FOSSwire

TechCrunch IT are reporting that Nokia has bought Symbian Ltd, the software development company famous for creating the proprietary operating system for mobile devices, Symbian OS.

The important part of this story is that Nokia plan to release the Symbian OS under the open source Eclipse Public Licence. This is obvious a great move from an open source point of view, and will truly open up the Symbian platform.

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO announced today their intent to unite Symbian OS(TM), S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create one open mobile software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone they plan to establish the Symbian Foundation to extend the appeal of this unified software platform.

I find the 'one open mobile software platform' line quite ironic, as this looks suspiciously like a direct response to the Google-backed Android project, to develop a free, open source mobile platform.

This move clearly underlines how important the mobile software space is becoming, and how the open source development model is playing a very significant role in the innovation of this upcoming technology.

I'm by no means an expert on this, but it really does now look like there are four serious competitors in the race to build a mobile device and software platform:

• Windows Mobile
• Apple iPhone*
• Android
• Symbian

Cruically, the last two of those efforts are now open source. This should prove a real-world test as to whether the advantage of the open source development model can mean it will win over the proprietary offerings.

Some healthy competition between the newly open Symbian and Android should help drive innovation, but this could also lead to unnecessary duplication of features and functionality across the two competing systems. On the flip side, if licensing issues can be addressed, there might be a good opportunity for a certain level of collaboration and cooperation between the two.

So, let the games begin.

* Apple's model is a little different, as they are again going to retain control over both hardware and software for their platform (just as they do with their Macintosh computers). Time will tell whether this hardware-specific approach or a software licensing approach will work best.

I'm sure a lot of you out there got an N800 or N810 over the holidays. If you got an N810, you're probably bragging to the closest N800 user about how sweet OS2008 is. Not to worry, N800 users, you can enjoy all of the software an N810 user can, as Nokia gave us all a little present a few weeks ago: OS2008 for the N800.

Before we begin flashing your device, here's a little background info: OS2008 (and all prior versions) are versions of Maemo, an open-source OS created by Nokia. It is derived from Debian and uses a lightweight GNOME toolkit dubbed "Hildon." Maemo is the base for the operating systems for all of Nokia's Internet Tablets.

Another step to take before reflashing is to back up all data and settings using the Backup/Restore applet in Settings. Reflashing your device will erase everything on it, so be sure to save anything important. The only exception is SD cards; they will remain intact.

The next step is to visit the Nokia download page to grab flasher-3.0, a utility that can make or break your tablet. Use it with care. Once you accept the license agreement and download the flasher, make it executable:

chmod +x flasher-3.0

Then, proceed to the download page for N800s. You will need to type in your WLAN MAC address into the box there (without colons) to gain access, as the full OS for the tablet includes some proprietary components that were licensed for the devices. You can find this ID either on the battery, in the battery cover, or in Settings > Control Panel > About.

Once you are past that step, download the latest OS2008 image. At the time of writing, it is RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin. When that file finishes downloading, we're ready to flash. However, make sure your N800 is fully charged or at least over 75%. This cannot be done with the charger plugged in. Plug in your tablet to your computer with the supplied USB cable and switch it off with the charger unplugged.

To flash your device, run the command below after cd'ing to the directory you downloaded the flasher and the image. You may need to alter the file name if a newer release is made available, or change the method to become root if you are not on a sudo system.

sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

Note the differences in the capitalization of -F and -f. The command should not be altered except for the filename. Once you run this, it will display a message signaling it is ready to go. Now, back to your tablet. Hold down the Home button, and press the power button to turn it on as you normally would. With the Home button still held, wait until a progress bar appears.

Notice how it is green this time instead of blue? This shows that the device is being flashed. It should take about 20 seconds to flash the device, and then flasher-3.0 will exit and your device will reboot.

Congratulations, you are now running OS2008. Show it to your N810 friend and laugh. Keep an eye out for some posts about applications! We're going to show you how you can make this thing do whatever you want it to.