Is Google’s grip on Android too tight?
Guess what: another podcast is coming! And it’s going to be a corker, with a special extra presenter. While we get ready for it, we’d love to hear your opinions for our (now surely internet famous) Voice of the Masses section.
Many of us champion Android as an example of Linux’s success: it’s the dominant mobile operating system, it’s open source, and anyone can use it. Or can they? Ars Technica has an interesting editorial looking at how Google handles its stewardship of Android.
After you’ve read it, let us know what you think. Is Google being too controlling, by making it hard to fork Android? Or is the company acting in the best interests of its users, by tring to avoid fragmentation problems?
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About The Author
Mike Saunders
Mike stores his data by printing out hex dumps and laminating the sheets. He's the author of The Haynes Linux Manual and the creator of MikeOS, an operating system hand-built from assembly language.
Yes, they want Android to be Open Source and at the same time they don’t want it to be forked, and by trying to kill off the forks and closing up the source of some parts of the system they aren’t acting in the spirit of Open Source, the only problem is that we still don’t have a practical,easy and useful Open Source alternative to Android…
Don't know. Sorry but I refuse to upgrade my N95 to either an iPhone or an Andriod phone, and until manufactures start making slider phones I never will. Regarding tablets and netbooks I prefer to install a different OS (Mint with MATE) and don't trust storing all my data in the cloud. If Google relaxed their control and allowed others to fork Android I may change my mind (dependant on what direction the developers went and what applications they implemented)
OK, so Android isn't the free-love nirvana we were hoping it would become. Instead, Google is closing up a lot of the source and the open countryside is becoming a walled garden. I agree this is irritating because it's going to lead to a lot of people having to reinvent the same solutions. But then again, how fragmented do we really want the Android ecosystem? I can see advantages as well as disadvantages (e.g. better compatibility of apps across phones). So I'm not going to be switching from my Android phone (actually Cyanogenmod + Google Apps) any time soon.
Love the site and podcast!
Google is nearly as bad as Microsoft when it comes to tying down their platforms. The main difference is that Microsoft is upfront about it, while Google tells everyone that they're the Mahatma Gandhi of software and everyone should love them. I used to be a big fan of Google, but they've been on a heavy downward slope for years, and I'm getting fed up with it.
I'm looking forward to seeing what Jolla's phone turns out to be like. I'm hoping that it will be the lifeboat that gets me off the sinking ship that is Android.
I can see Samsung becoming the next Google. I would welcome this as I now have no trust at all in any US based companies because of the actions of their government. We should all be supporting and moving away from anything that is based in spy land USA. Yes, I know, I still have my Gmail account. See we need alternatives.
No. Google is a company and has always been very clear about what it is doing. It has put a lot of money/effort into Android which has been quite helpful to the open sourced world.
They have done this to support their services business which in turn supports their advertising business. It's not a secret.
Most of this hubbub is based off that silly Arstechnica article. Expecting Google to provide all of its things free to everyone just because they have provided some stuff for free is a bit much I think.
People claim no alternatives but Google has provided one. Just like Amazon has done you can take the free base of Android and create whatever you like. Will it have every bell and whistle and the latest and greatest bit? No. But complaining about that's a little like somebody giving you a toy for Chrimstmas and you telling them it's shit because there is a slightly newer and shinier toy and you wanted them to give you that one.
As for the US being spy land I think people are deluding themselves that such issues are only to do with the US. The US is the subject of the day because of the Snowden leaks. Anyone who thinks no other nations are up to similar to whatever extent they can be is just being naive I think.
@Uglyspud: the N95 is my favorite smart phone too. I still have it but it's worn from heavy use. Can't say I have the same affinity for my Nexus S. But that is our generation. Kids today wouldn't be interested in buttons..
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I am planning installing CyanogenMod on my Nexus S, to remove some of my data from Google's damp hands.
I have an (old) iPhone 3GS and felt guilty of being a "freedom hater", so I bought an Android tablet one year ago.
When using Android I don't feel as free as when I'm using Linux. I know that the reason is that Google is trying to control the platform more and more. Probably the other option is an Android controlled by Samsung and that seems a worst option.
The main problem is that Google is not doing a stellar work here. I can't believe that the browser, Safari, in my 3.5 year old phone works better than most of the android browsers most of the time. The stock android browser is much more usable than Chrome and Safari is simply the most usable mobile browser. (Source: http://blog.fixya.com/fixyareport/oct2013/assets/mobile-browser/fixya-mobilebrowser-report.pdf). Safari has a usability score of 1.31, stock android browser 0.87 and Chrome 0.64.
I find your lack of faith disturbing!
No.
The problem isn't their control of android the OS, The problem is their control of OEMs through the Open Handset Alliance. Forks like CyanogenMod or Replicant are great but their problem (like linux desktop distros) is no major OEM will ship them. This means forks require installation to be used, and this is a non starter for most people.
If google allowed OEMs that are in the OHA to ship android forks, the problem would be solved.
As long as android requires a google e-mail to use the software, I wholeheartedly think Google is dark side.
I am tied as a consumer of google apps as much as when ie was prebundled in Windoze.
I am entitled to do as Fin says and install an alternate OS, but why should I. it is my device?
The e-mail links my activity on the phone directly to me, and with blind consumption, I offer my data to whichever hoover would like to sweep my device usage up. Not everyone is as savvy as LXL listeners will be. At least give me the option of associating my own email host if you must snoop.
Messy nessy is watching!
Is it too late to say that they who told us the world would be free were the same as made us commit to it?
Freedom, that is.
Well, thanks for the warning. If we feel somewhat chagrined at being told freedom was "just around the corner" were not correctly aiming our sight at the very people we trusted.
Now in the day and age of potential freedom the mask has fallen away. Now we can see beyond the pretense and actually see what the "open future" means.
And it isn't all bad. It probably is almost what we expected it to wind up being. There will be some losses along the way, but at least we have the ability to either choose to accept it or goa different way. Don't We? Or have I as usual totally misinterpreted what is going on?
A computer is useless without an operating system – accepted truth. An open operating system ought to provide opportunities to solve various problems. So solve them in an open way.
Solve the problems – don't complain, solve them, the way we always do. by sharing and discussing. Openness is about the political as much as it has been about the "market".
stop complaining, come up with a solution.
My best advice, admittedly somewhat ridiculous.
MK
I used to say that IOS is very bad and Android is very good. but now due to android's APIs being a mess and the massive amount of Proprietary code, Android is not free as in freedom or even completely open source. I now say the Android is bad but IOS is many times worse
People who know me are suprised when I tell them that I haven't rooted my phone and installed Cyanogenmod or Ubuntu phone os. The fact is that while I care about freedom and openness in a desktop OS, on my phone the top priority is stability. If i can browse the net, play some humble bundle games, use whatsapp and make calls then I see no reason just yet to start flashing images and messing around on a piece of tech that I need to use almost every day. That being said, I so think google are going a bit OTT with their restrictions, and so when I next buy a phone it will be running a more open alternative.
Great article, really liked the author's label: "look but don't touch kind of open (source)" to describe the current reality of the Andriod Open Source Project. This label really highlights the less then sincere claims of Android being 'open' in the commonly accepted use of that term..
[As an aside, it occurred to me that "look but don't touch" is also the intentionally deceitful policy that governs the operation of 'strip clubs' :-). ]
Mike asks if this effective policy of Google is ultimately good for the Android end-users? Does it prevent excessive fragmentation of the Android platform (ala Linux Desktop distros), I would respond that I believe it has been _effective_ at insuring the run away market success of Android, but the question of good requires multiple qualified answers depending on the priorities of the particular end user.
By insuring the long term success of Android mobile devices, products that gives the consumer h/w vendor choices (as opposed to the Apple iOS products that preceeded them), I would argue that it has provided an improvement for the 'average' non-technical end-user.
But the more sophisticated technical end-users are certainly foregoing potential mobile product functionality by the quasi-Walled-Gardens that Google has created.
And of course, the current Android ecosystem precludes the possibility that the Android development to date could be leveraged for a 'quatum leap' type of new mobile functionality emergence from a source outside of Google. Personally, I don't think that really happens as often as we may like to think it does, but then again, history has shown us that sometimes it only needs to occur once to change the world.