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22 October 2013

Google's iron grip on Android

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/

The Open Handset Alliance is a group of companies committed toAndroid—Google's Android—and members are contractually prohibited frombuilding non-Google approved devices. That's right, joining the OHArequires a company to sign its life away and promise to not build adevice that runs a competing Android fork.

How is that "open" in any sense of the word?

You can't really blame Google for wanting to lock down Android, now that it has the majority share of the smartphone market, but those terms seem quite onerous.

Google, as a company, have changed a lot from the Google we knew and loved back in the early-to-mid 2000s. If Android was released by the Google of today, I highly doubt it would be open-source.


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