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Google's iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary
- tripdout 3y agoCouldn't fit in the title, but the original article is from 2013, with updates in 2018. I always revisit this article from time to time, and I think it presents a more honest view on how open source Android really is. There's an interesting balance between OS features being part of the platform vs part of Google Play Services. On one hand, platform code is less easily updated, but it can be fully open source. On the other hand, Google Play Services can be easily updated through the Play Store, but we're now locked into a closed-source, proprietary platform - especially when more and more features move into Google Play Services. (Barebones AOSP isn't useable by any realistic standards, and Pixel devices have a large number of Pixel-only features that people just start considering "stock Android". At this point, Pixel is a skin on top of AOSP.) However, there's an interesting "best of both worlds" solution: Google's Project Mainline modules - they're easily updateable, and open source. But Google benefits from keeping features closed source, locking you into their ecosystem - so it's not like they're going to use these for anything more than lower level framework components as opposed to user-facing features. The full list is here: [0] 0: https://source.android.com/docs/core/ota/modular-system#available-modules https://source.android.com/docs/core/ota/modular-system#avai...
- wmf 3y agoTangentially related discussion from the other day: since Android isn't meaningfully open source anyway, why doesn't Google strong-arm the vendors into shipping N years of updates? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37967608 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37967608
- yownie 3y agoGoogle has always been the MOST evil of the FAANG companies.