Android 4.0 Source Code Coming "Soon" 203
itwbennett writes "Good news today for those of you who have been waiting for news about whether Google would be opening up the ICS source and for those of you who thought it was gone for good. Android engineer Dan Morrill revealed new information in the Android Building Google group yesterday evening, saying that Google plans 'to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it's available on devices.'"
Re:I think Google does not understand open source (Score:5, Informative)
Did you even read the summary? They haven't said anything about making sure it's stable (which doesn't mean they haven't done so, before any trolls leap on that), but they have said they're waiting until the devices are released. Probably because they don't want people's first impression of Ice Cream Sandwich to be a barely functional custom ROM with half the drivers missing.
Re:Open Source vs. Open Development (Score:5, Informative)
The big question has been, since 'Ice Cream Sandwich', whether it would continue to be closed development/open source, or whether it would go closed entirely, except for a few GPL-obligated kernel bits...
No, that's never been a question for anyone other then the conspiracy minded. Google has been extremely clear and consistent about their reason for not releasing Honeycomb's source and about continuing with the open sourcing of Android as soon as the code base is fixed in ICS.
Re:Is this the same source code? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, the ICS tree that will be released to AOSP is the same code used to do the build for Galaxy Nexus (among other products).
Instructions on building for Galaxy Nexus will likely end up here (alongside Nexus S):
http://source.android.com/source/building-devices.html [android.com]
The handful of closed source userspace pieces necessary (some firmware, the hardware opengl libraries, samsung radio library, etc) will end up here:
http://code.google.com/android/nexus/drivers.html [google.com]
(please disregard the unfortunate use of "drivers" here -- all the kernel drivers are GPLv2, none are closed source)
What's not included is the Google Mobile Apps (gmail, gcalendar, gtalk, maps, etc). These are proprietary Google applications, not part of the core Android platform (which consists of the lower level libraries, dalvik vm, framework libraries, services, core apps like phone, contacts, launcher, settings, etc, etc).
Re:Open Source vs. Open Development (Score:2, Informative)
Tell that to Cyanogen.
Who got cease and desisted [gizmodo.com]. The Google Apps that come with Android are most definitely not open, and as I understand it, people who install CyanogenMod generally get an illegal copy of the Google Apps separately, and the provider of this separate package [cyanogenmod.com] remains open to a potential cease-and-desist. Without Android Market, which is among these apps, one can't download applications exclusive to Android Market, such as the application to deposit checks to a bank account.
Re:Open Source vs. Open Development (Score:2, Informative)
Did you know that Google allows competition on Android with their own services?
Example, did you know that Google allows hardware manufacturer or carrier to remove all Google services and apps from Android?
Example, did you know that Google does not pay anyone using Android or choosing Google services and apps in Android? Google does pay for device manufacturer and carrier part of the feed what it gains when user clicks an Ad when doing a search trough Google search widget when it is located to Android launch screen. But so does Google pay to Mozilla and every other who set Google search to search panel. It is same payment to every one.
And then third question. Did you know that Microsoft have paid tens of millions to Verizon and many other carrier in the world to sell Android phones where Google apps and services were replaced with Microsoft own services?
Example, Search is done with Bing, Emailing is done trough Hotmail, Calender and contacts are linked to Hotmail, news reader is pulling data from Microsoft news services.
Oh, and did you know that user who bought such Android device, can not remove those Microsoft services and Apps or install Google replacements? So user who bought such Android phone, is locked to Microsoft permamentally on that phone.
Google allows open development, you only need to join to that development alliance. Google does manage the Android project as someone needs to do it. But before Google release the Android source codes for everyone, it has released it to Android alliance partners. They can modify the code as they want for their handsets and prepare them to release.
The open development does not mean that every person out there is allowed to download sources and push changes to Android project.
If it would, then not even any GNU project is open development as upstream (what Android Alliance is) do not need to accept modifications or patches if not wanted.
And even GPLv2 how Linux operating system in Android is licensed, denies the other people having the source code than those who have the binary.
Even the one of the most puriest open source licenses do not force source code to be published to everyone, only for those who has the binary.
Google does not need to release Android source code (GPLv2 + Apache etc) for everyone until binaries are released and still they are following open development idea.