ACCESS to Release Open Source Application Framework

ACCESS has announced it plans to release an Application Framework to the open source community under Mozilla Public License (MPL) v1.1. Security features that extend the Linux kernel are planned for release under the General Public License (GPL) v2. The Framework will be released before the end of the year and will be the industry’s first open source mobile Linux application framework for commercial use. From the article:
Developed as part of the ACCESS Linux Platform, the Application Framework has been designed specifically to meet the requirements of mobile phones and devices. In addition to providing a set of services to install and manage applications, the Application Framework from ACCESS can integrate communication between applications, enabling a seamless user experience for music, messaging and other advanced features. The Application Framework is also designed to enhance application security to prevent unauthorized use of phone services or tampering with critical system data.
As part of its efforts to help grow the mobile Linux market and foster a global ecosystem, ACCESS has decided to contribute its Application Framework to the open source community. By open sourcing the Application Framework, ACCESS’ goal is to help speed the development and adoption of mobile Linux phones and devices while taking the first step to help prevent fragmentation. The next step in preventing fragmentation will be to work with industry standards organizations, such as the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum and Open Source Developers Labs (OSDL) to determine how they may adopt the Application Framework.
I got a chance to play with ALP at a recent Linux world, and while it wasn't quite ready for prime time then, that was about 9 months ago. I'd be interested to see how far they've come since then. Motorola is already starting to release some main stream Linux-based phones and other companies are following. While I've not heard any definitive plans yet, it's very possible we may end up with a Linux-based Treo at some point. I'm really pulling for that one. I already like the Treo and having Linux and GTK+ on it would be fantastic. I'd expect a large amount of growth for Linux in the mobile space over the next 2-3 years and this move by ACCESS should help to foster an active developer community, much like the one the Palm OS has now.
–jeremy
ACCESS, Linux, Palm, Open Source