Linux founder endorses Google's Nexus One

From CNET News.com: Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel programming project, said Saturday not only that he likes the Google phone, but that it was good enough to convert him into a mobile phone believer.

"I generally hate phones--they are irritating and disturb you as you work or read or whatever--and a cell phone to me is just an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are," Torvalds said in a blog post. "But I have to admit, the Nexus One is a winner."

The whole idea of talking on the phone still isn't that exciting to Torvalds, though. Instead, it was other features that won him over.

"I've wanted to have a GPS unit for my car anyway, and I thought that Google navigation might finally make a phone useful," Torvalds said. "And it does. What a difference! I no longer feel like I'm dragging a phone with me 'just in case' I would need to get in touch with somebody--now I'm having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone, too, is kind of secondary."

Google's Android operating system used in the Nexus One is built atop a Linux foundation, but the applications typically don't run on the Linux. Instead, they run atop Linux on a Java-like layer, Google's Dalvik virtual machine and accompanying software libraries.

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