Where's the Android 3.0 Honeycomb source code?

To answer the specific questions in the article:

1. Well where did [Asus] get the source code for [Android 3.0]?

Asus is a member of the Open Handset Alliance. Since they're a member of the organization responsible for developing Android, they necessarily have access to source code to their unreleased products.

2. Well where did they get the source code for [the new music player]?

Note that the title of the linked article is "Download the leaked Android Honeycomb music app now." This means that someone with privileged access to unreleased Android software made a copy of that and released it publicly, and, most likely, illegally.

3. I don’t see it? I can’t find it? There’s no updates for the SDK that contain the 3.0 API calls?

Correct. Android 3.0 has not been released yet, and thus, its source code is not available to anyone outside of the Open Handset Alliance.

4. So Asus has some kind of special deal with Google to be able to get early access to the “open” platform which is dubbed “Android”?

Yes and no. Asus and Google are both members of the Open Handset Alliance, which owns and develops Android. Google doesn't own Android, they simply contribute a great deal of engineering talent to the Open Handset Alliance. Thus, both Asus and Google have access to unreleased versions of Android.

5. Where is Honeycomb for the rest of us?

Unavailable. You're only legally entitled to a copy of the Honeycomb source if you purchase a device with Honeycomb on it, or otherwise legitimately receive the software. The Open Handset Alliance has decided to distribute publicly the source code to released versions of Android, rather than only distributing corresponding source to individuals who purchase devices. This is above and beyond their legal obligations under the GPL.

Android is developed privately, but released publicly under an open source license. Nothing in that license compels the Open Handset Alliance to work in public.

This has been the way of things for every Android release, so it's not like this is anything new or newsworthy about Gingerbread.

Although my guess would be the blog author already knows this, and is just trying to be snarky by pretending to not understand that just because a piece of software is open source, doesn't mean all the development will be done openly.

I guess my point is, quit being an annoying pedant. We all know the source will be on kernel.org when it's done.

Very simply you are correct, it’s not available yet until it’s complete. Google I’m sure gives hardware manufacturers early access to the code base so they can test prototypes but only the GA release is available to everyone. Quite frankly I think this is very wise because I like knowing that something I grab isn’t built on a half-baked alpha of Honeycomb. Let Google finish its development work then everyone can muck with the final release and we’ll all be on the same page.

If people think this isn’t open then try getting iOS to play with at any point, or consider that for fun I installed Gingerbread on a WinMo HTC Touch Pro the other day. Very simply when you’re working with a host of hardware developers on a major new OS release Google is wise to keep the development centralized until each GA version. You can’t have Bob from Poughkeepsie check in something that, while perhaps an improvement, just broke 4 prototypes and several millions in development at Samsung. You would get a stable version of Android every 2 years, not 6 months.