MuditaOS goes Open Source - join the Developer Preview!

We’re happy to announce that we’re open-sourcing MuditaOS - our operating system for Mudita Pure - a minimalist phone with a mindful design, essential functionalities, an eye-friendly E Ink display, and ultralow SAR value. 

We’ve been considering going Open Source with MuditaOS from the very beginning, but we wanted to let you know about the decision only when we’re ready to start building an Open Source community.

Why Open Source?

The answer is pretty obvious. Open Source rules the world and is a thriving example of how communities can collaborate to build incredible quality products in the open. Such values as transparency, quality, security, and collaboration have been Mudita’s core values from day one. There’s simply no other way for us to release software as to be transparent and open about it. There are many Open Source enthusiasts at Mudita and without Open Source community, we would never be able to make the company happen in the first place.

Our community has only reassured us that they value the principles of open software - here’s just a few of the quotes from the MuditaOS - Open Source topic on our forum.

Not going full FOSS (copyleft licenses) with all the community-based advantages (R&D, promotion, bug fixing, trust on privacy, possible leading OS, etc.) would definitely be a huge and sad mistake for this well-thought project. - agent_libre

Another great aspect would be allowing people to exchange code with Mudita on tools like GitHub. Open source community could even help you in making the product better and better, meet more individual needs, help in debugging, and the most important, allow us to stay free. - darkponay

As far as I am concerned, Mudita is not here to build up yet another technological jail; it’s about providing by default a benevolent, useful and non-attention-seeking framework - a caring philosophy, not another mind’s prison. - agent_libre

There are also those who believe that non-free software is inherently unethical and I think that’s a respectable point of view, especially when it comes to a device as necessary for daily life as a cellphone. - Matt_McArthur

In terms of licensing, we decided to go for GPL v3 (GNU General Public License v3.0). This is a strong copyleft license which obliges anyone who introduces changes to the code or uses the code for their own purposes in any form to make the complete source code of licensed works and modifications, which include larger works using a licensed work, to be available in the open under the same license.

Join the MuditaOS Developer Preview

The MuditaOS code will be publicly available on GitHub on the day we officially launch Mudita Pure and start shipping our phones to backers and customers. Before we go all out, we would like to invite our community for a Developer Preview of the code and documentation.

While you’re reading this blog post, we’re preparing the necessary infrastructure, guidelines, and spaces for the MuditaOS community to grow. We would love all Mudita community Open Source enthusiasts to apply for the Developer Preview. The number of places is limited - so register while you can. After you apply with your email you’ll receive a message explaining the next step.

During the Developer Preview, we’ll be asking you for feedback regarding our Open Source infrastructure, documentation, guides, etc. so that we can act on and be well prepared for the “Go live with Open Source” day.

What’s worth mentioning is that we’ll award the most active Open Source contributors with a free Mudita Pure phone as soon as we’ll be able to ship them. We reserve the freedom to subjectively decide which community members were the most valuable contributors during the Developer Preview period. Contributions include documentation changes, bug fixes, and helping our team on creating and delivering features. We want our whole community to celebrate the fact that we are going Open Source. This is why we have added an opensource -5% discount code available to use until the end of October inside our online store, on top of the existing discounts.

We hope that you’re as excited as we are about starting this Open Source journey! We look forward to working with you on the best possible operating system for Mudita Pure.