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by wtracy 4669 days ago
> it's still orders of magnitude more open than any of > the other mobile OS available on the market.

Symbian? OpenMoko? The upcoming SailfishOS, Tizen, Firefox OS, and Ubuntu phone? Oh, you meant in the U.S., I guess. (Yes, I know that all the above have either already largely failed or have sketchy futures. That's an entirely different kettle of fish.)

> Open source fanatics are impossible to satisfy

All I want is the ability to make arbitrary changes to the software running on my phone. Why is that so hard?
4 comments
crumblan 4669 days ago
Arbitrary changes? But then how can we ensure that you are charged the proper price for tethering bandwidth versus phone bandwidth? How can we ensure you are paying the right price to blacklist phone numbers? My goodness what if you remove the default apps from the phone? No, that won't do at all.
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laureny 4669 days ago
> All I want is the ability to make arbitrary changes to the software running on my phone. Why is that so hard?

What mainstream OS makes this easier than Android?

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the_mitsuhiko 4668 days ago
> Firefox OS

Considering the closed source bits of Android have no equivalent in Firefox OS I would say it's equally open source as Firefox OS.

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ZeroGravitas 4668 days ago
Firefox and Ubuntu phone both run on top of an Android layer so they're not great argument against the openess of Android.
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4ad 4668 days ago
No, absolutely not. Ubuntu on existing Android phones uses the Linux kernel with the Android patches so it can use the OEM binary drivers. It doesn't use any bits of Android. FirefoxOS is the same.
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ZeroGravitas 4668 days ago
I didn't say they run on top of Dalvik, I'm saying they share some of the lower level foundations like e.g. "the Linux kernel with the Android patches so it can use the OEM binary drivers", which is important because that kind of stuff is what separates a smartphone from a brick.
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4ad 4668 days ago
No. Android layer means Dalvik + bionic. Ubuntu and FirefoxOS run on top of the Linux kernel, which happens to be supplied by Google/OEM vendors on some devices. Both can run on an unmodified Linux kernel if a device supports it, and both are trying to come up with their own devices.

Btw, the Linux kernel is the only GPL piece of code in Android. However closed Android is or will become, the kernel will still be provided because of the virulent license. Arguing Android is open because they ship the kernel that allows FirefoxOS and Ubuntu to boot on some devices is wrong because they are legally bound to ship this kernel, it's not an act of good will (but doesn't mean they wouldn't do it out of good will).

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