And to put it simpler Google wants to make internet access ubiquitous at any time anywhere. The more people on the internet the more that can use their services.
On Aug 11, 2009, at 9:36 AM, lbcoder <[email protected]> wrote: There are a few reasons why it IS open source, some of which are as follows; 1) They used open source components with GPL licenses, i.e. the Linux kernel, 2) They want the platform to be picked up by as many hardware makers as possible without huge licensing requirements or other hurdles in the way of getting the software running on new platforms, 3) Open source gives consumers a warm fuzzy feeling and adds to the degree of TRUST in the platform. 4) It reduces the degree of collaboration required between google and the hardware manufacturers. 5) It allows hardware manufacturers to modify the sources to achieve THEIR goals while remaining a COMPLETE system and maintaining software compatibility with devices made by other manufacturers -- for instance, HTC Hero has some significant UI differences compared to the source. 6) It allows for outside collaboration on platform development and eventually (hopefully) leads to a community-driven project. Now for the benefits of having a community driven project (as Android is expected to eventually become): it means that the features the OS supports are those most demanded by consumers or other collaborators rather than being made to be a scary limitation on consumer freedom as you can observe from other platforms (i.e. wimo, apl, etc.). To translate that: It means that Android will become everything that consumers want it to be rather than everything that the manufacturers/ serviceproviders want it to be. Think of this (bit of history); Back in the dark ages of the telephone, the telco would install a wire and telephone into your home. You didn't go out to walmart and buy the telephone you wanted, you got the one that the telco gave you. You had one telco, and they handled every aspect of the service. Eventually, (I don't know if this is due to legislation or evolution) it became possible to buy your own phone (or multiple phones) and hook it up to the telco line. With computers came interest in networking, but the telco contract had a statement in it that said no data devices wired straight into the line, so we got acoustic coupler modems for data communications. Legislation put an end to this and we got regular modems that plugged straight into the phone line. That was better, but still limited in speed. NOW the interesting thing is that we've got dedicated data lines and a trend towards running your telephone service over the data lines (voip), which will ultimately lead to the demise of the telco altogether. The mobile phone providers are trying to prevent all this from happening with their platform, so the mobile phone becomes not a device to provide freedom, but a device to RESTRICT it... to force you into a voice plan, an SMS plan, an MMS plan, a Data plan, and a contract to force you to stick with a particular provider. The VERY LAST thing on their minds is to help YOU to get the best device possible. They want to sell you the device that BEST RESTRICTS YOUR FREEDOMS. Now a community-driven mobile phone OS and breaking the ties between the device manufacturers and the service providers WILL lead to the exact opposite thing to what the service providers are seeking. It will give YOU the freedom of a device that does what YOU want it to do, it will break the contract with the provider, it will obsolete voice, sms, and mms plans since all this can be carried over the data plan. All that the service provider will be is strictly a data provider and they will have to compete on THAT basis, and if next month provider X is cheaper than your current provider Y, you will switch in a heartbeat without ANY service interruption. I can even envision buying X-month simcards at the grocery store.... X GB for $4.99, no contracts, just pay cash and it is activated by the cashier at point of sale. You just buy whichever is cheapest that meets your data volume requirement. Then to top it all off, with the proliferation of free wifi, you can see how the mobile phone service provider will really be pinched. Unfortunately, this isn't going to happen for a while, but Android being open source, and even more as being community driven, IS a step towards this. On Aug 11, 1:10 am, Riyaz <[email protected]> wrote: Thanks David, your reply makes sense, however by basic question is still unanswered ;-) On Aug 11, 12:26 am, David Turner <[email protected]> wrote: On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 8:50 PM, Riyaz <[email protected]> wrote: Google wants everyone to depend on them ???? Not really, otherwise there wouldn't be any reason to even try the open-source thing. The reason why everything is not entirely developed in the open source tree are multiple, but basically boil down to the fact that product development has a much higher priority at the moment than building a strong and pure open-source community for the platform. However, the latter is still a goal that we strive to achieve, and be sure we will get there at some point. For example, the open-source donut branch really reflect the state of our current sources, with a slight delay compared to the internal tree. Also; I know a couple of manufacturers that are using the open-source Cupcake sources to build real products; so I disagree with Disconnect's assumption that the open-source tree is "totally useless" :-). On Aug 10, 9:10 pm, Disconnect <[email protected]> wrote: Evidently it won't, thats why they decided to do occasional code dumps and leave the open source project totally useless to developers. http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/msg/7e9d83aa0b08cd39(and<http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/msg/7e9d83aa0b08cd39%...> associated thread) On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 5:55 AM, Riyaz <[email protected]> wrote: Hi all, Just wanted to know of curiosity, Why Google released Android as Open Source ? or in other words How open sourcing Android will help Google? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
