

Is Android really free software? - Richard Stallman - Anilm3
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/19/android-free-software-stallman

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ZeroGravitas
_Google has said it will never publish the source code of Android 3.0 (aside
from Linux), even though executables have been released to the public. Android
3.1 source code is also being withheld. Thus, Android 3, apart from Linux, is
non-free software, pure and simple._

I was under the impression that this wouldn't be possible due to their use of
git, and so while they aren't making a big deal of it, you could, if you so
desired figure out at which point they branched for 3.0 or 3.x and create your
own version, they're just not going to make it easy because they'd rather you
use the newer code built on top of that.

I assumed he was going to say it's not free software because they've not yet
released the code above the linux level. If he's saying that it's _only_ not
considered free software by him because it will _never_ be released, then I'd
be interested in what he'd think if it's simply delayed and semi-obfuscated as
part of a later version release.

Also, is Replicant targetting the Galaxy S II? I thought I read that it had
the best support for the hardware without binary of proprietary chunks, but I
don't see any mention of it on their site.

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doki_pen
If effort has been made to obfuscate code, then it's not free software. Free
software doesn't hinder your ability to share, run, modify and or share
modifications. That's what makes it free.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
It's not the code that's hidden though, it's exactly which revisions
correspond to the various releases. That's still not in the spirit of free
software, but if later versions are better, freely available and almost
entirely a superset then it becomes a bit of a pedantic distinction.

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j_col
From the article:

> Thus, Android 3, apart from Linux, is non-free software, pure and simple.

Couldn't agree more, happy to see Stallman call it: Android 3.x is clearly
_not_ open source.

~~~
doki_pen
I don't think he cares about open source. He's saying it isn't free software.

