Google finally did it!

**jd914** · 05-21-2012, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by papped

Your average user (the largest percentage of buyers) aren't going to work around anything...

Also open source doesn't really have anything to do with it. HTC has been skinning their phones with sense since windows mobile 6...

Openness allows manufacturers to skin/customize the OS on thier devices. I'm surprised a few here don't understand this. Close your OS and manufacturers can't skin your OS, it's that easy.

@ the 2 minute mark it's explained

**papped** · 05-21-2012, 07:49 PM

They can skin and customize the user experience regardless of open source though. Sense originated from before Android.

**lssanjose** · 05-22-2012, 06:20 AM

Having been a Linux user, since 2010, I can say Android isn't all open source. I don't think it will ever be. If I can't get an app's source, I can't consider it truly open. I think the same thing about manufacturer kernels. HTC may unlock boot loaders, but holds closely manufacturer kernel sources. This latter point drove me to get a Nexus.

To the point of people just wanting it to work, out of the box, I say, "great." at the same time, people in the open source community like being to learn how the OS works; and be considered self-sufficient. I would love it, if I could compile Google Maps, from source. That's how open source should work.

So, it pains me a little when I can't set up my system the way I could my desktop: options galore, from the very beginning.

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**thebignewt** · 05-23-2012, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by papped

Your average user (the largest percentage of buyers) aren't going to work around anything...

Also open source doesn't really have anything to do with it. HTC has been skinning their phones with sense since windows mobile 6...

Maybe Google is getting what Steve Jobs got years ago. Marry the software to the hardware. Never separate them, sell 'em together not apart. Control both at all times. Make the software cheap and the hardware expensive (and don't discount it). There's a reason Apple's the #1 company in the world (and it's not because it's open source either).

**DenverRalphy** · 05-23-2012, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by lssanjose

Having been a Linux user, since 2010, I can say Android isn't all open source. I don't think it will ever be. If I can't get an app's source, I can't consider it truly open.

The Android OS is open source. Apps are an entirely different entity. Some apps are open source and some aren't but that doesn't have any bearing on the open source licensing of Android itself. Even the Linux community has some apps that aren't open source (though not many).

I think the same thing about manufacturer kernels. HTC may unlock boot loaders, but holds closely manufacturer kernel sources.

HTC Kernel Source Code

**pantlesspenguin** · 05-23-2012, 06:53 PM

I happen to love my mucked up HTC phones, tyvm

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**lssanjose** · 05-23-2012, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by rmjones101

The Android OS is open source. Apps are an entirely different entity. Some apps are open source and some aren't but that doesn't have any bearing on the open source licensing of Android itself. Even the Linux community has some apps that aren't open source (though not many).

HTC Kernel Source Code

Thanks. You're right, in this regard. I was thinking along the lines of the platform

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