[throw2016]

The entire ARM ecosystem is basically Google and ARM. Google is using open source Linux to power Android but all the hardware drivers are closed. The only reason you cannot simply install and use Linux on any Android device is the closed source drivers.

Yet these drivers exists and work perfectly for Android which is the Linux kernel, so why are they not being made available after all these years?

If there was any interest in open source by Arm or Google they would make some minimum intiatives to makes the drivers available but not a single initiative exists.

There have been multiple discussion on Ars and HN itself about Google's relations with Android and open source..

[1]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-...

[glandium]

What does Google have anything to do with this? If there are companies to blame for the sorry state of open source on ARM, that would be Qualcomm, Broadcom, and other SoC makers.

[andreiw]

That might be the entire mobile ecosystem (although that sounds too simplistic, still, you are forgetting Linaro), but the ARM ecosystem also includes M-profile (deep embedded), R-profile (RTOS) and server-class (SBSA and "almost" designs like Octeon-TX and Tegra X1). The ARM server ecosystem is most definitely a bunch of software and hardware players, and Google is not a significant presence there FWIW.