
Here’s Why Google Is Holding Honeycomb Back - profitbaron
http://gigaom.com/mobile/heres-why-google-is-holding-honeycomb-back/
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raganwald
The article is undoubtedly correct in explaining why Google chooses to keep
Honeycomb closed at this time. However, this defeats the entire point of
making Android "open."

Of _course_ there will be droves of handset makers releasing crappy handsets
with Honeycomb that is not ready. But perhaps one company out there might do
something innovative and useful, and that's what you get when you open thing
up.

Open always means tons of dreck, but it sometimes means something unexpected
and good, that's the whole point. If Google doesn't want tons of dreck, it can
stop pretending to be open.

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billjings
Have you ever known that person who won't check in his/her code until they're
satisfied? Have you ever been that person? I know I have.

It is a very, very bad sign when somebody is in a social environment and will
not share their code. It means they are insecure, it might mean they're not
getting any work done. It always means that the code is in a state where they
are not proud of it and aren't comfortable receiving feedback. It typically
means that the code isn't getting a whole lot better.

A major software company like Google, or a team within that company, can't be
compared to a lone cowboy coder. There are perfectly legitimate reasons to
hold back code. In this case, though, if this is really the reason - that
Honeycomb was rushed to market and the code just doesn't look good, we'll fix
it later and let you know - how does that make the relationship with the open
community look? Not good. It's not good to be afraid of community feedback,
whether you're the Android team or a fresh programmer in an unfamiliar shop.

And as for me personally, it doesn't give me a lot of hope for a pleasant
experience on the Honeycomb development I'm going to be doing soon.

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sudont
This seems fairly reminiscent of video card vendors. They're built on a single
platform, but if they screw up the card, nVidia or ATI gets the blame. And the
same issue with Windows. Sure, it _could_ be a terrible scanner driver, but
it's easier to just blame what's visible.

Multiple vendors means that the blame gets shifted to whoever holds the most
mindshare. In this case, it's Google, since they're trying to provide both a
platform, and a brand. Apple pulls it off through vertical integration, and
their version of OSS is providing a big box of parts you can strap together to
build your own, not to post-mod their thing. It removes all doubt of who's
doing what.

Personally, I don't think it's that big of an issue if Google has to
alpha/beta it in private before releasing to the general dev community. It's
just somewhat snide to use complete and total openness as a selling point,
when it's simply unfeasible to _be_ completely open on technical, marketing
and design standpoints from day one.

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rje
I get why Google wants to hold back the source, but it sucks for the folks who
bought a Xoom and now don't have access to it. Andy Rubin's definition of
"Open" (<http://twitter.com/#!/arubin/status/27808662429>) doesn't have much
value if google doesn't make the source code readily available.

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wh-uws
When I first saw the honeycomb demo I thought to myself "How are they gonna
fit that ui on a phone?"

I guess the answer is they aren't.

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richcollins
These are the same reasons that Apple gave for not allowing flash,
undocumented API calls ... etc. For some reason Google gets a pass from many
while Apple was pilloried.

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funkdobiest
Could this be Sales people making delivery claims to the hardware
manufacturers, which are not technically possible to meet? So the devs have to
cut corners to meet the deadline, and are not releasing the code because they
are not happy with the internal marketing situation? Just a guess.

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aufreak3
The explanation in this seems plausible, but doesn't account for other ways to
solve the perception problem - for example, google can do real open code and
set up a "signed by google" program to indicate that not all of what's out
there is to be associated with google.

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stcredzero
I wonder if RIM or HP can make a play for the #2 tablet, given the floundering
in the Android camp?

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r00fus
If Honeycomb doesn't cut it, my bet would be on HPalm.

RIM's decision to jump on the Android train reeks of desperation, they just
want to have app count, not quality experience or functionality.

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digikata
Or they're doing a legal review to make sure they're covered for any lurking
lawsuit threats.

