Nokia Starts Open Source Website

X-Fade writes "Nokia launched OpenSource.nokia.com today. It is the first place to look for information concerning Nokia involvement in the Open Source community. The Projects page lists all Nokia developed downloadable code including: Maemo (Development platform for Linux based handhelds), MobileNews (Mobile NNTP reader), Python for S60, Sofia-SIP (SIP User-Agent library) and more. The website also features a list of all projects Nokia contributed to."

Re:Ipso Faxso

[ponds]

Ipso is not for PDAs. While most people know Nokia as a mobile vendor, they are also one of the largest Firewall/VPN appliance vendors. Ipso is a highly optimized i386 OS based on NetBSD.

Re:Ipso?

[MarkKnopfler]

I worked with networking code in IPSO for some time on the P022 machines and found it a rather nice thing to work with. It is sturdy and does its job well. If there are internal struggles to actually replace it with a newer OS I do not understand why there is no opinion to move it to a NetBSD or FreeBSD and why linux ? Any definite advantages ?

Re:nokia is going to loose ground.

[adtifyj]

I realise you are not critising OSS, and you raise a lot of interesting points about Nokia, but I would like to point out that when large companies announce they are jumping on the open source bandwagon, they are not hoping the OSS community helps them add zero's to the balance sheet.

They are buying kudos with two very important groups: CTOs and engineers in the industry. Of course they may also encourage external participation, and accept patches, but that is rarely the primary focus. A sub-domain listing open source sends a number of very clear statements about the company. here are a few..

• Microsoft does not have them on a leash,
  
• Interoperability is not just a buzzword on their marketing material,
  
• An appreciation that open source software underpins everything in I.T. these days. 5 years ago, most CTOs didn't realise this. Now, sensible CTOs wants to know that every staff member at the vendor is aware of this fact, otherwise they will be working with fools who have "not invented here" syndrome and other related ailments.
  
• The board of the company has embraced the economic advantages of open source.
  
• They allow and encourage engineers to work on open source tools in order to perform their jobs. With a website like this, Nokia's HR department would be flooded with quality resumes.
  
• The brain-power of the engineering department is worth showcasing.