Android Open Source Cred Questioned
September 20, 2013
As Android gains market share, eWeek ponders, “Is Android Really Open Source?” At the core of the question is the core of the Android operating system—the very ability to boot. It’s like walking out the door without your car key—you won’t get far without that little piece. Writer Sean Michael Kerner explains:
“You see, there is Google Android, the project that Google builds and shares with its handset partners, then there is the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The two are not exactly the same. One of them includes proprietary technologies that are not available as open source (guess which one?)
“Jean-Baptiste Quéru, the maintainer of AOSP abruptly quit his post this week, throwing into question the viability of Android as an open-source effort.
“‘There’s no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can’t boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support,’ Quéru stated in a G+ post.
“The challenge that Quéru is referring to is the ability of AOSP to boot on the Nexus 4 and 7 devices. Apparently there are some proprietary bits that silicon vendor Qualcomm is not making available as open source, without which AOSP will not boot.”
Kerner sees this as an issue that goes beyond Android. Mozilla, for example, must be considering the same thorny question as it sees the launch of Firefox OS phones. Though a legacy of proprietary components inevitably complicates the mobile OS landscape, the inclusion of proprietary code within the very kernel required to even boot the device does seem particularly egregious. Kerner hopes for the emergence of a vendor who will “build a ‘pure’ open-source hardware platform from silicon on up.” We shall see.
Cynthia Murrell, September 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
