

Vic Gundotra’s Paean to Android’s Openness at Google I/O 2010 - siglesias
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/31/gundotra

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mbrubeck
Google has _always_ allowed early access to privileged hardware partners. They
may be changing the terms of that early access, but the access itself is not
new. You can argue about whether Android is "open" or not, but either way it's
still about as "open" as it's always been.

\- Android 1.0 source was not published until _one day_ before it shipped on
the HTC T-Mobile G1

\- Android 2.0 source was not published until one week _after_ it shipped on
the Motorola Verizon Droid.

\- Android 3.0 source will not be published until some unknown date after it
shipped on the Motorola XOOM.

Not even other hardware partners have access to the source during these early
access periods. (I know, because I was working on an Android customization
project for carriers and manufacturers at the time of the 2.0 release.)

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archgoon
Actually, now that he puts it that way, Google's position looks much less
hypocritical.

Even if Google were to completely close the source forever, and never release
the new updates, they could quite consistently claim "We created Android to
shake up the phone market. You now have two men. Andy Rubin, and Steve Jobs.
You have two carriers, Verizon or AT&T".

More charitably, they're still only talking about early access. Presumably,
eventually the Honeycomb sources will be released. Which would further allow
them to claim that android is 'open'.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Who does Gruber think chose to partner with HTC/Qualcomm for G1 and Nexus
One/Froyo, Samsung for Nexus S/Gingerbread, and Motorola/Nvidia for
Xoom/Honeycomb for early access if he's upset about Andy Rubin calling the
shots now?

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keltex
If Facebook wants to create a Facebook/Andoid phone that is completely
independent of Google, they can definitely do this. Sure they have to forgo
gmail / calendar and the other proprietary apps, but they could easily write
their own. It's all open source.

The difference is Gruber could never create a Gruber / iOS phone that is
completely independent of Apple.

~~~
nexneo
But they have to wait (who knows how much...) to create Facebook/Android
Tablet.

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arron61
not gruber again..

He claimed Apple's 30% cut on subscription was good - only because Apple
always does the right thing and then had nothing else to back up the claim.

Somehow his comments are always here?

