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Whats the difference between Android/AOSP and RedHat/Linux, or nginx.com/nginx.org, or DataStax/Cassandra? I believe the Android platform itself is free, howeve

• pslam 13y ago
  The "open" variants of those you list can be compiled, installed and used practically without significant compromise - they are genuinely useful. The exception is AOSP. There are very few devices where you can compile and install AOSP and have a genuinely useful result. Compiling alone is fairly useless if the binaries you generate can't be used for any purpose. You may recall the maintainer recently quit because it became an untenable position: https://plus.google.com/112218872649456413744/posts/9HHRURorE7g https://plus.google.com/112218872649456413744/posts/9HHRURor...
• Someone 13y ago
  Isn't that just what this argues? nginx.org is free, but nginx.com isn't. What conflates this is the confusing naming. Android, the open source OS is different from Android(TM), Google's brand for devices running Android, and both are different from Android, the combination of the open source OS with Google's services that many users recognize as Android. Yes, the official name of he former is 'Android Open Source Project', but in the mind of many, it's just 'Android'. Android is (about) just as free because AOSP is open source as Mac OS X is free because Darwin is open source.
• Touche 13y ago
  Those other projects are developed in the open, Android is not.