Linux Mobile Foundation Formed to Promote Open Source Software

What’s that crazy penguin up to now? Open source is a wonderful, glorious thing, but it can be a little frazzled and disorganized. When it comes to Linux for cell phones, however, we now have a unified body — dubbed the Linux Mobile Foundation — which will work collaboratively on promoting and developing the platform. Among the companies involved in the movement are Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone. The “LiMo” Foundation is non-profit, of course, and is designed to “trim development costs and speed the spread of the open source software technology for use with handsets and other mobile devices.”

Membership in the Linux Mobile Foundation is open to just about anyone, with an annual fee of $40,000 for individuals and $800,000 for larger companies. The Foundation will be making some sort of speech at 3GSM in Barcelona next month, explaining the advantages of membership. I’m just anxiously awaiting the new UI from Motorola.