be free to download for testing, development and "low-volume usage" but that when used in "large-scale" environments that it would require a license from EnterpriseDB.

Astor told us that the company plans to contribute "everything we're building, after a fair amount of time... back to the open source community." Astor said that it's his belief that some development is best left to the open source community, in situations where there is "huge demand" and that "some things are best left to commercial interests." He also said that he expected that PostgreSQL would not adopt everything that the EnterpriseDB team offered. "I guarantee that the PostgreSQL community will not want to own all of what we've done." He did say that the final EnterpriseDB license would guarantee that users wouldn't be stranded if the company failed. "If the product we're selling is not supported by a commercial organization, it will be contributed to the community. That will be in every license that we sell."

The EnterpriseDB application will be available in binary-only form, and Astor said it would support "every 32-bit and 64-bit Intel-style platform." Right now, downloads are available for Fedora Core 3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, SUSE Linux Professional 9.2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 and Microsoft Windows. Astor said that it would probably be available on Solaris, Mac OS X and other platforms "on customer demand." The EnterpriseDB site does require registration before download,

Since one of EnterpriseDB's selling points is Oracle compatibility, we asked Astor if it was fully Oracle compatible. Astor said that EnterpriseDB is not fully compatible, but "a large number of Oracle apps will run on us now, and that will increase as time goes by... not every aspect is supported, and we're looking for customer feedback." He declined to name specific applications written to use Oracle that were EnterpriseDB compatible, but said that "a lot of things we've been testing with run."

Some are concerned that this may be a dreaded fork of the PostgreSQL project. We asked Astor about compatibility with PostgreSQL going forward. Astor pointed out that the EnterpriseDB beta release was based on the current PostgreSQL release (8.0.3), and that EnterpriseDB is "fully compatible" with PostgreSQL. He also noted that the company was adept at keeping in sync with the PostgreSQL tree, and that the company intends to maintain compatibility with PostgreSQL going forward. In addition, he said that EnterpriseDB would offer support for PostgreSQL itself "in the near future."

We were curious how active EnterpriseDB had been with the PostgreSQL project so far. EnterpriseDB Co-founder and Chief Architect, Denis Lussier, is a member of three projects on the PgFoundry website. At this time, however, none of the projects are showing any real activity.

Berkus said that EnterpriseDB had contacted him and other members of the PostgreSQL community. He said that he had "every reason to believe" that EnterpriseDB would be following through on the projects on PgFoundry, and that the company intends to contribute to PostgreSQL in general. "I think it's likely they will keep some things to themselves, where their money first end up coming from." He also noted that he had talked to Astor about contributions, though nothing concrete in terms of what would be contributed, or under what licensing terms.

We also asked Berkus about corporate attention in general, and how that was affecting the project overall. He said that companies were bringing programmers and resources to PostgreSQL, and noted he was now working for Greenplum. "They're basically allowing me to work on postgresql almost full-time which is nice.."

Along with the benefits, come some side effects as well. Berkus said that it requires more effort, citing the IBM patent problem as one of the side-effects. "If we didn't have 8 or 9 contributing companies using Postgres... we could have blown that off, no way IBM would have attacked us." However, companies that use PostgreSQL in their products did not have the luxury, requiring the project to spend time rewriting code to avoid patent encumbrances.

We also asked Astor about patents, and where EnterpriseDB stood on the software patent issue. Astor said that the company is "fundamentally against [software] patents" and that he doesn't think they make sense. However, he also said that "in today's world, it makes no sense to swear that you'll never get one" and that the company may acquire "defensive" patents. "We would only have defensive plans for them, if we were to secure them for ourselves."

Since EnterpriseDB is touting the open source aspects of EnterpriseDB so heavily, it will be interesting to see how the company interacts with the PostgreSQL project over the long term. Given the terms of its license, it will probably not catch on as widely as PostgreSQL itself, but it may serve the needs of companies who are looking to get away from higher-priced packages like Oracle.

Comments (3 posted)

Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
Next page: Security>>