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I don't think that replacing Linux under the hood of Android will change anything. Most of Android is licensed under the Apache license, probably due to the alt

by ge0rg 8y ago

I don't think that replacing Linux under the hood of Android will change anything. Most of Android is licensed under the Apache license, probably due to the alternative Java runtime they took initially from the Apache Foundation. They sheer developer power Google has at hand to throw at Android development, including out-of-tree-kernel patchsets, means that it is a very significant effort to just keep pace with them, and the AOSP "code drops" come late and require major integration work. If they wanted to switch to a closed-source model, they could have adopted that for the runtime a long time ago, still keeping the closed-source blob on top of the Linux kernel. Maybe the EU decision will change the benefit balance of Android "being open source", and Google will go on with forking off / replacing the whole middleware, but I think that with their speed of Android development most commercially viable OEMs only have a chance to follow by subscribing to Google contracts (and maybe getting early access to new releases) anyway.

simion314 8y ago
If Google has the copyright of the code their own developers wrote then they can relicense any code they wrote, including GPL. Edit Also they will probably try to replace Java with Dart to get around the Java/Oracle problem
- ge0rg 8y ago
  They do have the copyright to the code they wrote, but not to the code they took and changed (Apache Harmony, Linux kernel). They can relicense everything that originated from them, and provide it under a pure commercial license or dual-license it. However, it might mean that they have to re-implement big parts of the Android runtime, or even do clean-room implementations by people not previously involved in those projects, to prevent legal attacks on the inevitably-similar code that results.
- HillaryBriss 8y ago
  > they will probably try to replace Java with Dart to get around the Java/Oracle problem one may view Google's current emphasis on Kotlin in the same light
pjmlp 8y ago
One step at a time. - GCC is no longer supported on Android, as of Android P - Linux kernel is compilable with clang, but AFAIK not all changes have been upstreamed - Project Treble made Linux into a kind of micro-kernel, with drivers using Android IPC to talk to it - Fuschia doesn't use anything GPL related

by ge0rg 8y ago

simion314 8y ago

If Google has the copyright of the code their own developers wrote then they can relicense any code they wrote, including GPL. Edit Also they will probably try to replace Java with Dart to get around the Java/Oracle problem

ge0rg 8y ago
They do have the copyright to the code they wrote, but not to the code they took and changed (Apache Harmony, Linux kernel). They can relicense everything that originated from them, and provide it under a pure commercial license or dual-license it. However, it might mean that they have to re-implement big parts of the Android runtime, or even do clean-room implementations by people not previously involved in those projects, to prevent legal attacks on the inevitably-similar code that results.
HillaryBriss 8y ago
> they will probably try to replace Java with Dart to get around the Java/Oracle problem one may view Google's current emphasis on Kotlin in the same light

pjmlp 8y ago

One step at a time. - GCC is no longer supported on Android, as of Android P - Linux kernel is compilable with clang, but AFAIK not all changes have been upstreamed - Project Treble made Linux into a kind of micro-kernel, with drivers using Android IPC to talk to it - Fuschia doesn't use anything GPL related