zlacker

>>joseph+(OP)
>This does not mean that Google is making Android a closed-source platform, but rather that the open-source aspect will only be released when a new branch is released to AOSP with those changes, including when new full versions or maintenance releases are finished.

I'll believe it when I see it. These days, words are basically meaningless from these large tech companies. Actions are what matter.

at the very least, I'm not convinced this internal branch and AOSP will be close to feature parity if they do throw some stuff out.

>>johnny+N8
No OEM is interested in AOSP builds, because no one is going to buy an Android phone without Google Play Services, which is required for many popular apps to work (banking, games). There were some Chinese OEMs that ran an Android build and have unofficial ways to get Play Store working (Boox eReaders for example), but those are increasingly rare now, as years of sanctions has led to Huawei de-Googling itself fast, with others following.

>>rchaud+We
We're all going to have to live in ze pod and eat ze boogs when it comes to software platforms and ecosystems because aside from perhaps cloud deployments at scale, there just isn't an incentive to support open source from an ecosystem standpoint.

Give you an example: Recently the Open Source Initiative held board elections. Three of the candidates were disqualified. Two were disqualified for refusing to use proprietary software with Stallman-like stubbornness after explicitly being told that use of proprietary software was non-negotiable for board participation. Lunduke tried to weave it into his neo-Nazi narrative of cultural bolsheviks infesting open source, but the reality is the proprietary software in question is DocuSign -- and there is no alternative in the open source world that does what DocuSign does.

So if the steward organization of open source cannot function without proprietary software, what hope do the rest of us have? Especially with online services using remote attestation and refusing to function unless you're using a known, approved stack from boot to UI layer. May as well buy a Mac and an iPhone and be done with it. Save you lots of hassle and you'll look less like a dweeb.