Symbian releases open source package

Symbian could be taking the first steps on the road to open source

Symbian has released its first open source software package. The move is seen as the first step towards open sourcing the entire Symbian mobile operating system.

The Symbian Foundation is a collective set up by Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, Samsung, LG and AT&T.

Writing in his blog, Symbian developer Craig Heath said that the OS Security Package source code is now available under the Eclipse Public Licence (EPL). It is the very first package to officially be moved to the EPL from the closed Symbian Foundation License (SFL).

Heath said that the EPL allows the security package to bypass export regulations in the UK, where the Symbian Foundation is legally based.

In the UK software world, code that is "in the public domain" is not export controlled, so moving the security package from the SFL to the EPL was the most straightforward way to make sure that its complete cryptographic functionality will be available to all, he explained.

The next step could be to open source the Symbian kernel, along with a basic set of components and drivers.

Symbian has said it plans to release a new version of the mobile OS approximately every six months.