Frequently Asked Questions General FAQsUnlike other efforts in the market that are driven by a single party, the limofoundation.org has independent governance and reflects the inputs and contributions of multiple industry stakeholders. The LiMo Platform offers operators, vendors and ISVs full freedom to deploy their strategic services and without fear of competition from the platform provider. In addition, LiMo is supporting established and existing ecosystems such as Flash and WAC instead of launching is own developer ecosystem. LiMo will facilitate access to a middleware platform that can form the basis for a complete commercial-grade mobile operating system. The LiMo 4 source code will be published on LiMo's open source website in July. Yes. limofoundation.org has an independent Program Office and staff that help manage and maintain the organisation's development and technical output. The Program Office is heaquartered in London (UK). Procedural/Membership FAQsThe Architecture Council (AC) comprises 8 Founder and Core Member companies and 2 Associate Member Companies. The AC seats held by Core and Associate Members are rotated each year, based on votes from the membership at large. There are 12 seats on the Board of Directors and Executive Council (EC) which are filled by Founder and Core members. The Founder members have an automatic seat on both the Board and the Executive Council. Core Board seats are voted upon annually by the membership at large per procedures detailed in LiMo’s bylaws. The overall strategy and guidance is set up by the Board of Directors and executed by the Executive Council. Under their leadership, the Architecture Council guides the technical output and development of the Foundation. The Foundation Program office, as managed by LiMo’s Executive Director, gives strategic guidance and support to all LiMo activities, including R&D;, marketing and membership development. In general, Core members also have broader leadership and participation opportunities. However, LiMo's structure does enable Associate members to access and modify the LiMo source code. Yes, LiMo membership is open to any organization that wishes to better understand, support and/or contribute to the efforts of the Foundation. Platform FAQsLiMo 4, the 4th release of the LiMo Platform was launched at MWC. The scope and functionality of the platform has expanded significantly to include:
- Easy to use, flexible and poweful UI based on GTK+ and EFL
- Extended widget library and 3D Window effects for superior UX
- Advanced multimedia, social networking and location based service frameworks
- Sensor frameworks, multi-tasking and multi-touch capabilities to support the next generation of entertainment services
- Support for multiple application environments - such as WAC, Flash, Adobe AIR & Native
LiMo 4 will equally support multiple device types and form factors through support for scalable screen resolution and through the provisioning of a common set of APIs and SDKs. Furthermore, LiMo 4 will be made publically available under progressive and developer friendly Open Source licenses in Q3.
Previous releases of the LiMo Platform focused only on the middleware layer. LiMo 4 is a more comprehensive OS offering with a sample application suite, a choice of UI frameworks (GTK, EFL) and offers support for multiple application development environments (WAC, Flash and Native). In addition, the platform supports scalable screen resolution (HVGA, WVGA and WSVGA) and can be used for multiple device types and form factors.
- LiMo 4 will support a host of cutting-edge technologies such as dual core processor, 14.4 Mbps HSPA+, sacable resolution, fast booting and multi-tasking.
- LiMo 4 will support internet standards that can deliver the best web experience (e.g. WebKit for GTK+).
- GTK+ and EFL will be used at the UI layer to provide fast and scalable UI. The UI layer will also include an extended widget library and ebales 3D window effects.
- LiMo 4 will include a social networking engine, PIM, location-based service framework and multimedia technologies such as audio/video playback & recording, audio session managers and audio cursors.
LiMo Platform is developed through code contributed by Members into a common repository. The components that will be included in the next release are determined jointly by LiMo Members and they constitute the approved specs for the LiMo Platform.
- As a matter of policy, OSS within all new Approved Specifications will be made publicly available in a conveniently downloadable form within six months of the formal approval of such Approved Specification subject to Board approval.
- Exceptionally, OSS within LiMo 4 will be made publicly available in Q3.
We encourage you to contribute directly to upstream open source projects. You can also become a member of the limofoundation.org for early visability and code contribution opportunities.
Handset FAQsLiMo is opening the source code such that any OEM, carrier and developer can use it freely to deploy innovative devices and applications giving rise to a broad ecosystem of LiMo based products. From LiMo 4 onwards, all of the common code will be covered by open source licenses. The limofoundation.org "Open Source Policy" lists the open source licenses permissible for use in respect of platform code, and includes reference to a number of commonly used hereditary and permissive open source licenses (including LGPL v2.0 & v2.1, GPL v2, Apache v2.0 and Eclipse Public License v1.0) Developer FAQsLiMo 4 will initially support Flash, AIR and WAC runtimes. In addition, LiMo OEM Members may potentially support native development. Instead of launching its own ecosystem, LiMo is supporting existing ecosystems such as WAC and Flash. Therefore, 3rd party developers are encouraged to use Adobe tools and WAC SDKs to develop applications for the LiMo Platform.
LiMo will make a Conformance Test Suite (CTS) available to OEMs planning to ship LiMo devices so that they can certify their devices as being LiMo compliant, thereby achieving application and middleware portabilty /interoperability. As an independent, not-for-profit consortium open to all members of the mobile industry, limofoundation.org itself does not operate an 'app store' but instead, works will its members to ensure that their own app stores and distribution strategies will support apps and services created for LiMo handsets.
Across LiMo's membership there will be a large number of options through which you can distribute your applications. LiMo will support the WAC application runtime and therefore, you will be able to distribute your WAC apps on all WAC compliant operator application stores. If you are a Flash or AIR developer, you can submit your applications and content to In-Market (Adobe's wholesale application distribution platform). There are 5 main reasons why developers should develop for the LiMo Platform:
Scale
LiMo's membership includes support and participation of 10 global mobile operators, who collectively represent a subscriber base of nearly 1 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. In addition, support for WAC runtime means that you will be able to target a potential subscriber base of 3 million through WAC compliant app stores. Support for Flash and AIR offers yet more opportunities to reach consumers worldwide on a variety of device types and form factors.
Choice
LiMo 4 Platform provides neutral support for a broad range of application development such as WAC, Flash and Adobe AIR. This means that you do not have to learn a whole new programming paradigm to deploy your applications on the LiMo Platform.
Lineage
The LiMo Platform is based on Linux; so if you are familiar with native Linux development, LiMo presents a very natural opportunity to transfer these skills into the mobile marketplace. LiMo will be publishing the source code of LiMo 4 on the LiMo Open Source Website in due course which should make it easier for you to debug your apps especially if you are a platform developer.
Future Proof
The LiMo Platform is dynamic and constantly evolving to incorporate the latest technology. Its benefits from the strong support of major stakeholders in the industry, who are leveraging the LiMo Platform to realise their service strategy.
Use of Open Source
LiMo 4 Platform will be made available under progressive and developer friendly open source licenses. LiMo is working in close collaboration with upstream open source projects in order to leverage the latest innovations that arise from the community and contribute back any modifications and optimisations. Learn more about LiMo's Open Source policy and activities on LiMo's Open Source Website.
Legal/IPR/Licensing FAQsIt is possible to convert a software submission from a proprietary license to an open source license, provided that certain criteria are met (). Yes, in general and subject to other obligations (for example, under open source licenses), members may license software contributed to the limofoundation.org to third parties. Members who develop software for the Foundation API assign their copyright interest in the software to the limofoundation.org and thus retain no licensing rights in the copyright (Article IV, Section C (2)). Members are not required to manufacture, develop or sell commercial products that use limofoundation.org software. Yes, members may use similar software provided that the similar software does not copy or contain any LiMo software and the similar software is not substantially similar to the source code for the limofoundation.org software taken as a whole. However, no patent rights are granted or implied with respect to the similar software (). Rather than being explicitly excluded, a parent company or other affiliated entity will be excluded from the definition of IPR Affiliate so long as it does not meet one of the defined criteria for IPR Affiliate. An IPR Affiliate must not (i) have access to or be otherwise provided with any sensitive materials (highly confidential information of limofoundation.org); (ii) be a majority-owned subsidiary of the member; or (iii) exert management influence or control on the technical development activities of the member with respect to Foundation software. Companies can contribute intellectual property to the development of a Foundation module through a variety of license grants. All contributions to Common Code must be done so on a royalty and copyright free basis. Yes, all members can access and modify the Foundation code.
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