[ILUG] Android gone Free

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Colm Buckley (colm at tuatha.org):

> The *open* custom Google version of Java.  Running on the *open*
> custom Google version of Linux.  I'm not sure you really know what
> you're talking about here.

I hope/expect that most people will not fault _Google's_ role in the
matter of the T-Mobile G1.  Google didn't make it a locked appliance;
HTC and T-Mobile did.[1]  A friend commented on that point, elsewhere:

  From what I heard before T-Mo picked up Android, it was already like
  that. This, if anything, ensures that OpenMoko is NOT dead in the water.
  It also brings up the interesting irony that the mostly-proprietary EZX
  and MAGX platforms from Motorola are effectively more free and open than
  Android. (Reminder: I once successfully booted the OpenMoko userspace
  with a self-built kernel on my EZX/JUIX-based A910, all with nothing
  more than a bog-standard mini-USB cable.)

Me, I'm eschewing all DRMed and/or fixed-firmware smartphones while 
limping along with my boringly dumb and proprietary but cheap and
generic, unlocked-SIMM, no-contract-tie-down Motorola RAZRv3 -- and
monitoring Open Handset Alliance members' offerings with interest.

I might eventually just brew my own, if nothing suitable emerges as
prepackaged handsets -- but it's really nice to know that Android's 
an option alongside OpenMoko/Qtopia.  Thanks, Google.

And Dalvik is a neat hack.  Why should I care if it's useful towards
Google's business interests?  It's potentially useful for me, too.
As I like to say, in the end what matters is code and licensing,
licensing and code.)

[1] Knowing the monopolistic and control-mad telco industry as I do, I'd
speculate that the impetus came almost entirely from T-Mobile.