iPhone hackers achieve a milestone: Linux boot

Li-Phone...not so much.

Whoa! Some poindexter managed to turn his iPhone into something that isn't an iPhone?! This is the biggest news since "Dewey Defeats Truman"!

Call me when some kid in a bowtie and short sleeves gets the iPhone's OS X running on a real phone with a keyboard and everything.

Wow! Apple users are more pretentious as Microsoft users.

Linux on iPhone equals freedom for those who bought them.

Current users do not actually own the iPhone that they have bought, they are merely granted limited uses of them as long as they pay the rent (monthly phones and limitations set by Apple & phone companies).

mrsteveman1 please don't preach to us on how capitalism works. Capitlism seems to be doing so well nowadays.

The truth of the matters is that in order for capitalism to continue new needs have to be created in order for a market to form in which a product can be sold and a company can make profit. Apple is not in the business of giving users what they want, it is dictating what those needs are. Manufacturing needs and creating purchasing lifestyles is what Apple does. This is how they get you locked in to Apple's digital lifestyle.

:)

I have to say, I'm in the, "this is interesting, but ultimately useless" camp. Sure, it's a great DIY hacker breakthrough for hobbyists, but I can't see this ever being useful for actual end users.

To make this even remotely usable, we're talking about having to build or modify drivers for every single part of the device, modify the kernel to run on the device, modify any parts of the overlay systems to work on the device -- it's an undertaking that I can't fathom being easy or quick to accomplish.

And for what? To potentially use the iPhone as a small mini computer? I can't see it ever reaching the stage where you could receive the signed data needed to run a dialer (that's what Android ultimately requires -- and Open Moko is the biggest POS I have ever touched. Pure unadulterated crap on every conceivable level -- and yes, I have used one. A friend got one for free and it's just God awful).

As it stands, the iPhone SDK might sandbox developers. It might limit theoretical "freedom" (sorry, I just can't buy into the FOSS argument of "freedom" and "liberty" being life and death battles in the context of SOFTWARE), it might not let you run all these nifty geek tools. Fine. But it does what it is meant to do; it plays music, it makes calls, it runs SDK apps. If you truly need something more, then why not invest in Android, which has a closer interface but more open ecosystem. Or if you truly like to punish yourself, play with Open Moku. And then understand why Symbian, Android, iPhone OS and even Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS work: their SDKs work with certain signed hardware in order to function as a phone and have third-party apps.

I'm all for playing and having fun learning and exploring a device, closed or open. I just couldn't personally justify spending the time or resources to do so when the existing system is solid (if not completely fool proof -- my iPod touch second gen is remarkably stable, making me think many of the problems with freezing are based on interference with the dialer aspect. And I might add, my BlackBerry freezes and crashes too...) and beautiful.

Ignore the Linux Fanboys. Linux does absolutely nothing for most people. The Linux boys just get a little excited when they can put their crap OS on a new Toaster. After that, well usually nothing more happens and they crawl back down to their basement to continue handcrafting their PC. I'm sure it's therapeutic and enjoyable for them.

Ignore the haters man. I love Linux much more then anything Apple can put out anyway. Apple is just Microsoft in a different outfit.

This is the most useless hack I've come across yet and you're calling it a "milestone"? What you're paying for when you buy an iPhone IS the iPhone software. The hardware is fine in itself, yes, but it's not even remotely the selling point of the phone, especially if you consider the phone doesn't even have any real buttons or a keyboard... It's ALL IN THE SOFTWARE. Everything the iphone offers is software-based. Yes, it has an accelerometer, but it's the SOFTWARE the utilizes it. If you want to use a different kind of software so much, why did you waste your money on an iPhone?

I know people enjoy the conquest of hacking a device to perform something it's not supposed to perform, but that's the ONLY reason I can imagine why someone would want to do this. When you stick a new OS into the iphone you completely lose the iPhone. The iPhone shell-- the casing and three buttons it DOES have-- is hardly reason enough to buy it and stick a different OS in it. It makes entirely more sense to just buy a different phone. If you want Android, buy an Android based phone. Otherwise you just spent money on an iphone and then crippled it. How in the world does this make sense?

The only way I guess it MIGHT make a bit of sense is if you can switch between operating systems on the fly.

Well.

I am a company. Invest resources and provide REAL JOBS to REAL PEOPLE. I introduce a new device, or a device that is interesting enough for consumers to purchase one.

And then someone simply puts a free software on my platform talking about it as if it was solving world's hunger.

Sorry if I seem harsh, but all this is going way beyond normal.

One more thing to all who are now working on the iPhone Linux whatever. I don't understand you, I really don't.

There is a ton of other phones already working on some sort of Linux platform. Why don't you concentrate on ironing the bugs on these ones out?
Ah... I understand, the iPhone is way cooler.

It is newsworthy that someone managed to install Linux on an iPhone, but I personally feel that it is not a real "exploit", just someone seeking advertisement.

When Linux is on a phone which offers more value for my money than the iPhone, then I would be more than happy to buy it.

/criticism
/harsh

Wow.. all you guys complaining how this is useless..
You need to be looking at it in the long run.. I bet this showed the developers many new things they could use for their jailbreaking, unlocking and I dont know what else..

Getting Linux running in the iPhone is interesting from a hobbyist point of view, but ultimately useless for the needs of the vast majority of iPhone users.

The same can be said for Linux on desktop/laptop computers versus Mac OS X. The ease of use just isn't there.

Outside of a few hobbyists, there's just no point to buying into an Apple product/experience, only to complicate the hardware with Linux.