5 ms·

AOSP is getting smaller. Google's closed source Android (aka GMS) is getting bigger. On a standard Android phone, a ton of it is closed source and under a pro

AOSP is getting smaller. Google's closed source Android (aka GMS) is getting bigger. On a standard Android phone, a ton of it is closed source and under a proprietary license. It's now at the point that the majority of the most popular Android apps are not Android apps any more. They're GMS apps and they won't run on AOSP. Any app that implements modern location services, in-app purchases, etc, simply won't work on AOSP or any Android variant that isn't Google's with all the GMS bits.

Zigurd 13y ago
I don't think I would expect to do in-app purchases without my own e-commerce capability, or using some ecosystem's IAP support, and AOSP never had an open source IAP framework. There are other places where one can complain that Google has effectively abandoned open source components of AOSP. These are places where Google has made previously standalone apps part of their ecosystem. On the other hand, alternative distributions like CyanogenMod have become sustainable VC-fundable businesses based on the relative reliability that important new core OS features do go into AOSP on a timely basis. ART, for example. It's there to read and study and try long before any Google-label OEM benefits from it.
- jsight 13y ago
  Two of the GMS moves do really bother me: 1) Location API changes - Moving these into GMS is a bad decision, and I think hurts the core platform 2) Hangouts - Moving messaging into a non-standards compliant and closed source solution hurts everyone (except Google, at least in the short-term) These to me indicate a move towards a more closed model within Google generally, and I think that is terribly unfortunate.
  - echeese 13y ago
    Both of those still exist in AOSP. I'm guessing the location API changes are to allow the API to access Google's proprietary WiFi location service.
  - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
    Hangouts is moving to WebRTC, a different but equally standards-based and Open Source solution.
    - throwaway2048 13y ago
      WebRTC is a transport/application level API for building things on top of, it is NOT an open interoperability standard of the same sort XMPP is at all. iMessage uses TCP, but that doesn't make it an open source application with an open protocol.
      - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
        Doesn't iChat use XMPP? Whether XMPP or WebRTC are open, and open source, is different from whether services that run on them are open to federation. But what the post I responded to claimed was about the tech, and the tech will be just as standardized and just as open source.
- zobzu 13y ago
  cm simply auto install gapps. no gapps and cm is dead. many apps wont run. no market. if google cease and desist them they're dead.
  - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
    Cyanogenmod now complies with the CTS and so can ship with GMS. But even when it doesn't it can install various appstores, never mind individual apps.
    - zobzu 13y ago
      you can install apps that don't rely on GMS. i'd like to see ONE full time user of AOSP without GMS. I bet you got GMS, or non-android phone, or else its not your main phone. and that's the fucking point.
      - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
        One third of all Android devices being sold (that's over half a million a day) don't have GMS on them. If you want to find them I'd suggest you start in China, or a FSF meetup, or Amazon headquarters. I have GMS on my Nexus phone, but I also have the F-Droid repository, the Humble Bundle store (and briefly had the Amazon App store too). I also have Chrome installed on my Ubuntu desktop (though I mostly use Firefox, and have Chromium too). And Steam. What was the fucking point again?
        zobzu 13y ago
        that your phone has "fucking" GMS on it. that.. is the point. The phones sold without GMS in china are sold that way because of licensing reasons. Everyone puts GMS on them at purchase time. Your arguing is senseless.
ZeroGravitas 13y ago
> AOSP is getting smaller That's ludicrous, and the rest of your post isn't much better, but its a good example of the worldview that Ars is currently pushing.

Zigurd 13y ago

I don't think I would expect to do in-app purchases without my own e-commerce capability, or using some ecosystem's IAP support, and AOSP never had an open source IAP framework. There are other places where one can complain that Google has effectively abandoned open source components of AOSP. These are places where Google has made previously standalone apps part of their ecosystem. On the other hand, alternative distributions like CyanogenMod have become sustainable VC-fundable businesses based on the relative reliability that important new core OS features do go into AOSP on a timely basis. ART, for example. It's there to read and study and try long before any Google-label OEM benefits from it.

jsight 13y ago
Two of the GMS moves do really bother me: 1) Location API changes - Moving these into GMS is a bad decision, and I think hurts the core platform 2) Hangouts - Moving messaging into a non-standards compliant and closed source solution hurts everyone (except Google, at least in the short-term) These to me indicate a move towards a more closed model within Google generally, and I think that is terribly unfortunate.
- echeese 13y ago
  Both of those still exist in AOSP. I'm guessing the location API changes are to allow the API to access Google's proprietary WiFi location service.
- ZeroGravitas 13y ago
  Hangouts is moving to WebRTC, a different but equally standards-based and Open Source solution.
  - throwaway2048 13y ago
    WebRTC is a transport/application level API for building things on top of, it is NOT an open interoperability standard of the same sort XMPP is at all. iMessage uses TCP, but that doesn't make it an open source application with an open protocol.
    - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
      Doesn't iChat use XMPP? Whether XMPP or WebRTC are open, and open source, is different from whether services that run on them are open to federation. But what the post I responded to claimed was about the tech, and the tech will be just as standardized and just as open source.
zobzu 13y ago
cm simply auto install gapps. no gapps and cm is dead. many apps wont run. no market. if google cease and desist them they're dead.
- ZeroGravitas 13y ago
  Cyanogenmod now complies with the CTS and so can ship with GMS. But even when it doesn't it can install various appstores, never mind individual apps.
  - zobzu 13y ago
    you can install apps that don't rely on GMS. i'd like to see ONE full time user of AOSP without GMS. I bet you got GMS, or non-android phone, or else its not your main phone. and that's the fucking point.
    - ZeroGravitas 13y ago
      One third of all Android devices being sold (that's over half a million a day) don't have GMS on them. If you want to find them I'd suggest you start in China, or a FSF meetup, or Amazon headquarters. I have GMS on my Nexus phone, but I also have the F-Droid repository, the Humble Bundle store (and briefly had the Amazon App store too). I also have Chrome installed on my Ubuntu desktop (though I mostly use Firefox, and have Chromium too). And Steam. What was the fucking point again?
      - zobzu 13y ago
        that your phone has "fucking" GMS on it. that.. is the point. The phones sold without GMS in china are sold that way because of licensing reasons. Everyone puts GMS on them at purchase time. Your arguing is senseless.

ZeroGravitas 13y ago

> AOSP is getting smaller That's ludicrous, and the rest of your post isn't much better, but its a good example of the worldview that Ars is currently pushing.