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Half a year ago several mobile giants announced the formation of a group with the purpose of fostering the development of an open Linux platform for wireless handsets. Starting today, this organization will be known as the LiMo Foundation.

Formed by handset makers Motorola, Samsung, NEC and Panasonic Mobile Communications and operators Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo, the foundation would like to see Linux-based phones developed more cheaply and quickly, while reducing the number of Linux platforms to test and certify from several down to one.

By creating a collaborative environment that establishes safeguards to minimize Linux fragmentation, LiMo would like to create a Linux operating system that pulls components from open source, as handset maker's 'proprietary' Linux platforms do, but can stand on its own and run on a variety of phones across different device vendors be easily verified for a carriers network through standardization.

LiMo would eventually like to provide an application programming interface (API) specification, architecture, references to open source code, new source code-based reference implementation components and specifications for referenced third party software. It also plans to deliver a test suite to assess and demonstrate product conformance to the platform specification.

Although founding members are primarily responsible for delivery of the development of the mobile operating platform, they are actively seeking the participation from all interested companies, including other device manufacturers and operators, but also chipset manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third-party developers.

Back when LiMo first formed, the group said it goes a step beyond two similar Linux organizations: the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum and the Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI). Both LiPS and MLI are focused on creating standards and specifications rather than a full-on OS.