How open is Google's Android?
Summary: Market research analyst firm VisionMobile says Google' Android smartphone operating system isn't very open at all. Google's open-source chief Chris DiBona strongly disagrees.
People debate how "open" various open-source projects all the time. In fact, the very way I made that statement is charged because I didn't include the phrase "free software." Sometimes these arguments get more serious though. For example, in VisionMobile, a market research firm, A new way of measuring Openness, from Android to WebKit: The Open Governance Index report the company declared that Android was the least open project they examined. Chris DiBona, Google's open-source manager, vehemently disagrees.
VisionMobile's Open Governance Index, which the analyst firm used to make this call, is based on:
1. Access: availability of the latest source code, developer support mechanisms, public road-map, and transparency of decision-making
2. Development: the ability of developers to influence the content and direction of the project
3. Derivatives: the ability for developers to create and distribute derivatives of the source code in the form of spin-off projects, handsets or applications.
4. Community: a community structure that does not discriminate between developers
This is VisionMobile's own take. The company has no connection, that I know of, with open-source organizations such as the Open Source Initative or The Linux Foundation. Never-the-less, they have a point, or do they?
DiBona first took note of this report on Twitter while talking about it with some others. There, he wrote, "I got >10million lines of code that says otherwise. Be wary of Large consultancies selling reports."
After talking about it more on Twitter, DiBona decided he wanted to talk about the issue in more detail than Twitter's 140 characters would allow, so he took his thoughts to Google+, there DiBona continued:
When I consider open source projects whether large or small, I always ask the same thing:
1) Where is the code. 2) What license is the code under. 3) Can I build it.
If those three things can be answered in the affirmative, then I would assert that the following are much much less important
a) What 'governance' structure do the core developers of the product follow. b) Is the code developed in the open?
DiBona gets no argument from me on this score. By these definitions, Android is certainly open. However, when he goes on: "For the latter, that mostly matters when there aren't releases done very often, and why the HC [Honeycomb] release of android is so vexing for some people. But if the code is released and under a real open source license and I can build it, then if I don't like the governance structure or development style, I can take the code and do what I wish with it."
The Honeycomb issue, I, along with some other people, do have a beef with Android. You see back in April, Google released the first version of Android 3.0, Honeycomb, to some large equipment vendors and developers, but they didn't open source it at the time. Andy Rubin, head of Google's Android group, said, the open-source version would be released under open source "as soon as it's ready."
Leaving aside how that plays with Android's Apache Software License and how developers who weren't in the first wave to get access to the code, I also thought Google's Honeycomb move was a mistake because the whole point of open source is that code gets better as you get more eyeballs on it. Here, I see Google both playing fast and lose with the license and partners but with the very concept of open source. If you want to go that a minor governance problem you can, but I still think it was a strategic mistake.
Yes, Honeycomb is being developed quickly anyway. But, not everyone is happy with Honeycomb even as it's now being shipped on some tablets as Android 3.1. I'm sure that if the code had been opened all along it would have been better than it is today.
In short, what I'm saying is that yes, Android is open source. I have no question about it, no matter what research group may say. But, could Google do a better job of getting the code into developers' hands? Yes, I think they can, and, for their own good, they should.
Related Stories:
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Google speaks out about 'hostile, organized campaign' against Android
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Talkback
RE: How open is Google's Android?
But Android based phones are as closed as iPhones. Plus they offer an array of viruses and carriers+manufacturers' crapware.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
Apple did it so it's OK for Android to be just as bad?
I thought Open Source was supposed to be better at this stuff than the big companies! Now you justify bad behavior by comparing to Apple? You can't be serious!
RE: How open is Google's Android?
"But Android based phones are as closed as iPhones."
No, they aren't. You can install any app you want on an Android phone whether it is in the market or not. iPhones are only compatible with the App Store.
"Plus they offer an array of viruses"
Lies.
"and carriers+manufacturers' crapware."
Many people happen to like what you so arrogantly call crapware. Troll.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
Just can't handle success, can you
Seems to be a big issue with Open Source. As soon as a commercial enterprise leverages Open Source and makes a boatload, and call the shots as is required to make money, it goes against the "Spirit" of Open Source.
Better get used to commercial enterprises making money and calling the shots for financial purposes. If Open Office is an example of "Success" in the Open Source community, might as well drive the last nail in the coffin now.
Somehow, success is evil here. How foolish.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
RE: How open is Google's Android?
By your logic the only companies making money are the companies that have locked it down tightest.
I always found that interesting. The most successful Open Source product on the planet is actually so closed that no one can touch the guts. To be honest, Motorola hasn't published their custom mods to Android, have they?
Completely locked down and highly successful. And I thought Open Source was supposed to be completely open and highly successful. Not so here -
Hardly -- You Miss the Point
Red Hat is successful. I don't see anyone calling them evil. The point is that open source software has the source code available. So far, Honeycomb's source isn't generally available to everyone who runs Honeycomb, so Honeycomb is not yet open source.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
Last I checked, you can download Android's source code in its entirety. My phone agrees as it is running AOSP Gingerbread at this very moment.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
RE: How open is Google's Android?
I don't follow this logic. Nothing is much more closed than Micro$oft Windows, yet that OS has vulnerable security and lots of users buy it.
Thats cute they way you used a $ instead of "s"
DiBona being disingenuous
Yes, as long as the code is open, everyone can fork it. But is 'everyone maintain their own fork!' the best way to do development? I think most people would say 'no'. I don't think the lack of long-term Android forks attests to the fact that everyone's happy with Google's closed, throw-the-code-over-the-wall development model, it attests to the fact that maintaining a fork of a closed, throw-the-code-over-the-wall project in the long term is very hard and not many organizations are capable of it, or willing to do it. That doesn't mean it's a good model.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
What these users do care about are malware free apps in Google's Android Market and timely firmware upgrades from Android-based device mfrs and carriers.
And it will be interesting to see their response to the forthcoming 18-month support cycle for Android-based smartphones. Expensive, throw-away smartphones in a rapidly-deteriorating economy.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
Malware free apps from the apps store and timely upgrades.
Seems google isn't meeting those two requirements at all.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
RE: How open is Google's Android?
By his own definition, Android is not open.
Not open at all.
RE: How open is Google's Android?
Open source doesn't mean "I can build for iPhone or for PC just by doing make"