RIM BlackBerry Linux USB Driver Support -- Petition

*snip*
BlackBerry Wireless Handheld devices developed by Research In Motion. Ltd. do not have Linux USB drivers. The specification for said drivers is also not available.

This functionality may not seem important to corporate BlackBerry users who have BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), because they receive their calendar, contacts, and task synchronization Over-the-air (OTA). However, because there is no BlackBerry USB serial driver, it is impossible to even recharge the device over USB except from Windows (where a USB driver exists). Further, you can not take advantage of GPRS functionality from Linux which would otherwise be supported. And unfortunately, the Bluetooth implementation on the devices does not support the standard for Dial-Up Networking (DUN) features.

This petition has been created to show Research In Motion that a large number of Linux users, who prefer BlackBerry devicesm, would like Research In Motion to either make the specification public so that the Open Source community can develop appropriate drivers that enable the Linux community, or develop and release said USB device drivers.

*/snip*

Here is the link to sign
RIM BlackBerry Linux USB Driver Support Petition

Thanks for the pointer -- while these petitions rarely do anything (sadly), it doesn't hurt to lend support.

Only 846 so far..... Come on Linux BB users!!!!! Sign away.... Please

And I agree rivviepop.... They usually don't do much in the big scheme of things but it's worth a try

If you have more than one email address, maybe you should sign more than once. ;)

im on it ...859 Signatures Total

now there are 864, why not asking for help on other parts of the Forum? even when they don't use Linux, they can go ahead and sign the petition

Good point, how can we get this for everyone to see instead of just this forum?

admin help...

Me too. Me too! I do not even have windows running at home any more so Linux support is going to be come critical for me. I can understand RIM having reservations about committing support to Linux. Just two things to keep in mind.

1. Linux market share is actually MUCH hight than reported. IDC and other services that capture this data are doing so based on dollars spent. Since Linux can be acquired at no cost this leaves Linux vastly under represented in these surveys. I purchase a copy of Linux for my home desktop every time I upgrade, but I have given them out to countless people to use to install too.

2. It is not necessary give full blown Linux support. Simply making basic code available, and or driver specs and info available would be a good start. Or providing support to projects like Barry. This would also allow RIM to test the water to test interest.

nice i recently signed a petition for internet radio, i would be glad to sign this, i use FC6 atm
xD
ttyl
jim

It would appear that the last post was in April. What is the status of these drivers?

I just made 1966.

I just made 2228. It's not bad.

Actually, I don't really care about the USB charge. None of the other phones I ever had did that, I can do without it just fine and recharge the phone with the outlet charger. But the lack of data synchronization really hurts. A Blackberry is not a cheap piece of Chinese/Korean gimmick, it's a first class device. I expected better attention and support from RIM. AT LEAST the ability to import several vCards at once. At the very least.

USB Driver is irrelevant... and becoming more so...

WE NEED BES FOR POSTFIX>>> END OF STORY

Once Google's Android starts gaining traction RIM will probably realize their mistake but too late, likely. I predict lots of cool features exploding out of the OSS community in support of android phones and then drivers will REALLY be the least of your problems.

Good luck with the petition though!

And I predict a lot of trendy minimalist stuff à la iPhone, Gnome and [insert name of your favorite blog/content management platform here], with more shaded blue and rounded corners than you can shake a mouse at, but not many tweaking options really because "too many options is ugly and most of the cattle, I mean, people never use them anyway".

And that is until "the semantic phone" is out...

Perhaps, perhaps not. Regardless of how the OSS community responds to Android, at least there will finally by a phone for us whose inner workings are not hidden from us, and for which there will be drivers made available. I like my BB a lot. I even enjoy it, but once there is a better option, I will move on and I will not miss it.

The fact that we have to PETITION for support might be saying something we do not want to hear.