[Twisted Fate]

Hello everyone,

I've been wanting a Blackberry Bold 9900 for some time now, I see that it's almost useless when it comes to things outside of calls and SMS. I want to know if it's still possible to make software for it that doesn't require proprietary Blackberry BIS/BES services? More specifically, email program and a browser..

What would I have to think about when making such programs and what kind of tools would I need? I am running GNU+Linux operating system, if that matters.

[thurask]

I'm not sure if their Eclipse update site or their code signing service are still up and running, but if you can get their Mac dev tools for BBOS and a signing certificate onto your Linux computer then that's just step one. Step two is going through their BBOS Java networking docs.

[Shuswap]

Hello everyone,

I've been wanting a Blackberry Bold 9900 for some time now, I see that it's almost useless when it comes to things outside of calls and SMS. I want to know if it's still possible to make software for it that doesn't require proprietary Blackberry BIS/BES services? More specifically, email program and a browser..

What would I have to think about when making such programs and what kind of tools would I need? I am running GNU+Linux operating system, if that matters.

For email, you might start with LogicMail. It's open source, and it still works at present, so you could fork and improve upon it.

But... the big issue with the 9900 involves the encryption and certificates. Unless someone can fix those issues (and I'm not sure that's possible) any app that relies on the OS for encryption (probably all of them) is going to stop functioning when the encryption breaks.

[Twisted Fate]

For email, you might start with LogicMail. It's open source, and it still works at present, so you could fork and improve upon it.

But... the big issue with the 9900 involves the encryption and certificates. Unless someone can fix those issues (and I'm not sure that's possible) any app that relies on the OS for encryption (probably all of them) is going to stop functioning when the encryption breaks.

Hmm, could that issue bebypassed by having a program that loads it's own certificates and libraries?
@thurask

I don't have a Mac, do they have such tools for GNU+Linux?

[thurask]

Hmm, could that issue bebypassed by having a program that loads it's own certificates and libraries?
@thurask

I don't have a Mac, do they have such tools for GNU+Linux?

They didn't acknowledge the existence of anything other than Mac/Windows until the BB10 dev tools.

[Shuswap]

Hmm, could that issue bebypassed by having a program that loads it's own certificates and libraries?

Possibly. I know that the QT browser being developed for webOS has its own. Whether or not the same kinds of things are possible on BB OS, I'm not sure.

[dkonigs]

Hmm, could that issue bebypassed by having a program that loads it's own certificates and libraries?
@thurask

I don't have a Mac, do they have such tools for GNU+Linux?

It might be possible to build something using the BouncyCastle project to implement SSL entirely inside the application. However, I'm not sure how easy it will be to shoehorn this onto an antiquated J2ME framework in 2018.

With some creativity, it has historically been possible to build BBOS applications on Linux (or even Solaris). However, the official tools have only been released for Mac and Windows. That being said, a useful set of tools have only existed for Windows. (What I mean by this, is that the simulators were only ever released for Windows. Platforms of BBOS's vintage are extremely unpleasant to develop for without simulators.)

[Chuck Finley69]

Why build something that won’t properly function in 12 months? BBOS isn’t very useful without BIS operating.