Google to delay distribution of new Android tablet code to outside programmers | Hacker News Reader

Google to delay distribution of new Android tablet code to outside programmers

businessweek.com

28 pointspetethomas16 comments

So they're waiting to release the code until it's a little more fully baked? <yawn /> Somebody wake me up when this is real news.

Sure, you can quibble over this move and how it doesn't fit with the usual "release early, release often" ideology of F/OSS, but - in the grand scheme of things - I have a very hard time seeing this as a big deal. If they said "We're not going to release the code, EVVAAAAAAARRR, MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA" then I could see a reason for being concerned.

Some privileged companies are not only getting access to the code but actually shipping Honeycomb based products today. Most of the reviews of the Xoom noted some lack of polish but I don't recall any massive problems that would suggest Honeycomb is simply too unstable/feature incomplete to be released.

My impression was not that it was unstable/feature incomplete for tablets but that they didn't want anybody trying to port it to phones, where it is completely untested.

I don't think they want anyone touching it until Ice Cream (3.1), when the Tablet and Phone "forks" of Android are merged together as one.

Most of the reviews of the Xoom noted some lack of polish but I don't recall any massive problems that would suggest Honeycomb is simply too unstable/feature incomplete to be released.

Sure, and as a traditional F/OSS advocate, I generally do believe in the "release early / release often" philosophy, and I'm a little bit disappointed that Google are holding the code back. I'm just saying that I don't see it as being a "Big Deal" (tm).

Some of the articles and comments about this are painting it like this huge, terrible affront to the F/OSS world and act like Google somehow magically went from "friends of F/OSS" to "the Devil incarnate" because of this. And I think that's a little silly. So they want to finish merging some things and get it cleaned up, etc., whatever. I - personally - am fine with allowing them the time to do that. Sure it would be nice to have the code right now, but let's not break out the tar and feathers just yet.

Fully baked?

This code is shipping on commercially sold devices right now. Wake up.

And all the reviews of those devices say Honeycomb isn't fully baked.

It's only shipping on commercially sold tablets. And the article clearly states that google believes honeycomb is "not yet ready to be altered by outside programmers and customized for other devices". This sounds perfectly reasonable to me; I'm sure anyone that has lingered around HN enough, knows about the importance of shipping quickly with a 'minimum viable product'.

The definition make sense now: http://twitter.com/#!/Arubin/status/27808662429

To save RoG some trouble, we already have this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2365725

What licenses are used in Android beside the kernel's GPLv2? In other words, what are they required to release? What can they keep closed at will?

Most of it uses the Apache Source License 2.0, which doesn't require releasing the source. You can look through http://android.git.kernel.org/ (especially external) for some others, but they're mostly similar licenses.

There are some GPL things in there besides the kernel, and a few of them are probably shipped. I'm not sure how e.g., Motorola is handling this (since they clearly have an obligation to provide the GPL source).

My understanding is that all the exciting changes in Honeycomb involve the user interface, which is all ASL.

WebKit is (mostly LGPL v 2.1

Just seems like the typical Cathedral vs Bazaar discussion to me. Android always has been a Cathedral.

meego is developed in the open... but obviously its not an option yet.

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