Darwin's Theories Blog

New Theories for a New Time

Android on FreeRunner

2010-02-13
Android or FreeRunner, that is the question for those who want a mostly-open-source cell phone. At least it used to be. Now that Openmoko have all but discontinued development on the Freerunner hardware, the future looks more and more like Android. And while I had hoped someday to be able to run OpenBSD on the Freerunner, it looks like that won't happen. Fortunately, there is a good implementation of Android for the FreeRunner, available for free download from this Android on Freerunner site at GoogleCode. I've been using this for a few weeks and, while it's not 100% rock solid, it is very close. I think I've had to do the battery-out-to-reset two or three times in three weeks (not counting the time I used the Android as an alarm clock and woke up from such a slumber that I couldn't remember how to shut it off).