Symbian shows release plan
The Symbian Foundation has laid out a version release schedule, and a development timetable that calls for five iterations to be in production at a time. The version of Symbian currently shipping requires a separate graphical layer, S60, but with "Symbian^2" those layers are combined in the first open-source version of the OS, …
"The plan is nothing if not aggressive - even Apple doesn't try and launch two versions of its OS a year"
On the other hand this is exactly what Ubuntu does with its April and October releases and manages very well on a very wide range of hardware - and the range would be even wider if device makers would release OSS drivers.
I'm afraid Bill you need to hand in your Geek Pass...
...launch it into the toilet, and free Nokia to put something decent on their hardware.
Semi annual Ubuntu releases are not substantially different following on each other: maybe new kernel minor number change and some number of new minor number library changes. The bulk of the code does not change. You are comparing apples to oranges.
I re-read Bill's article again. It's not clear that Symbian are planning to completely re-write each version from scratch. Now that *would* be nutty!
This isn't a new thing. Symbian's been on a release treadmill for at least the last five years; the bi-weekly release snapshot to vendors is a part of their development methodology, and new platforms require new OS code; twas ever so.
