If you thought Linux-based OSes were for back rooms, hardcore geeks, and computer science grad students, you’d be right. Recently, however, its made great strides toward becoming much more “user friendly,” even advancing to the point where they’re usable as phones. But what makes you want to pick a Linux smartphone?

There are a couple answers to that question: You’d want a smartphone running Linux instead of PalmOS, Symbian or Windows Mobile if you’re a big Linux fan. You’ve been using Linux for a while, and you’re dying to get the same building-block functionality in something a bit more portable. The second reason is if you’re a do-it-yourselfer that likes to tinker with new things. Linux for phones is a medium still in its infancy, but because of its “Open Source” nature, you’re free to write your own programs easily and quickly if you’re somewhat familiar with programming. Linux phones generally aren’t for the casual or business user yet, but within a few years they may get some substantial market share.

If that’s still a little too uncertain for you, you can always brew your own. Enthusiasts have had moderate success in getting Linux to run on hardware designed for other smartphone OSes. For example, it’s been known for awhile that the Treo by Palm can run Linux quite nicely, and other hardware shouldn’t be too much harder to hack. Who knows, in the future we may purchase smartphones the way some people buy computer hardware, having no OS, with the plan to install their own.

One of the obstacles Linux faces in the smartphone market is intercompatibility with other smartphones. If mine has WiFi and I want to send you a contact, who’s to say your contact list will recognize my data? That’s where LIPS come in. LIPS is the Linux Phone Standards forum. Access (formerly Palm Source), makers of the Palm OS, are charter members of LIPS, and as the next rendition of its operating system is known to be Linux-based, it would give the growing standards forum the legs it will need to really take off and its standards used by other manufacturers.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t serious support today for Linux smartphones. Motorola, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung have all had successful handsets running Linux, indeed the new Samsung SCH-i819, a smartphone aimed at Chinese businessmen, runs a specialized version of Linux with support for its touchscreen, ideal for inputing Chinese characters. In addition, it features BREW for support for most mobile downloads.

If you’re a first-time smartphone buyer, and have never owned a PDA of any kind, then the learning curve for Linux devices isn’t much different than that of Windows Mobile or Palm OS or Symbian devices: You point at what you want, and tell it what to do, it should do it fine. Unfortunately, no US manufacturers are shipping Linux-based smartphones in America, though due to the nature of Linux, but that’s set to change. For high-end users, though, it’s an ideal platform for packing as much power into a very small device.

LIPS forum [website]