Symbian now completely open source!
The Symbian countdown has ended, and the mystery is finally solved: Symbian is now completely open source!
What does this mean practically? From the official announcement:
Any individual or organization can now take, use and modify the code for any purpose, whether that be for a mobile device or for something else entirely.
And more:
All 108 packages containing the source code of the Symbian platform can now be downloaded from Symbian’s developer web site (tiny.symbian.org/open), under the terms of the Eclipse Public License and other open source licenses. Also available for download are the complete development kits for creating applications (the Symbian Developer Kit) and mobile devices (the Product Development Kit).
Even if already announced, this step is huge for the mobile ecosystem, and I could not agree more with the words of Eben Moglen, Founding Director, Software Freedom Law Center:
Software freedom on mobile hardware is absolutely necessary to the preservation of privacy and the encouragement of innovation in mobile technology, and to protecting the freedom of the Net overall.
Well done, Symbian!
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