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Whether these succeed or not, I simply don't get it. Android is open source. Fork it. Improve it. Why build something completely new. Is it just to keep a bran
by trimbo 14y ago
Whether these succeed or not, I simply don't get it.
Android is open source. Fork it. Improve it. Why build something completely new. Is it just to keep a brand name like "Ubuntu" and "Firefox"?
- madisp 14y agoAs far as I understand it actually is a fork of Android in the sense that it runs the Android-flavoured Linux kernel.
- ttuominen 14y agoThis, and also Android's overall userspace design is kind of idiosyncratic. I'm sure there are other legitimate designs of a Linux-based mobile OS, which don't rely so heavily on Java and a virtual machine. Ubuntu will be Qt-based, for example. That throws out the possibility to reuse the Android application framework.
- trimbo 14y agoOk, but there's nothing that prevents them from implementing QT on Android using the NDK. You don't have to throw out all application compatibility to achieve something like this.
- madisp 14y agoIf I remember correctly then it can also run Android apps in the same WM together with other apps. It actually shouldn't be too hard to replace Android's WindowManager with some other implementation (say, QT-based) due to the nature of Binder (Android's IPC mechanism).
- ricardobeat 14y agoHaven't they merged the "android kernel" into the linux kernel recently?
- ttuominen 14y agoMany features, not all: https://lwn.net/Articles/514901/ https://lwn.net/Articles/514901/
- ricardobeat 14y agoAndroid is not really open-source, you can only get source code for old versions, never the latest release.
- trimbo 14y ago4.2.1 is the current version and the source was available on the day it released.
- ricardobeat 14y agoAndroid.com only lists 4.1 as available. Either way, by only making source code available on the day of release it is by definition already old. That means development happens in the dark. android was also deemed the least open of a bunch of high-profile open-source projects: http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/Open%20Governance%20Index%20%28VisionMobile%29.pdf http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/Open%20Gover...