whoa, #Android #AOSP no longer to be developed in the open -- source code will be made available in large releases instead https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/google-makes-android-development-private-will-continue-open-source-releases/
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whoa, #Android #AOSP no longer to be developed in the open -- source code will be made available in large releases instead https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/google-makes-android-development-private-will-continue-open-source-releases/
so much for the android "open" source project; this puts it firmly in google's hands as google android (where previously their strategy was to make google-exclusive versions of the stock aosp apps like clock calendar calculator etc, they now just straight-up won't let you see what's going on in between ~yearly releases)
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whoa, #Android #AOSP no longer to be developed in the open -- source code will be made available in large releases instead https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/google-makes-android-development-private-will-continue-open-source-releases/
so much for the android "open" source project; this puts it firmly in google's hands as google android (where previously their strategy was to make google-exclusive versions of the stock aosp apps like clock calendar calculator etc, they now just straight-up won't let you see what's going on in between ~yearly releases)
@trwnh was it really ever open source in any functionally useful way?
you can't even build android for a device without closed source drivers and other blobs
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@trwnh was it really ever open source in any functionally useful way?
you can't even build android for a device without closed source drivers and other blobs
@lowficarrots maybe not by that metric, but it's a far cry from like 2009 where the source code wasn't just "available" it was also hackable by basically anyone. these days it's a google-only thing, maybe limited access to their partners, everyone else is left out
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@lowficarrots maybe not by that metric, but it's a far cry from like 2009 where the source code wasn't just "available" it was also hackable by basically anyone. these days it's a google-only thing, maybe limited access to their partners, everyone else is left out
@trwnh even prior to this you really couldn't become a contributor to android though and be able to modify it. I don't know much of anyone who was able to get patches submitted even back in the early days who wasn't a partner or google engineer
I think the only real difference is one of optics at this point, since the AOSP project would never get you much for the inprogress branches. They're still doing full release code drops so the ROM community can still build modified stable branches
i totally think that it being developed in the open is a good thing though! I just don't think AOSP ever really was that outside of maybe a super short time in 2009
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@trwnh even prior to this you really couldn't become a contributor to android though and be able to modify it. I don't know much of anyone who was able to get patches submitted even back in the early days who wasn't a partner or google engineer
I think the only real difference is one of optics at this point, since the AOSP project would never get you much for the inprogress branches. They're still doing full release code drops so the ROM community can still build modified stable branches
i totally think that it being developed in the open is a good thing though! I just don't think AOSP ever really was that outside of maybe a super short time in 2009
@lowficarrots that's fair yeah, it's mostly the optics as you say but the optics here are worth slightly more than nothing bc it's also a sort of visibility into the work being done, and that went from "a little" to "basically none"
maybe it's because i'm looking at this with retro vision but the era of the dev phones (ADP1 and ADP2 as rebranded HTC Dream and Magic) and being on xda at the time it seemed like android was going to be better windows mobile. now it's just alternative iphone os
