Nokia: Symbian is not open source

Developers have reacted angrily to Nokia's move to lock down the Symbian code, saying it's no longer open source.

The company confirmed, confusingly, that Symbian would now only be available to existing collaborators under an “open and direct” model, with the code locked away from the general public.

“Nokia is making the Symbian platform available under an alternative, open and direct model, to enable us to continue working with the remaining Japanese OEMs and the relatively small community of platform development collaborators we are already working with,” the company said in a blog post.

Your 'open' is a lie. You aren’t an enabler. You can’t be trusted to keep your own promises

“Through these pages we are releasing source code to these collaborators, but are not maintaining Symbian as an open-source development project.”

According to the company, the Nokia Symbian License provides access to Nokia’s additional Symbian development tools only for parties which already collaborate with Nokia on the Symbian platform.

Developers may be able to get access to the code if their registration is approved by Nokia, but Symbian is shut to the general public, the company said.

The Symbian community, which extends further than immediate collaborators, said the move was disingenuous and forum posters suggested Microsoft was behind the decision to close Symbian.

“Now you’re playing the woolly words game again,” wrote one poster in response to Nokia's announcement. “Semantics, shemantics. Your 'open' is a lie. You aren’t an enabler. You can’t be trusted to keep your own promises.”