Haiku in Linux, PDA, Cellphone Shocker
Apr 01, 2006 00:02 UTC, by Kian Duffy, Senior Journalist
From the i\'m-outta-here department...

During my weekly routine of beta testing Haiku, I accidently did a ` svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/haiku/haiku/` , which pulled the entire codebase in Haiku's SVN repository. Since Jam needed to be updated, I shot off to the pub for a few pints. Much to my surprise, there has been an enormous amount of checkins that have been kept under-the-radar. One folder is marked "mobile". However this isn't for laptops.
 
Inside is a large collection of software, both from Haiku's trunk and "other" open-source projects. At first I noticed a kernel with a version of 2.6.14. Yes, you read that right. It's a linux kernel and judging by the number of #ifdef __BEOS__ , they intend on using it. Elsewhere in the branch are what appears to be bindings for Haiku's servers, particularly app_server to interface with the kernel. What's even more puzzling is the .mm extensions on most of those wrappers, which implies an Objective C or possibly even an ObjC# interface. 
 
After looking at the comments, most of this has been contributed by two unknown developers. While the two coders are working in tandem, they have different target devices. Lirpa is targetting a LifeDrive palmOne PDA and TSRif has the beginnings of app_server running on his SonyEricsson, possibly a T637. 
 
So, not only is Haiku forking to use Linux's kernel, it's also targeting mobile internet-capable devices! Proof you want? Screenshots 1 and 2 are of Haiku running on the LifeDrive and screenshot 3 is of the cell phone.
 

 

 

 
My last word of my last article to be written ever: blasphemy.
 
 
Disclaimer
Considering its after mid day here now, I've got to do the usual disclaimer stuff. Thanks to Matt Madia for the text, Tenzin Togden for some creative input, Petter Holt-Juliussen and Bryan Varner for the "screenshots". Its completely fake, obviously.