Linux and Open Source

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols & Paula Rooney
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Google insists it will remain open source player

By | April 25, 2011, 8:29am PDT

Google insists that Android will remain an open source platform and takes great exception to reports to the contrary.

That’s good news.

“Recently, there’s been a lot of misinformation in the press about Android and Google’s role in supporting the ecosystem. I’m writing in the spirit of transparency and in an attempt to set the record straight,” wrote Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering at Google, in a blog earlier this month.

“Our approach remains unchanged: there are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs. There are not, and never have been, any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture.

Google will release its Android 3.0 code to the open source community when it’s ready.

“We continue to be an open source platform and will continue releasing source code when it is ready. As I write this the Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones. As soon as this work is completed, we’ll publish the code. This temporary delay does not represent a change in strategy. We remain firmly committed to providing Android as an open source platform across many device types.”

It’s good news that Google reacted so negatively to questions about its open source commitment. If the company had been silent … now that would have been concerning.

I was one of those who raised concerns about Google’s decision — who spread the “misinformation.”

Rubin’s reaction is understandable to some extent. Google has done a lot of good for the open source community. And it employs Andrew Morton and Jeremy Allison, after all.

Nevertheless, it is the job of the press and the public to raise questions when there are apparent deviations to clearly defined principles of open source. That’s the beauty of transparency.

The beauty of open source is that it is open — open for inspection, open for debate and open for criticism.  Was some of the criticism a kneejerk reaction? Maybe.  Maybe not. Whether or not such criticism is “misinformation” has yet to be proven.  But it is worthy of discussion.

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Google Inc., Open Source, Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades.

Disclosure

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney owns no stock in the companies that she covers. She holds a 401K that is managed by Morgan Stanley.

Biography

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney has covered the software and technology industry for more than 20 years, starting with semiconductor design and mini-computer systems at EDN News and later focused on PC software companies including Microsoft, Lotus, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell and other open source and commercial software companies for CRN and PCWeek. She received a silver award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2005 for her profile on Linus Torvalds and edited and co-authored "Partnering With Microsoft," a book about Microsoft's channel published by CMP Publishing in 2004. Rooney graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. In her off time, she enjoys scuba diving, sailing, sun worshipping, running, reading, surfing (the net) and hanging out with her family. She resides on the shores of Scituate, Massachusetts.

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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
zdnet@... 27th Apr 2011
@denisrs

I'm sure the folks at Google are waiting with bated breath for the opinion of an iOS shill.
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"Insists" are not enough
DeRSSS 25th Apr 2011
Google is trying to sit on two chairs at the same time, but the reality is that either Google cleans the mess and thus restricts source *or* continues to be "pure" open source player. They can not be both at the same time.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
zdnet@... 27th Apr 2011
@denisrs

I'm sure the folks at Google are waiting with bated breath for the opinion of an iOS shill.
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open to what??
sparkle farkle 25th Apr 2011
lawsuits, problems, malware? It may take awhile to navigate this new space, so Google's position is not surprising. I'm sure that over time the UI and all the surrounding issues will resolve themselves. The biggest problem I see is the lack of compatibility with the exisiting linux kernel and the Xwindow system. Creating compatibility with the larger linux community and applications would go a long way to joining the two? prongs of the fork.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
dave95. Updated - 25th Apr 2011
"Our approach remains unchanged: there are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs. There are not, and never have been, any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture."

Steve Jobs must be smiling at that quote. happy

The biggest threat to iOS would have been a unified Android ecosystem. But it looks like this wont be the case. More skinning, more incompatibility between OEMs, between App stores, between media players, more fragmentation and more consumer confusion. I even heard some staunch fandroids say they were ready to welcome more restrictions from Google.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
Cylon Centurion 25th Apr 2011
@dave95.

I agree. Standardized hardware and a consistent UI are two of the iPhone's biggest strengths.
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Google's no more trustworthy then MS
Will Farrell 25th Apr 2011
So take the comment for what it is.
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Google's line should be:
Joe_Raby 25th Apr 2011
"Open, when it suits us"

I thought the whole idea of open source was to have transparency with code writers. Google only wants to OSS it well after RTM, which defeats the purpose of OSS. Where are the community betas and test releases? Google is giving testing preferences to OEM's which make big money for them instead of the community. Google is NOT a GPL-friendly company, and it's going to take more people to realize this before things change.
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Google is more oriented toward the BSD and Apache licenses.
B.O.F.H. 25th Apr 2011
@Joe_Raby

GPL is only one of many licenses.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
jorjitop 25th Apr 2011
@Joe_Raby

Exactly. Google will only remain open source to the extent that the can appropriate open source code to their own purposes . . . spy on their users and make more money.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
jorjitop 25th Apr 2011
@jorjitop

To repeat. Google will only remain open source to the extent that they can appropriate open source code for their own purposes . . . spy on their users and make more money.
  • Flagged
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Google is like that fat yellow guy
iPad-awan 25th Apr 2011
who comes to a party with a six pack of cheap Kwik-E-Mart beer and drinks all your expensive Duff beer. Then he'll tell you he contributed most to the party and burps in your face when you tell him otherwise.

The truth is, Google is an open source TAKER, NOT an open source giver.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
james347 25th Apr 2011
Good.
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They have to ... everything they use is GPL
wackoae 25th Apr 2011
Google has no choice but to be open source. Almost everything develop depends on GPL source code.
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
bitrate 26th Apr 2011
Google's goal is to exploit open source for the purpose of advancing its data mining activities. Nothing is sacred to this giant vacuum of a company. They are quite literally, the most dangerous company on the planet.

Boycott Google and its products. They are NOT your friend.
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Google!!!
Flvplayer 26th Apr 2011
@bitrate "Boycott Google and its products. They are NOT your friend." - Google is the best search engine, most of the people worldwide like google and its service!
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RE: Google insists it will remain open source player
rhapsody4fire 27th Apr 2011
there is no way that Google will ever not be open source, everyone that has anything to do with android uses Google source to make their own UI's.

Customizing Android requires Google be open remember?

Unless you all like the iOS on iPhones then well let google be closed source

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