5 ms·

They said they would do this months ago, why is it news?

by martythemaniak 15y ago

wmf 15y ago
Some people have been trying to one-up each other on cynicism by predicting that Google is lying.
- ubernostrum 15y ago
  I don't know whether they're lying or not. I do know that Google has shown they can't be trusted to follow through on their promises of "openness" in the past. I know that the most recent public release of Android (Honeycomb, since ICS isn't out yet) was a closed-source product. I know that they did that for a reason -- controlling which devices end-users can run the software on -- that spits in the face of Freedom Zero. I know that Google's development process is the same one Apple has been flamed to a crisp for in the past (adopt an open-source codebase, do all your development in secret, and maybe chuck a tarball over the fence every so often). I know that my attitude on Google and "open" nowadays is "I'll believe it when I see it". I know that there's an awful lot of rationalization going on in the minds of people who trusted Google and are now learning that may not have been such a smart idea...
nailer 15y ago
Because they still haven't done it.
- commandar 15y ago
  ICS was just officially unveiled last night. The SDK has been out less than 24 hours. Still haven't done it? Seriously?
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - tvon 15y ago
    People don't' like it when you develop your "open" software behind closed doors. Sure, there are good reasons for it, but so long as you fly that "Open" banner, you're going to get shit when you do things that seem contradictory to that message.
    - sp332 15y ago
      Definitely true. Google want credit for being "open source" but they're not willing to put the effort into actually having an open development process.
      - commandar 15y ago
        I don't know why you're using scare quotes around open source. By every reasonable definition of the term, Android is an open source project. It may not be RMS style Free software and it may not be a community-driven project, but it is absolutely open source software.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
  - nailer 15y ago
    > ICS was just officially unveiled last night. Android has existed without public source code for much longer than last night.
    - commandar 15y ago
      Google said all along that Honeycomb source wouldn't be released, and that ICS would be the next public code release. Public code releases have always lagged official announcements by a few weeks. Google is doing exactly what they said they would and what they've always done. The whining strikes me as a bit silly.
serversup 15y ago
The news is that android.git.kernel.org is back up. I'm not sure why the headline is about Android 4 as that is only briefly mentioned in the post.
- wmf 15y ago
  Because an accurate headline wouldn't manufacture any controversy.

They said they would do this months ago, why is it news?

wmf 15y ago

Some people have been trying to one-up each other on cynicism by predicting that Google is lying.

ubernostrum 15y ago
I don't know whether they're lying or not. I do know that Google has shown they can't be trusted to follow through on their promises of "openness" in the past. I know that the most recent public release of Android (Honeycomb, since ICS isn't out yet) was a closed-source product. I know that they did that for a reason -- controlling which devices end-users can run the software on -- that spits in the face of Freedom Zero. I know that Google's development process is the same one Apple has been flamed to a crisp for in the past (adopt an open-source codebase, do all your development in secret, and maybe chuck a tarball over the fence every so often). I know that my attitude on Google and "open" nowadays is "I'll believe it when I see it". I know that there's an awful lot of rationalization going on in the minds of people who trusted Google and are now learning that may not have been such a smart idea...

nailer 15y ago

Because they still haven't done it.

commandar 15y ago
ICS was just officially unveiled last night. The SDK has been out less than 24 hours. Still haven't done it? Seriously?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- tvon 15y ago
  People don't' like it when you develop your "open" software behind closed doors. Sure, there are good reasons for it, but so long as you fly that "Open" banner, you're going to get shit when you do things that seem contradictory to that message.
  - sp332 15y ago
    Definitely true. Google want credit for being "open source" but they're not willing to put the effort into actually having an open development process.
    - commandar 15y ago
      I don't know why you're using scare quotes around open source. By every reasonable definition of the term, Android is an open source project. It may not be RMS style Free software and it may not be a community-driven project, but it is absolutely open source software.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- nailer 15y ago
  > ICS was just officially unveiled last night. Android has existed without public source code for much longer than last night.
  - commandar 15y ago
    Google said all along that Honeycomb source wouldn't be released, and that ICS would be the next public code release. Public code releases have always lagged official announcements by a few weeks. Google is doing exactly what they said they would and what they've always done. The whining strikes me as a bit silly.

serversup 15y ago

The news is that android.git.kernel.org is back up. I'm not sure why the headline is about Android 4 as that is only briefly mentioned in the post.

wmf 15y ago
Because an accurate headline wouldn't manufacture any controversy.