[cube13]

But Google has released the code to partners. Motorola has shipped the Xoom. Acer is releasing a tablet in a couple of weeks. HTC and Samsung are also releasing devices in the next few months.

If the code is good enough to go in production devices, why isn't it good enough to be released to the public?

[orangecat]

If the code is good enough to go in production devices, why isn't it good enough to be released to the public?

It's quite easy to create a code base that mostly works well, but whose structure and organization is utterly unsuitable for a public release. This is especially true when you have a marketing-driven deadline (e.g. "ship before the iPad 2") and have to take shortcuts.

[nathanb]

For an open source project the code is the product. If you claim to be open yet release your bits before the code, you are deluding yourself.

The quote from Savoia and Copeland in the article seems to be saying that Google won't release the code until the product sees market in order to maintain their competitive advantage. That's one thing. But when they continue to sit on the code when the product is out, that's another thing entirely.

[PetrolMan]

It hasn't been widely released yet. As far as I know the Xoom is it. Others are in development or being prepared for release.

[cube13]

Asus has shipped a tablet with Honeycomb on it. Also, they have also released the GPL-covered Linux kernel code as well.

[ZeroGravitas]

They claim it is ready for tablets, and have offered it to any tablet maker as long as they contact them and presumably sign some kind of NDA to prevent source release. I've not heard of any tablet maker, no matter how small, being refused.

They have said it's not suitable for phones, apparently Honeycomb and Gingerbread were divergent forks that need to be merged rather than simply building on top of each other linearly.