By Jo Best, 13 June 2005 11:40
NEWS Nokia has tapped up Apple's open source knowledge for its next generation smart phone browsing.
The new Series 60 browser, which will debut in the first half of next year, will incorporate some of the same open source technology found in Apple's Safari web browser, WebCore and JavaScriptCore, based on KHTML and KJS from the Konqueror project.
The latest iteration of the Series 60 browser will better enable developers to customise the application, as well as providing users with new browsing features. Data traffic is already becoming a key part of Nokia's growth strategy, with the phone maker hoping to see data revenues grow to 23 per cent of mobile operators' revenue by 2009.
Nokia also said it will be working with Apple on open source in the future and will be actively involved in the open source community.
Tero Ojanperä, Nokia's chief strategy officer, said: "Open source software and Linux is an interesting phenomenon - it is not new for Nokia, we have used open source software and Linux server side and we are more and more using open source in our developments."
Comments
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1. Jim Anderson
Mac OS X may be based on open source *BSD Unix, but that's far from making Apple an open source company! Apple is as a proprietary comapny as they come! While their operating system and components of their desktop may have open source origins, Apple wraps that in a proprietary scheme that prevents other open source projects from working seemlessly with its Darwin interface. If Nokia wants to work with open source software why not work with the original developers, in this case the Konquorer segment of the KDE project? This way their contributions would benefit all and not just Apple Computer!
2. anonymous
"If Nokia wants to work with open source software why not work with the original developers, in this case the Konquorer segment of the KDE project?"
If you look at the Nokia 770 it is based on GNOME so as I see it it is all developed in the Nokia US, thus KDE is a bit out. I hope it will help KDE too, however.
3. jalamdhara
Eh? Darwin interface? Open Source? Proprietary? Please re-read what you just wrote.
Darwin itself is _currently_ open-source, whereas MAC OS X itself is not. Darwin didn't have _origins_ in "Open Source"; it was only recently introduced and ported into the "Open Source" model when MacOS X came out. Aqua is the interface. Darwin is the soul. The combination of the 2 is called Mac OS X.
As for why Nokia chose not to work with Konqueror is simply because:
1. Konqueror does not have the necessary resource or the manpower to take this type of project on within the time frame that Nokia wishes.
Simply put, if you want a project done in a certain time frame with a given expectation of standard (quality-wise), you have to get some dedicated programmers, not weekend/after work programmers. Konqueror has nice folks, but they can't compete with dedicated programmers who work 40 hours a week on fixing bugs/workarounds and adding features.
2. Web-Core coupled with its JavaScriptCore (hybrid KJS/PCRE) complements are WAY FAR SUPERIOR in every single respect than the Konqueror (base KDE) toolkits.
Yes, Apple did use Konqueror via KDE, originally to get Safari off and running, but they forked into their own path, focusing on their WebCore toolkits. However, they still do use a lot of base codes when it comes to KDE's standard. (Mainly KHTML & KJS).
The only difference in programming is : KHTML (C++) , KWQ (Objective C++), and WebCore (Object C)
Hope this clears up the "reasoning" of why Nokia chose Safari. Time and Money ;)