[ILUG] Android gone Free

[Michael Watterson]

John P. Looney wrote:
> On
>
>  Ah, see that's where you are confused. The point of Android isn't to 
> 'fiddle with interesting harware and linux'. It's to use Linux to 
> create the best damn phone anyone can get, price no object. And the 
> Android guys really think that the way to do that is by opening the 
> source so people can add to it; by writing end-user apps, tweaking the 
> OS to do better battery life, writing an app to match mobile-phone 
> mast data with GPS coordinates and uploading
>
> John
>
Indeed Android is NOT about *"Linux"* at all really. That is a means to 
an  end. It's about a Phone Platform that Google controls. 
Google/carrier  like Apple iPhone decides what apps can go on it and if 
the apps stop working.

Price is an object too.

Just because something uses Linux and is Open Source does not mean it is 
for an Open Platform, or will be the best or even a good idea.  I've 
never trusted Advertising Agencies and  at the  end of the  day  Google 
is  not a  Sugar  Daddy  for Linux  but is  a  Commercial Company that 
is intent on selling Advertising Space.

Maybe some day there will be a decent Open phone running Open Source 
that does not need jailbroken for you to load your own version of 
Firmware, but I don't see, and G1 confirms it, that Android is it.  
Obviously Google generates a big a reality distortion field as Steve 
Jobs if you think Android is really about promoting Open Source and 
Linux, just because the Source SW is open and is based on Linux. Have a 
look at Pandora  to see a  HW that is really about  using Linux and  
being Open on HW and SW.

The point of  a PC is you can load any OS you like... BSD, Linux, OS/2, 
Minix, XP.. Not so easily OSX, but that is the OS issue, not the HW. 
It's an open Platform that can run Open Source, or Not.

An Android phone I don't beleive was ever intended to be an Open 
Platform (HW), though using Open Source SW. Apart from anything else, 
the phone carriers control the phone Network access 100% and don't much 
like Open Hardware. They don't much like Nokia these days. BTW it's 
trivial to install your own native Symbian app on a Nokia (or other 
Symbian phone). It only needs Nokia Signage to distribute it and unlike 
Apple and Google they don't turn off apps or block distribute of apps 
that conflict with their own commercial goals.

Not that I'm a fan of Symbian. But I have at least used Symbian SDK, 
WinCE SDK, Done Linux desktop and embedded development, Windows NT 
desktop, and other embedded development. I've put custom Linux SW on 
Linksys routers that were "protected" and failed to "jailbreak" some 
funky specialist Dlink and Netgear ones even though I had the Linux Source.

I've got an ARM based touch screen VOIP PDA I built with Debian on it 
and internal PCMCIA 4G Mobile Modem. We looked at putting Android on it, 
but frankly it would have been a pointless exercise.

After a lot of research over some years and playing with high End Nokia, 
WinMo and iPhone I conclude that really a phone sized gadget only much 
works well as a phone. To really browse, email, GPS etc, you need either 
800x480 screen and magnifing glass or a Nokia 810 sized gadget (Maemo 
version of Linux, not Symbain)  with 4.3" screen.  I have an  ARM dev 
system with similar chip to iPhone and it has 4.8" 800x480 touchscreen. 
If the top and bottom edge of bezel was small, you can do a pocket size 
gadget with it. We used JTAG to replace the WinMO in Flash with a cut 
down Debian.

The iPhone/ N95/HTC Touch/Android G1 is a pretty niche market and it 
will come under pressure from things like new Archos 5 (internal 
3G/HSDPA and upto 250Gbytes)  in January.  Most people are happy with a 
Phone/Music player with maybe optional snaps. Frankly the screen is too 
small even on an iPhone for decent Video, GPS, eBooks, email, documents 
and Web Browsing other than the most casual kind.

I'd get more excited about a Jailbreak on Archos 605 (Linux) than on a 
T-Mobile G1 (Linux)



  

-- 
Mike