9 posts tagged “linux”

Info World interviews, Olavi Toivainen, one of the key persons behind the Linux-based Internet Tablets talks about the success of the Nokia N810.

InfoWorld | Interview with Nokia's Olli Toivanen | February 12, 2008 05:37 AM | By Zack Urlocker

http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresou...

I managed to score an email interview with Olli Toivainen, Nokia's director of product management and one of the key guys behind the N Series of Linux-based Internet Tablets. Although I couldn't get him to spill the beans on future products, he does provide a good perspective on the development and success of the Nokia N810.

The creator of KHTML, Lars Knoll, has been promoted to VP of engineering at Trolltech.

  A little background story about KHTML and Webkit, KHTML was first started as the HTML rendering engine in the Konqueror web browser for KDE's Desktop environment. When Apple started porting KHTML to Mac for use in their Safari Browser the changes that Apple made to KHTML were Open Sourced as Webkit. Shortly after this Nokia was looking to utilize the benefits of Open Source in a browser for the S60 platform. After careful consideration Nokia announced that they would also be using Webkit in it's new S60 Web Browser.

  Prior to S60 3rd edition Nokia had developed a proprietary browser for S60, but with the many complexities of web standards and the fast advancements in web technologies it became increasingly difficult to maintain the proprietary browser. At the same time Open Source browsers were thriving on the web with the success of Mozilla's browser suite projects and KDE's browser technologies improving in terms of complying with web standards. Nokia sponsored the Mozilla Minimo project in order to encourage porting and minimizing Mozilla to run on embedded mobile devices. Both Minimo and Webkit were closely looked at for use in the next S60 Browser, the winner of the 2 was Webkit due to it's less demanding usage of RAM and CPU. S60 third edition was the first time for the Webkit based browser to be available on S60 devices, but just in case of any legacy webpages that were not standards compatible the older proprietary S60 browser was also included on all S60 3rd edition devices.

 However with S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 the Webkit based S60 Browser became the default and only browser on the devices that run S60 Feature Pack 1. Last year Apple introduced the iPhone and iPod Touch that also have a Safari Browser that is based on Webkit. Google has also announced that their Android software will have a Webkit based browser. Along with these big players there have been other ports of Webkit to run on various OS ranging from the GNU/Linux Maemo project to windows mobile.

With the huge success of Webkit I would like to congratulate Lars Knoll, he deserves this promotion to VP of engineering at Trolltech.

On an interesting side note, if the Trolltech acquisition by Nokia is approved by the shareholders then he and I will both be working for the same company. I would be proud to work with such a talented engineer. =)

KHTML creator promoted to VP

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS27...

Oslo, Norway-based Trolltech announced the promotion of KHTML creator Lars Knoll to VP of Engineering. Knoll's KHTML work was instrumental in the development of the Webkit open source browser engine that is fast gaining momentum in the mobile phone market. (Click for larger view of Lars Knoll)Knoll will head up the global development organization for Trolltech, a company specializing in cross-platform development tools and increasingly, embedded Linux software stacks for phones and other mobile devices. Leading development teams in Norway, Germany, and Australia, Knolls responsibilities will include helping to define product road maps, maintaining oversight of Trolltech's commercial product development, and overseeing contributions to open source projects. An expert in Linux web browsers and user interfaces, Knoll was Trolltech's lead developer and a major contributor to open-source projects like Webkit and the KDE (K Desktop Environment). Knoll is also leading a Trolltech team that is building WebKit into Qt, Trolltech's desktop application development framework, and into Qtopia, the embedded version of Qt. Trolltech had previously announced that the Qt integration would be made available with the Qt 4.4 release in early 2008.Knoll joined Trolltech seven years ago when he was recruited by Matthias Ettrich, KDE creator and Trolltech's Qt development manager, says Trolltech. Since then, Knoll has contributed to projects including the Sharp Zaurus, and has worked on streamlining cross-platform application development. Knoll has a Ph.D. in physics from the Max Plank Institute in Heidelberg, and he also studied at Isreal's Weizman Institute of Science. Knoll is best known, however for his lead role with the KHTML rendering engine, which took nearly three man years to write. Originally part of the KDE project's Konqueror browser, KHTML is now found in 75 software products, says the company. It was the basis for Webkit, which in turn was the foundation for the Apple Sa...

Some big news in the GNU/Linux industry, Nokia and TrollTech have announced that Nokia plans to purchase TrollTech. This sounds like great news for N800 and N810 Internet Tablet owners since TrollTech is a big developer of GNU/Linux embedded software.

Video of the new Nokia N810 

I was at the AMPM convenience store yesterday looking for a snack to go with my lunch and came across a penguin dessert. I thought of Tux the Linux mascot right away when I saw it. =)

Tux Dessert

Tux Dessert

When I visited my family I was suprised to see the Linux Fish is still on my old car. It has been on there for more than 4 years now. A great Think Geek product. =)

Linux Fish

The Nokia 770 is not only a great Internet tablet but it also can be used in educational research projects such as this one. The Nokia 770 is used as the controller and screen for the robot. The OS of the Nokia 770 is GNU/Linux thus it is easier for researchers and students to read and modify the sourcecode to create projects like this. Check out this awesome video of the Puppybot!

What are the things in life that you're truly passionate about? 
Submitted by Jess.

I'm passionate about video games, computers, my wife, and Open Source/Free Software such as GNU/Linux. (Not necessarily in that order.)