If you use Linux on your desktop, and you also happen to have a BlackBerry handheld device, you’re probably aware that Research in Motion, the company that develops the BlackBerry platform, offers nothing in the way of support for its devices on Linux — but the intrepid geeks in the free software world do. Thanks to to the efforts of the Barry and OpenSync projects, I just finished syncing my BlackBerry 8800 with my Evolution contacts on my Ubuntu 7.10 desktop.

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2007 could be called the year of the mobile operating system. Since Microsoft entered the scene around five years ago, the smartphone operating system industry has been fairly stable. Symbian, Linux, Research in Motion, and Windows Mobile make up the bulk of smartphone software, each to varying degrees of success in different regions.

But in 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone, which runs its own brand of software, and Google announced that next year its Android mobile operating system platform will come out. The entrance of two new operating systems from well-known brands shakes up the plans of some mobile operators, creates some headaches for end-users, presents bigger challenges for application developers, and indicates some fundamental changes in the mobile industry.

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Thoughtfix of Tabletblog has posted a nice and thorough overview of the newly released Internet Tablet OS2008 for the Nokia N800 and N810 devices.

Separate mobile Linux efforts have been cited by competitors as likely to lead to fragmentation.

That’s an ongoing debate, to be sure. But one Linux camp and an analyst said last week that “fragmentation” definitely means fragmenting the pool of application developers available to any one Linux camp. Thus, one way to read ongoing announcements of progress by various Linux groups is to view them as positioning themselves to pique application developers’ interests.

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The Linux operating system, which so far has made little headway into mobile phones, is set to become more widely available next year, helped by Google’s mobile push, Linux creator Linus Torvalds said.

Torvalds said: “I haven’t been personally involved but it certainly looks like 2008 may be - thanks to the Google alliance - one of the years you will find more widely available phones with Linux.”

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A number of corporations are moving into the free software arena, and this has resulted in legions of programmers, paid by companies, moving into free software communities, Simon Phipps, chief open source officer at Sun Microsystems said Friday at FOSS.IN, a conference on free and open-source software in Bangalore, India.

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eeeXubuntu is a custom version of the Xubuntu 7.10 Live CD with fully-integrated hardware support, including native wireless drivers, functioning Ethernet support, tweaks for low-resolution desktop environments, and other miscellaneous fixes designed to run on the Asus Eee PC. Wherever possible, these changes are incorporated using custom .deb packages rather than spewing assorted files all over post-install. The goal of the project is to maintain a easy-to-install Xubuntu Live CD image for the eeePC, allowing for a reliable base Xubuntu install.

ACCESS, the Japanese company that has developed the ACCESS Linux Platform and owner of the former PalmSource, has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with NTT DoCoMo, Inc., NEC Corp., Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., and ESTEEMO Co., Ltd. under which the companies will study the use of ACCESS Linux Platform as the basis for developing a shared Linux platform for mobile phones and an operator pack for NTT DoCoMo.

While it doesn’t sound like an outright deal to deploy ALP based devices, at least its a step towards getting the Linux based OS closer to some actual shipping hardware.

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The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum has announced the completion of the LiPS Release 1.0 specifications, fulfilling the commitment announced in June of this year. With this release, LiPS enables mobile industry players to achieve basic interoperability for applications and services deployed on Linux-based phones, benefiting Linux-based software stack suppliers, mobile device OEMs and regional and global telecom operators.

These specifications include the LiPS Reference Model, Telephony, Messaging, Calendaring and Scheduling, Presence, User Interface Services, Address Book and Voice Call Enablers APIs.

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Standing next to your laptop to control the slides during a presentation is not cool. Nowadays everyone uses a presentation device or their laptop’s remote controller, but a presentation device can be expensive, few laptops come with a remote controller, and for those that do, Linux compatibility may be an issue. The Amora project turns your Symbian mobile phone into a Linux presentation device using Bluetooth.

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