Googling Google

Christopher Dawson

Android 3.0 - It's not a fork

By Christopher Dawson | January 27, 2011, 6:42pm PST

Summary: If you want to talk about forks, let’s talk about LibreOffice and FreeBSD. Android 3.0? Not so much.

Do you remember that scene in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Kindergarten Cop, when the little hypochondriac boy suggests that Arnold’s kid-induced headache might be a tumor? His response? “It’s not a too-mah.”

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols made some great points about Android fragmentation in his post, “Google has forked Android.” I’ve railed against it as well, noting that it was seriously hampering Android application development. That being said, Android 3.0 (or Honeycomb as it’s more commonly called) is not a fork.

Nobody suggested that Ubuntu had forked when their Netbook Remix was introduced. Nor is Edubuntu a fork of Ubuntu. Nor is Ubuntu running their Unity interface a fork of previous versions of Ubuntu. Just as the underlying core of *buntu doesn’t differ between the various partner projects or user interface “spins,” Android 3.0 represents far more of a UI change than a true fork. The underlying technology is Android (meaning Linux, Dvalik, and Java), 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.x and simply gives developers the tools and UI necessary to properly exploit larger tablet screens. There are, after all, plenty of apps designed for the iPad that aren’t available on other iOS devices.

While Adrian Kingsley-Hughes didn’t ever say that Honeycomb wasn’t a fork, he did bring forward some very salient points in his post, “Android forking?!?!?! DON’T PANIC!” He quotes Xavier Ducrohet, Android SDK (Software Development Kit) Tech Lead:

Android 3.0 brings a new UI designed for tablets and other larger screen devices, but it also is fully compatible with applications developed for earlier versions of the platform, or for smaller screen sizes. Existing applications can seamlessly participate in the new holographic UI theme without code changes, by adding a single attribute in their manifest files. The platform emulates the Menu key, which is replaced by the overflow menu in the Action Bar in the new UI. Developers wanting to take fuller advantage of larger screen sizes can also create dedicated layouts and assets for larger screens and add them to their existing applications.

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. The two groups are taking development in different directions and have ideological differences. However, the core of Android 2.x and the core of Android 3.x are the same. Advancements in battery life in 2.x are going to happen in 3.x. Advances in parallel processing necessitated by a rash of dual core ARM-based tablets will make their way into 2.x as more and more dual-core “superphones” emerge.

In fact, the problem of fragmentation between Android 2.x and Honeycomb is far less significant than the problem of fragmentation on Android’s smartphone platforms. For phones, developers must decide whether to code for the latest and greatest (currently 2.3, used by very few people), the most common (2.2, lacking many of the enhancements in 2.3), or even the lowest common denominator of 1.5 or 1.6.

On the other hand, developers who want to create tablet apps are probably going to code for 3.0. Within 6 months, the vast majority of Android tablets won’t be running 2.x. The UI enhancements in 3.0 also allow for them to simply code phone apps to 2.3 that will simply run on 3.0 (albeit without enhanced resolutions or optimized screen sizes).

As the forms and functions of Android devices continue to proliferate, this sort of fragmentation will drive developers to code for tablets, specifically, or phones, or TVs, or whatever. There will be specialization that Android supports quite handily. It isn’t a perfect system, but ultimately the flexibility that the open source OS enables will win out over other platforms. A fork, however, implies that the Android running on tablets will not be the Android running on phones (or whatever other devices uses the OS). Until someone takes Android, makes it Humanoid, and begins to take the development and functionality (or even the licensing) in a different direction, Android will still be Android.

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Android, Fork, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

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Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.