Nice reading, om Alv. Take out saya kok malah berasa ada hidden business agenda yah dari pembuat artikel ini. Mungkin butuh baca beberapa kali untuk benar-benar paham. On Feb 15, 2014 5:49 AM, "Alvin Tedjasukmana" <alvin.tedjasukm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> *What Google really means when it calls Android 'open'* > > Google loves to woo app makers to Android by whispering the sweet sounds > of "openness" and "open source" in their ears. While that's not entirely > accurate, they heed the call for good reasons. > > > Is Android fully open? Well, no, but quasi-open gets most developers to > exactly where they want to be. (Credit: CNET) > > > > The gooey center of Google's pitch to developers to make apps and services > for Android is a series of terms easily misunderstood, but central to > Android's flexibility and success. > > > Every once in a while, Android > <http://www.cnet.com/android-atlas/>terminology discussions flare up like a > stomach ulcer for Google. They > center on Android's nature as a development platform, which in turn affects > the variety and breadth of Android apps -- from Minecraft to Pandora to the > latest Flappy Bird copycats -- that you can download, and how up-to-date > they are. Is Android truly open-source? Can you "fork" Android? What does > Google mean when it talks about Android's "openness"? > > > The latest debate was sparked by recently discovered documents that > reveal<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304888404579378850231234912?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304888404579378850231234912.html>stringent > restrictions on device makers that want access to Google's search > engine, the video service YouTube, and more than a million apps found in > the Google Play app store. European antitrust authorities are looking at > whether Google has unfairly taken advantage of Android's position to push > its own services and apps, according to The Wall Street Journal. > > > "The question of how you define 'openness' depends on what you want > 'openness' to mean." > --Avi Greengart, analyst > > > The source, if you will, of Android's problems is its "open source" nature > and a fundamental misunderstanding of what Google is doing with Android. So > let's take a look at what we're really talking about when we talk about > "open source" and "openness." > > > Openness is both a lure for developers, who want to create freely, and a > trap that Google has built for itself. It's a term that the company uses to > describe its approach to Android, but because it's a fairly common term > it's come to mean different things to different people. As such, it's > highly dependent on their interests. > > > "The question of how you define 'openness' depends on what you want > 'openness' to mean," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. > "Do you want to be part of the process to define the software from the > outset? Do you want to create a phone that exemplifies the best of Android > and Google services together?" > > > Google's approach to Android development and the Android ecosystem > promotes an atypical definition of the terms. The easier one to explain is > how Android relates to open source. > > > Historically, open source coding projects large and small have been > developed and managed by communities open to all. > Firefox<http://www.cnet.com/firefox-3/>and Linux are prime examples of that. > The Android Open Source Project, or > AOSP, is the Android code made available to all. > > > Linux is the basis for Android, but Android has a key difference. It's > developed behind closed doors at Google, and then once new versions are > ready, they're made available to the public. It's the biggest and possibly > the only open-source project developed this way. There's often a short > delay between a new Android version being completed and when the code is > made public, and there's rarely any public input on Android code before > release. > > > Open and openness in the Android world are a bit more nebulous. Google's > argument is that Android is open because the code is opened to all, because > Google doesn't charge for the platform, and because developers have access > to it all. The only restriction is on Google services, for which the > company demands that phone makers conform to certain specifications. > > > Google's take on Android is that they make it as open as possible. Dianne > Hackborn, a tech lead on Android at Google who has worked on Android since > its early days, recently commented at length on Android development, > openness, and how AOSP relates to Android with Google services > integrated<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/neither-microsoft-nokia-nor-anyone-else-should-fork-android-its-unforkable/?comments=1&start=80>. > > > > "One of the things that is interesting about platforms today versus the > traditional desktop is that these cloud services are becoming increasingly > central to the core platform experience," she said. "This presents a > special challenge to an open-source platform, which can't really provide > such cloud services as part of the standard platform implementation." > > > The tension between the quasi-open-source operating system and access to > proprietary cloud services, including programming hooks called Application > Programming Interfaces (APIs), and encompassing Google apps such as the > Play Store, Google Music, and Google Maps, fuels much of the debate over > Android's openness. This didn't matter so much five years ago, when few > people used Android and cloud services weren't as popular or necessary, but > modern Android is explosively popular and heavily reliant on the cloud. You > can look no further than the appeal of the Nexus > 5<http://reviews.cnet.com/google-nexus-5/>and its Google Now integration for > evidence of that. > > > Eleven of Google's key members of its Android mobile operating system > team took questions from developers at the 2013 Google I/O conference in > San Francisco. (Credit: CNET/Stephen Shankland) > > > Hackborn argues that AOSP is able to power any phone out of the box. > > "AOSP is far more than the basic bones of a smartphone operating system. > It is a complete smartphone operating system," she said. "The fact is, if > you build AOSP today and put it on a phone, you will have a pretty fully > functioning platform." She noted that AOSP includes smartphone essentials > like a home screen launcher, contacts directory, dialer and phone app, > camera and gallery. > > > Phone manufacturers and carriers that want to use Google's services must > conform to Google's device standards, a stricter requirement than what > basic AOSP requires. For some, this is a catch. For others, it's merely the > cost of doing business. > > > The other component to Android's claim of openness is the Google Play > Store ecosystem, said Abhisek Devkota, community manager at > CyanogenMod<http://cyanogenmod.com/>, > arguably the most successful of the custom-compiled versions of Android. > > > "The ecosystem creates a level playing field," he said. "As an app > developer, I can take my app to any store and get the distribution I need. > I still have flexibility." > > > To get access to Google's Play Store apps, all you have to do is install > the Play Store. By running the app, you're agreeing to Google's terms of > service, but at no point are you or the developer of your favorite app > compelled to use or install Google's preferred marketplace. > > > The Google Play Store is how Google makes its money on Android, not > Android itself. (Credit: Google) > > > *Forks and fragmentation* > Devkota pointed out that several Android forks, such as the version that > runs on Amazon's Kindle Fire and ones used by Chinese phone makers, do not > use Google services. But what are they? > > > A source fork occurs when a developer takes the source code in a new or > different direction. There are dozens of publicly available Android forks, > built each time that a developer publishes newly recompiled code. Each time > that new AOSP code gets published by Google, it's up to the developer to > integrate it into a new build. > > > Android fragmentation occurs when a phone ceases to receive Android > operating system updates, often because operating system updates encounter > compatibility problems with older hardware. Most often, this comes at the > hands of the carriers, although Google does cease to develop new code as > well. Currently, the biggest fragmentation split is between Android 4.0 Ice > Cream Sandwich and above, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. > > > Last year, Google introduced a new framework to the Play Store so that > more apps could be backward-compatible with older versions of Android. > However, only about a quarter of top-tier apps use it, said Ben Bajarin, of > the analysis firm Creative Solutions. > > > "My mom and dad use Android phones. One of them is on my software, the > other is on stock Nexus software. If I asked them to tell me the > differences, they wouldn't be able to." > --Abhisek Devkota, CyanogenMod > > > "Most app stores are curated," he said, including Amazon's store and the > most popular of the Chinese app markets. Nevertheless, he said, "most > Android developers won't adopt the framework because they don't even adopt > Google's best practices to begin with." > > > Hackborn defends Google's right to include proprietary services, and to > keep them proprietary, saying that its no different than any other > proprietary app on Android. That's not entirely true, since Google does > keep some API development to itself, but to its credit the company does > open-source most of the new APIs introduced to Android. > > > Google may push its suite of services, including Maps, Gmail, Search > including Google Now, Calendar, and Drive, but it's hardly forcing AOSP > developers to use them. If you buy the Oppo N1 > smartphone<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57616188-94/google-gives-thumbs-up-to-first-cyanogen-phone/>that > comes with Devkota's CyanogenMod, it does have Google services on it, > but most people come to CyanogenMod by installing it by hand. From there, > if you want Google services, you have to install them yourself. > > > "My mom and dad use Android phones. One of them is on my software, the > other is on stock Nexus software. If I asked them to tell me the > differences, they wouldn't be able to," Devkota said. > > > It's certainly possible that Google will pull more default Android apps > into the new Play Store framework, even core apps like the Dialer and > Contact List. It could build features into those services that make them > the best in class, and it could even give them an unfair advantage over > similar apps made by competing developers. > > > However, Android runs on more kinds of hardware than just about any other > operating system out there. Not just phones and tablets, but refrigerators > and ovens and cameras, just to get started. Google may not make money on > them, but to suddenly undercut years of talk of "openness" to drive people > to Google services would be a massive shift for the company. > > > Is it possible? Sure. But it's as likely as Apple shipping an iPhone > running Android. > > > *Update, 9:15 a.m. PT* *Added more details on AOSP*. > > > <http://www.cnet.com/profile/srosenblatt/> > > Seth Rosenblatt <http://www.cnet.com/profile/srosenblatt/> > Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt covers Google and security for CNET News, > with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Formerly a CNET Reviews > senior editor for software, he has written about nearly every category of > software and app available. > > > > > -- > ========== > ID-Android on YouTube > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u81L8Qpy5A > -------------------- > Aturan Umum ID-ANDROID >> http://goo.gl/NfzSGB > > Join Forum ID-ANDROID >> http://forum.android.or.id > ========== > --- > Anda menerima pesan ini karena Anda berlangganan grup "[id-android] > Indonesian Android Community " dari Grup Google. > Untuk berhenti berlangganan dan berhenti menerima email dari grup ini, > kirim email ke id-android+berhenti berlangga...@googlegroups.com . > Kunjungi grup ini di http://groups.google.com/group/id-android. > -- ========== ID-Android on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u81L8Qpy5A -------------------- Aturan Umum ID-ANDROID >> http://goo.gl/NfzSGB Join Forum ID-ANDROID >> http://forum.android.or.id ========== --- Anda menerima pesan ini karena Anda berlangganan grup "[id-android] Indonesian Android Community " dari Grup Google. Untuk berhenti berlangganan dan berhenti menerima email dari grup ini, kirim email ke id-android+berhenti berlangga...@googlegroups.com . Kunjungi grup ini di http://groups.google.com/group/id-android.
