What Is The One True Android & How “Open” Is It?

http://marketingland.com/what-is-the-one-true-android-and-how-open-is-it-21664

by eevilspock • 14 years ago

34 10 14 years ago

While balking at the insult of "fake Android", I think the author is in the wrong about calling AOSP the secondary tree -- many of us depend on it for our Android updates, after our carriers abandoned us and the devices they sold us.

With OS updates coming from carriers and not Google, they become essentially non-existent, and each carrier's fork gets whatever spyware, adware, bloat-ware, and network lock-in they desire, locking phones to their dumb pipe.

sabret00the• 14 years ago

I'm surprised at the sheer number of people that have struggled to grasp the difference between an open Android and a closed OHA. Amazon aren't in the OHA and as such are able to do what they want, Acer had the option of leaving the OHA and using any fork they want, including the AOSP Android.

Yes Acer would be forced to launch devices later than the code would be launching on the latest greatest Nexus, but should Acer have gone that route, they'd probably be on to something. OEMs should stop making devices designed to run the latest iteration of Android and simply run good stable devices that require as little modification of the code to get running as possible. If they then want to overlay that and add their own store, that's up to them.

HTC have been hedging their bets with Android in the completely wrong way, hence the abomination that is the Sense framework and locked bootloaders. The key is freedom and ultimately any discord comes from the OEMs trying to ensure a future beyond Android.

tkahn6• 14 years ago

IMO there is no reason to get an Android phone not officially distributed by Google (e.g. the Nexus 7).

I bought an HTC Droid Eris: EOL'd a year. Never saw a version update.

Then I bought a Samsung Droid Charge: EOL'd in a year. Will never see a 4.0 update.

Yes I've learned my lesson. I'm on Verizon so I can't get the Nexus. I'll be getting an iPhone 5.

wollw• 14 years ago

If you're talking about the Verizon Galaxy Nexus being dropped from the AOSP you should know it was brought back into it. Personally I use a custom rom anyway but the Galaxy Nexus is on Verizon and you can download the latest builds from Google.

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/drivers#torojro0...

edit: I mistakenly linked to the binary drivers there and I seems you might need to build AOSP yourself if you want to use it straight from Google. I guess you're taking issue to the Verizon Galaxy Nexus being sold through Verizon instead of via Google's store. Verizon's full retail price is pretty ridiculous compared to Google's price but in terms of support the Verizon Galaxy Nexus seems to be getting just as much from Google as the other variants.

yareally• 14 years ago

Yeah, it's fairly simple to compile the Android source. Plenty of tutorials out there on XDA, Rootzwiki and from Google themselves.

Basically, one just has to grab the drivers you mentioned above and pull the source using repo/git and compile using Linux (Debian/Debian forks are the easiest generally to do it with) or OSX.

I compiled the source the day after it came out for Android 4.1 for my Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Ran it all the way up until yesterday when I switched to Cyanogenmod 10.

I'm an admin (yarly) at Rootzwiki, so if anyone has questions on how to build the source or mod it, you can head over there and post questions in the development forum. There's usually a few of us that reply in our free time.

blinkingled2• 14 years ago

Flamebaity nonsense about nothing. I almost thought I will see a "is this all very confusing to you? Just use this other platform." somewhere. But the whole article is just a bunch of made up crap that has no real consequences.

It doesn't matter if AOSP is called Androidium or iHateittum. So long as the apps run (which they do - on the Kindle, on the Samsungs, on the ZTEs etc.), it is still Android - kinda like a better, actually working J2ME.

And so long as you can make your own, fully functional OS out of AOSP, sideload apps and other markets on what the OHA distributes, it is still very much open - the fact that Google's non-open apps are only available to those oha members under reasonable conditions (btw CyanogenMod, which is not part of OHA, uses sideloaded GApps and Google isnt shutting them off) is no reason to call Android closed. Google to my knowledge hasnt called their apps open.

vibrunazo• 14 years ago

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly are the benefits of the OHA? What exactly would HTC be missing if they abandoned the OHA and released the phone anyway? Would there still be a play store and google apps on their phone?

barrkel• 14 years ago

A company selling devices and profiting from Android would probably not escape attention if they put Google apps on the devices, unlike Cyanogen. So yes, there would be no Play store or Google apps - and some say the Google Maps navigation is Android's killer feature.

blinkingled2• 14 years ago

Benefits of OHA are that the members get access to shared IP , Google's Ecosystem and technical collaboration along with possibility of building a lead device ala Nexus. For their part, handset manufacturers get to share their IP when it makes sense and pass the compatibility test that helps Google avoid incompatible implementations.

cek• 14 years ago

Google lost control of Android long ago. They are trying desperately to regain control. But this is futile as the allowed it to become too successful.

http://ceklog.kindel.com/2012/01/14/fragmentation-is-not-the...

What Is The One True Android & How “Open” Is It?

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