Android arch Andy Rubin took to the blogs Wednesday dusk to war new reports of Google clamping down on Android's openness.
"We go on to be an open source stage and will go on releasing source ethics when it is ready," wrote Rubin on the Android Developer Blog . "As we write this the Android group is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones. As shortly as this work is completed, we'll tell the code. This proxy check does not act for a change in strategy."
Google has championed its stage as the open substitute to Apple's closed iOS system. That sincerity has been called in to subject recently, as Google has nonetheless to let go the Honeycomb source ethics to all developers and manufacturers.
Honeycomb is Android's initial tablet-optimized program release. Rubin cites the disparity in form reason between tablets and phones as the reason Google hasn't expelled Honeycomb's source ethics to device manufacturers and developers.
Motorola is the exception: The company's Honeycomb-fueled Xoom inscription has been on the marketplace for more than a month, that creates Google's preference to grip the ethics from far-reaching let go a bit mystifying.
Members of the Android attention showed conviction in Google, however.
"They say they're going to let go it, I'm not gonna call them liars," Linux Foundation senior manager director Jim Zemlin told Wired.com in an interview. The Android OS is formed on a chronicle of the Linux OS , that has been an open source, collaborative stage given its let go decades ago.
Rubin's post moreover addressed questions lifted in a new Bloomberg story about Android's turn of manage over its partners. Bloomberg wrote:
Over the past couple of months, according to a few people aware with the matter, Google has been rigorous that Android licensees consent by "non-fragmentation clauses" that give Google the last say on how they can tweak the Android ethics " to make new interfaces and increase services " and in some cases whom they can associate with.
Rubin combats this affirm directly, saying Google's supposed "anti-fragmentation program has been in place given Android 1.0," citing a list of compatibility mandate manufacturers contingency stick to to be able to marketplace a device as "Android-compatible."
He's referring to Android's compatibility assessment apartment , or CTS, an programmed litmus assessment to portion either or not a square of hardware can affirm to run Android.
"Our draw close waste unchanged: There are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs," wrote Rubin.
Motorola vouches for Rubin's statement.
"In the time given we've proposed using Google, the attribute has matured, but it isn't any more tying than it ever has been," Christy Wyatt, Motorola's VP of mobile program development, told Wired.com. "I do not think that anything has altered in the CTS given the beginning."
Finally, Rubin emphatically denied other rumors of ARM-chipset standardization in the platform, ample of that arose in the arise of an anonymously sourced DigiTimes story .
"There are not, and never have been, any efforts to standardize the stage on any singular chipset architecture," Rubin wrote. With the Nexus One, Google's initial flagship phone, the firm worked with Qualcomm to setup its 1-GHz Snapdragon ARM processors in the HTC-manufactured handsets. The successive Nexus S came versed with Samsung's 1-GHz Hummingbird processor, that is moreover formed on ARM architecture.
It's out of disposition for Rubin and Android to post such a defensive update. Usually, rumors present in the media are often given a bold "no comment" by Google's communications team.
But the pretension of Rubin's post - "I think I'm having a Gene Amdahl moment" - explains it all. Amdahl coined the acronym FUD (fear, doubt and doubt) in 1975. After leaving IBM to form his own IT company, Amdahl claimed he suffered attacks by IBM sales staff attempting to criticise his new venture.
All of this disastrous attention isn't great for Android's "open" image, and may be that's what overcame Rubin's hostility to speak: as well ample FUD about Android's future.
Whether or not this FUD is warranted, however, waste to be seen.
See Also:
Android Trojan Highlights Risks of Open Markets
Amazon Launches Its Own Android App Store
Google Removes Flash App From Android Market
Google Launches Android Market Web Store, Improves Payment System
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