The Gnome Foundation has launched a Mobile & Embedded Initiative (GMAE), it announced today. The Initiative aims to “advance the use, development and commercialization of GNOME components as a mobile and embedded user experience platform,” according to its mission statement.

The Initiative appears to be focused on maintaining a GMAE “Platform,” a subset of the Gnome desktop stack that, like Gnome, will be licensed under the GNU LGPL (Lesser General Public License). The LGPL “allows for royalty-free use in proprietary software products, but encourages contribution of platform code changes back to the community,” the GMAE said.

The GMAE Platform provides C, C++, and Python APIs (application programming interfaces), and initially comprises:

• GTK+ (Gimp ToolKit), the “core user experience toolkit”
• GStreamer multimedia support
• Telepathy instant messaging and presence
• BlueZ Bluetooth stack
• E-D-S contacts and calendaring
• Avahi network service discovery

Current GMAE software stack architecture
Additionally, GMAE participants plan to “grow the platform aggressively,” adding new technologies and functionality over the coming year. New components under consideration include the Java Mobile and Embedded platform (JME), GeoClue geolocation service, HAL hardware information system, PulseAudio audio management service, and Tinymail mobile email framework.

Besides Platform growth, GMAE's stated objectives include plans to:

• Increase community and commercial visibility of GMAE technology and participating organizations
• Coordinate investment in the GTK+ and GNOME platform, documentation, and developer tools
• Increase development focus on the “mobile experience,” particularly the integration of GNOME desktop and GMAE technology
• Facilitate healthy development collaboration between participating organizations, the GNOME community and related projects; and between GNOME platform, desktop and GMAE developers
• Pursue standardization opportunities for the platform, and potentially at the user experience level
• “Ensure that Software Freedom is a reality beyond the desktop, and available in the hands of users around the world”

Initial Initiative participants include existing Gnome Foundation members Access, Canonical, Debian, Igalia, Imendio, Intel, Nokia, OLPC, MatchBox maintainer OpenedHand, and Red Hat, together with CodeThink, Collabora, FIC, Fluendo, Kernel Concepts, Movial, Nomovok, Openismus, Vernier, Waugh Partners, and Wolfson Microelectronics. Additionally, the Initiative “involves” a large number of open source projects, which currently include Avahi, BlueZ, Cairo, GPE, GStreamer, GTK+, Hildon, Maemo, Matchbox, OpenMoko, Telepathy, and Tinymail, along with industry organizations that include CELF, the Linux Foundation, and LiPS, the GMAE said.

The Gnome project was founded in the late 1990s in order to provide a freely licensed alternative to Trolltech's Qt library, which at that time was not yet available under the GPL, yet was becoming a popular alternative to even more closed Unix GUI frameworks, such as Motif. As such, it has largely been developed as a desktop technology, to date.

Vernier LabQuest (Click to enlarge)

However, with embedded processors gaining power, and memory getting smaller and cheaper, Gnome has started finding its way into embedded systems. For example, the Nokia-sponsored Maemo project adopted stripped down versions of various Gnome libraries for its Linux-based 770 and N800 Internet tablets. Other high-profile Gnome users in the embedded space include the One Laptop per Child initiative, the OpenMoko free mobile phone software project, and test and measurement equipment vendor Vernier Labs, whose LabQuest device (pictured at right) runs Gnome software.

Bill Weinberg, principal analyst at LinuxPundit, stated, “This initiative augments a thriving commercial and community ecosystem around Gnome for mobile and embedded applications. Building on freely-licensed GTK+, GStreamer, and other Gnome software, GMAE provides a level playing field for companies and developers [and] for products and projects, offering a platform for innovation and collaboration.”

Additional details about the GMAE initiative can be found on its website, here.

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