Google decides to hold back Android 3.0 source code

[Emil]

Unlike its rivals, Google makes the source code for its popular Android operating system publicly available. Anyone can download it and customize it for use on their mobile phone, tablet, television, automobile, and so on. This time, however, the search giant has decided to delay the distribution of Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb), at least for the foreseeable future.

"To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs," Andy Rubin, Android's co-founder and now vice president of engineering at Google, told BusinessWeek. "We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut."

Rubin claims that if Google were to open-source the code now, as it has with other versions of Android at similar periods in their development, it would not be able to prevent developers from putting the software on phones "and creating a really bad user experience. We have no idea if it will even work on phones."

In the mobile OS wars, Google has portrayed its platform as the open alternative to proprietary software, developed by the three other big technology giants: Research In Motion, Apple, and Microsoft. This decision doesn't really fall under the open-source mantra, but Rubin argues that "Android is [still] an open-source project" and that "we have not changed our strategy." It's not clear when Google will finally offer up Honeycomb to the community, but Rubin did say that "the team is hard at work looking at what it takes to get this running on other devices."

This news doesn't mean tablets already loaded with Android 3.0 will stop shipping: Google made specific agreements with its hardware partners and it's not giving up on them. All this means is that the platform isn't getting released to the open source community, so programmers and hardware vendors that want to create their own Honeycomb build for existing and new products will have to wait. The search giant is trying to avoid what happened with previous Android releases: the OS ended up being put on devices it really wasn't ready for, and it made Google look bad.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/42990-google-decides-to-hold-back-android-30-source-code.html

 

[shadeslayor]

I can respect that, i personally would never blame google for a modified version that someone else made to work on my droid, but i know alot of people that would blame google for that.

 

[taea00]

I call complete and utter BS on that. If a person is putting another OS on their phone and it doesn't work well then that's their own fault. If a person doesn't realize its they're fault then they shouldn't be rooting and changing OSes on their phone, because obviously they don't know what they're doing.

If Honeycomb didn't work then either FOSS programmers would get it working or they'd just wait until Google got it functioning properly on phones. Besides the fact you can always install another version if this one isn't working.

Open Source isn't about making one company or another look bad. You release it as open source so people can contribute to the project and make it better. I'm sure there are plenty of FOSS programmers that would still be interested in getting their hands on Honeycomb for other purposes.

Google should still release Honeycomb as open source and let the people decide. Instead of making decisions for them like some other software companies <cough> APPLE <cough> and shoving stuff down their throats.

 

[Guest]

I think you missed the whole point, read the article.

 

[taea00]

What point am I missing? I read the article. Google pulled code so it wouldn't work on phones. So what? They should still release it as open source.

 

[Vrmithrax]

Read it again. Then read between the lines. They had to make some "design tradeoffs" among other modifications, to get it to market on tablets. As a programmer myself, I can guarantee you this is a covert way of saying "this code is a freakin mess." I'm sure it will hit a few revisions right away, tweaking bugs and generally clearing up the clutter internally, then it will be released as open source when it doesn't look like a coding tornado hit

And, as for not releasing it right now to keep it from phones... So freaking what? It IS Google's code, after all - they should be able to do what they want with it. And seriously, if you follow any of the "iPhone vs Android vs WinPhone" debates, you would find that the single MASSIVELY repeated argument against Android is this: fragmentation. It gets harped on repeatedly, shouted from the rooftops by iFans, about how badly Android's product line is fragmented across the entire gamut of Android phones. So, if Google wants to keep Honeycomb close to the vest for now, ensure it remains only on tablets for now, and avoid another log being thrown on that phone OS debate fire, I'm ok with that. But, then again, I don't suffer from a false sense of entitlement over the rights of other peoples' hard work.

 

[Guest]

Big cuota of code have copyright by Microsoft... :LOL

 

[dotVezz]

Taea, it took me a moment to spot as well. If you read and understand the article, it's pretty clear that Google isn't holding back the source for evil intentions. The point of the matter is that, if they release it right now, people will make ROM's with it, and try to install it on their phones. Google LIKES people doing that, but there's a problem.

This is a problem because IT MIGHT NOT EVEN WORK on phones.

The reason they want to hold it back now is because it's essentially incomplete.

So, are you saying you want google to release an incomplete product?

 

[lawfer]

taea00 said:
I call complete and utter BS on that. If a person is putting another OS on their phone and it doesn't work well then that's their own fault. If a person doesn't realize its they're fault then they shouldn't be rooting and changing OSes on their phone, because obviously they don't know what they're doing.

If Honeycomb didn't work then either FOSS programmers would get it working or they'd just wait until Google got it functioning properly on phones. Besides the fact you can always install another version if this one isn't working.

Open Source isn't about making one company or another look bad. You release it as open source so people can contribute to the project and make it better. I'm sure there are plenty of FOSS programmers that would still be interested in getting their hands on Honeycomb for other purposes.

Google should still release Honeycomb as open source and let the people decide. Instead of making decisions for them like some other software companies <cough> APPLE <cough> and shoving stuff down their throats.

Why is it that people like these just read two or three lines, and go off rambling about things not even discussed in the article. Sir, we would really appreciate if you READ the whole thing, including the context, and contributed something relevant. Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Rubin's statement is the key here:
"We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut."

See, the thing is, there is this ENORMOUS pool of (mostly) unpaid talent out there that has already been cleaning the android messes up and fixing or INTRODUCING support for features that google wasn't able to. Take a trip over to xda-developers.com and see what roebeet and the others have cooked up for your favorite smartphone or android tablet.

Jeez, roebeet is the guy who actually MADE THE XOOM HOST USB WORK, when they couldn't.

Google needs to go ahead and let the devs have at it, in my opinion. My money's on the unofficial guys making the best breakthroughs.

 

[otester]

It's Google's code so they can do what they want however from a coders point of view I can understand, currently the code wouldn't usable for external use, sounds like clean up and testing is in order.

If they released it now and it didn't work, you'd all be arguing that they shouldn't have released it so soon.

I do agree that xda guys have done some epic breakthroughs, but wouldn't they be best off starting with the proper code?