Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by palata 2 days ago
> it would be best if developers all over the world boycotted proprietary platforms entirely.

Note that Linux and Android, from your list, are open source.

> For true cross-platform, you need to develop for 5 platforms

I would argue that anyway, you should develop for multiple "kinds of devices". Writing the same code for a desktop computer and a smartphone is fundamentally a mistake: I don't want to slide big buttons with my mouse.

So first, you need to design the UI multiple times: for desktop, for smartphones, and for tablets. If you want a smart watch, you need another design for it. Web apps don't solve that better.

Second, if you can write a webapp that works everywhere, then you can write a native app that works everywhere. I don't see how that would be different. The problem is generally that if you run the exact same code everywhere, then it's not a good experience.
1 comments
inigyou 2 days ago
Android is closed-source but with some open-source components, for only some of which they'll actually follow the license and give you the source code.
link
palata 2 days ago
AOSP means "Android Open Source Project". You can get the sources of Android, modify them, and build the whole OS. The Android SDK is open source as well.

GrapheneOS is based on Android precisely because Android is open source. They couldn't do that with iOS, or Windows, or any proprietary OS. Same for LineageOS.

Honestly it seems like you don't really know what you are talking about here?

link
inigyou 2 days ago
AOSP isn't Android. Nor is the Android SDK.

Also you can totally fork iOS, in binary form, on the dark web, and run it somewhere that isn't an iPhone.

link
palata 2 days ago
Ok teach me. What is Android?
link
brazukadev 2 days ago
Not OP but are you saying the google's "Android" OS, which comes installed in smartphones that aren't called iphone, is open source? because it is not. There is an open source version of it which is not the one you have access when you buy a phone.
link
palata 1 day ago
No. The "OS" part of "Android" is AOSP, period.

What runs in your phone is AOSP, with some firmware blobs (many of which are proprietary), with some system apps that may be proprietary (like Play Services and Play Store or whatever the OEM adds). If you need to convince yourself, try to build AOSP and run it.

The OP is just trying to derail the discussion. Would you say that Linux is not open source because the Linux you run on your computer most likely has to run some proprietary blobs? Or that Linux is not an OS because Linux is a kernel? What would it bring to the question of "are there open source OSes out there?", really?

link