Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

[Posted April 11, 2011 by ris]

Ryan Paul reports that Nokia is transitioning Symbian away from an open source software model. "It's possible that Nokia has given up on using the open EPL license because moving the development in-house has made the boundary between the company's own proprietary bits and the underlying platform rather blurry. It's extremely unfortunate that this model will effectively prevent Nokia's Symbian code base from going off into the sunset as an open project that can be repurposed by the remaining Symbian enthusiasts. It's also disappointing that Nokia doesn't seem to care anymore. After spending hundreds of millions of euros and many years of effort to be able to distribute the code under the EPL, it seems absurd to throw it all away and revert to a license that imposes bizarre restrictions on source code access."

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Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 0:53 UTC (Tue) by Hausvib6 (guest, #70606) [Link] (13 responses)

It looks like they plan to sell Symbian. It would be interesting if the buyer is Microsoft or its subsidiary.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 1:25 UTC (Tue) by klbrun (subscriber, #45083) [Link] (12 responses)

I wonder if the open-sourced Symbian was one of Microsoft's targets when they made their deal with Nokia.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 2:02 UTC (Tue) by Hausvib6 (guest, #70606) [Link] (1 responses)

Microsoft still have Windows Mobile.

But Symbian can be used as a gateway to entry, mid, mid-high level phone market.

Let's hope that Meego will come to save the world.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 22:57 UTC (Tue) by klbrun (subscriber, #45083) [Link]

Intel is opening a Meego research center in China.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 6:21 UTC (Tue) by robla (subscriber, #424) [Link] (9 responses)

Doubtful. Microsoft was probably most afraid of Nokia jumping on the Android bandwagon, and Nokia was one of the few remaining major handset makers that hadn't already done it. Microsoft seized what was likely the last opportunity to get a major handset manufacturer to adopt Windows Mobile before Android locked up the non-Apple market.

Closing up Symbian is icing on the cake for Microsoft, but hardly a strategic target anymore. The simplest explanation for Nokia's move is that the new management asked the question "what Nokia interest is served by giving all of this IP away for free?" It's not like there's an easy answer to that question, and whatever good answer there is won't be readily accepted by the new management.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 6:32 UTC (Tue) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

I don't think that Microsoft cares about Symbian. It's a effectively dead OS and is not competitive with anything Microsoft makes.

Also almost all Android handset makers are also Windows handset makers. Companies like HTC hedge their bets by making phones that use both OSes. Nokia was the only company stupid enough to go exclusively with Windows Phone.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 7:41 UTC (Tue) by mordae (guest, #54701) [Link]

> what Nokia interest is served by giving all of this IP away for free?

Better image attracting MeeGo collaborators. Which they now don't care about. Yeah, you're right. :-(

There are no answer to this question. At all.

Posted Apr 12, 2011 7:41 UTC (Tue) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (5 responses)

The simplest explanation for Nokia's move is that the new management asked the question "what Nokia interest is served by giving all of this IP away for free?" It's not like there's an easy answer to that question, and whatever good answer there is won't be readily accepted by the new management.

There are no answer as explained here. Long-term open-sourcing reduces your costs because you employ work of others, but this takes literally years (this graph is great illustration). Symbian does not have years. One year, may be two. In this circumstances it makes absolutely no sense to continue it as open-source project.

There are no answer to this question. At all.

Posted Apr 12, 2011 11:23 UTC (Tue) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link] (4 responses)

If one only thinks about it in terms of costs and the business-centric arguments of open source, then the management is likely to wonder why they aren't able to fire all their staff and have volunteers develop the code for nothing ("By the next financial quarter!"). And many organisations just don't understand the openness aspects of open source (which more closely match the Free Software ideology), at best wondering why anyone would value openness (hint: it's about trust and sustainability), and at worst accusing anyone advocating openness of "wanting to give our technology away to our competitors" (followed by cries of "Nobody wants to write software for our platform!" when they close it all up).

As to why Symbian wasn't attractive as an open source project, perhaps details like the licence and project governance, plus purely practical matters around actually being able to compile the code and deploy it on something, might have had something to do with it. Throwing stuff over the wall doesn't build a community, nor does choosing a licence that isn't compatible with various other widespread licences, even though they didn't do a Sun or Microsoft and write yet another one.

Just to be sure ?

Posted Apr 12, 2011 11:35 UTC (Tue) by maurizio.dececco (guest, #6585) [Link] (3 responses)

Why leave something around that can be used years later by competitors ?
Symbian failed as a UI, but there are very good piece of technology that could be potentially be used by somebody later to compete with WP7.

Why take the risk ?

Just to be sure ?

Posted Apr 12, 2011 13:36 UTC (Tue) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link] (2 responses)

Why leave something around that can be used years later by competitors ?

They already have, unless everyone who downloaded it has deleted their copy.

Just to be sure ?

Posted Apr 12, 2011 14:02 UTC (Tue) by maurizio.dececco (guest, #6585) [Link] (1 responses)

Of course. But once they decided to drop Symbian in the long term, and to keep it around for the transition, why give even more opportunities and make even more improvements ?

Just to be sure ?

Posted Apr 12, 2011 14:14 UTC (Tue) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

I don't think Microsoft cares. Any effort put into Symbian is time and money that is would otherwise be spent on actually making competitive products (ie: improving Android).

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 22, 2011 15:51 UTC (Fri) by Imroy (guest, #62286) [Link]

I'm sure MS are very afraid of Android eating up the non-Apple smartphone market. But remember how this happened - the Nokia board chose an ex-MS executive to be their CEO and he did what everyone was expecting of him. Effectively, Nokia chose MS, not the other way around.

As to exactly why the Nokia board chose the ex-Microsoftie is not clear yet. Perhaps their rapidly dwindling market share scared them into thinking they needed to make a drastic change.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 6:38 UTC (Tue) by Tov (subscriber, #61080) [Link]

It's also disappointing that Nokia doesn't seem to care anymore.

Let it go. He's dead Jim.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 9:00 UTC (Tue) by njwhite (guest, #51848) [Link] (2 responses)

(from the article)
> Nokia says that Symbian is no longer open source, just "open for
> business." The definition of "open" in the mobile space is apparently
> completely different than it is everywhere else in the software industry.

Apologies for flogging a dead horse, but this illustrates nicely the
fallacy of saying that 'open' is less ambiguous than 'free'. By moving
the dialogue away from rights, it doesn't encompass the central feature of
FOSS, that not only is source code available, but it's legal to use it
or change it as you see fit (pretty much).

The term 'open' has been used a lot in the computer industry for a very
long time (long before the term 'open source' was born), and has always
been vague and meant vastly diverse things. Two Bits has a nice chapter
on this: http://twobits.net/discuss/chapter5

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 21:00 UTC (Tue) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link] (1 responses)

Sorry, if Nokia (or the cited article) gets the term "open" all messed up, either accidentally or on purpose, doesn't make the term "open source" itself ambiguous in any way. The term "free" is as ambiguouos (or more), in any case.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 13, 2011 8:17 UTC (Wed) by njwhite (guest, #51848) [Link]

> if Nokia (or the cited article) gets the term "open" all messed up,
> either accidentally or on purpose, doesn't make the term "open source"
> itself ambiguous in any way

I somewhat disagree. One of the benefits of the term "open source" is that
people are supposed to already have a reasonable idea of what "open" means
which is close to what we mean by it. I was pointing to this as an example
showing that it's a more vague term than we tend to believe.

> The term "free" is as ambiguous (or more), in any case.

True, ish, certainly. But I think once you mention freedom, you're closer
to people understanding you than when you mention openness.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 12:09 UTC (Tue) by tuxmania (guest, #70024) [Link] (3 responses)

With the current pace of development i wonder how long it will take for the cheaper range of hardware to become usable with Android, Bada or WebOS?

Personally i expect low spec smartphones taking over from the cheap Symbian handsets, even in developing countries. Nokia closing the code feels pretty redundant and more of a statement than a business decision.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 15:45 UTC (Tue) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (2 responses)

Phones with a retail price of 100-175 dollars are available right now on the market that run Android.

My guess is that we will see Android phone prices stabilize at around $60-75 on the lowest of the low end.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 19:43 UTC (Tue) by Hausvib6 (guest, #70606) [Link]

That would be the start of world domination by Android devices. Perhaps like PC, but this time it will happen faster.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 13, 2011 17:09 UTC (Wed) by cmccabe (guest, #60281) [Link]

I think the price floor for phones will end up being lower than that. You can get Chinese-made mp3 players for $10 now; who would have expected that a few years ago?

In related news, Huawei's Android tablet is apparently doing well in Africa. I don't know what the price is in USD, though.

Nokia transitions Symbian source to non-open license (ars technica)

Posted Apr 12, 2011 18:09 UTC (Tue) by zeke123 (guest, #60445) [Link]

First thought: Who is surprised?

2nd thought? Anyone care anymore?

Pboddie has a great post above and I really think he nails it with: