Wie Google mit Android den Open-Source-Gedanken verrät

Ron Amadeo beschreibt auf Ars Technica in ziemlich epischer Länge, wie Google das eigentlich als Open Source Projekt gestartete Android nach und nach eine Closed-Source-Scheiße umwandelt und dabei auch noch mit dreckigsten Knebelverträgen den Wettbewerb verzerrt.

Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary

It's easy to give something away when you're in last place with zero marketshare, precisely where Android started. When you're in first place though, it's a little harder to be so open and welcoming. Android has gone from being the thing that protects Google to being something worth protecting in its own right. Mobile is the future of the Internet, and controlling the world's largest mobile platform has tons of benefits. At this point, it's too difficult to stuff the open source genie back into the bottle, which begs the question: how do you control an open source project?

und gegen später:

While it might not be an official requirement, being granted a Google apps license will go a whole lot easier if you join the Open Handset Alliance. The OHA is a group of companies committed to Android —Google's Android— and members are contractually prohibited from building non-Google approved devices. That's right, joining the OHA requires a company to sign its life away and promise to not build a device that runs a competing Android fork. [...] So when Amazon goes shopping for a manufacturer for its next tablet, it has to immediately cross Acer, Asus, Dell, Foxconn, Fujitsu, HTC, Huawei, Kyocera, Lenovo, LG, Motorola, NEC, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, and ZTE off the list.

Don't be evil, eh?

| Abgelegt unter The power game
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