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by bad_user 2504 days ago
> “open” source

Not sure what that means, but open source is pretty much irrelevant in this market, for one because we already have Android and it doesn't help much.

If you want to fork Android, it's easy and except for Google's proprietary services, like the notifications, you get compatibility with the entire Android ecosystem out of the box.

So why is there no successful fork around, except for Amazon's, which is very niche and doesn't count?

Open source is defined by the freedom to fork. However if the market forces are such that forking isn't feasible, then the open source nature is irrelevant.

Going back to your usage of quotes in "open" source, if that's what you meant, well, unfortunately Huawei is not the FSF.

2 comments

I would say, their source code should be available for anyone to see, especially security researches. And what is installed on the phone should be exactly what is available in public.
> no successful fork around

There are hundreds, you just have to install them yourself.