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Don't buy the "Android is open source" whitewashing. They just do code drops of some parts as open source where it suits them, but keep large parts as closed so
by zurn 11y ago
Don't buy the "Android is open source" whitewashing. They just do code drops of some parts as open source where it suits them, but keep large parts as closed source when profitable/convenient. And the open source parts aren't useful on their own, because the proprietary parts are essential parts of the system's value. And then of course come the services and the platform's tight coupling to them. The services are even more closed - unnecessarily.
Real open source systems have outside contributors and stakeholders, and developer communities. Android mostly just has app developers and a "hacking" scene (xda etc).
Yes there's a small band of Quixotic guys trying to make an open source fork limp along but it's comparable in size (and odds of success) to Amiga users/developers. It's an unusable tech experiment that only runs on a couple of antiquated phones and has no services, not the Android that people know.
The only openness-related reason to prefer Android over iOS is that they still let you install what apps you like on it (sideloading) and the app store policies are slightly less draconian than Apple's.
- tokenizerrr 11y agoWhat about CyanogenMod?
- seba_dos1 11y agoNothing. Fully open CyanogenMod is called Replicant, and just take a look at its support list. That's how open and free Android platforms really are. http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ReplicantStatus http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Replican...
- tokenizerrr 11y agoThose look like it's just missing drivers? Android itself doesn't have much to do with that.
- seba_dos1 11y agoNotice that it's still based on 4.2, there are not so many of devices it can run on and even with fully documented and open platforms like GTA04 it's still a lot of work to make it run. Plus there's absolutely no way to upstream their work, so it's a massive maintenance burden (one of the reasons they're still on 4.2) AOSP is just what zurn said above - a code drop. If Android was really an open platform, Replicant either wouldn't be needed or Replicant devs would have much less work to do. Openness of Android is great for Chinese vendors making cheap tablets, so they have a ready system to put on them for almost free - but it's not so good as an open platform.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]