Open vs. Free
Well, another device has come out with hardware tools built in to prevent “unauthorized” Android images from being installed on it. The community has once again gone to arms about this. People are throwing around phrases like “goes against open source” or “Android is an open operating system”.
Yes, the source code for Android is Open Source, but vendors can take that code and modify it to their needs. They have just as much of a right to tighten the hatches on the device as we do to go out and create our own custom modifications.
I can understand why a vendor or telco would want to lock down a device. This could be for their own security, to sell their “value added services” (which drive me up the wall) or to make it harder for a user to accidentally brick their device. I honestly believe the last issue is the probably a big motivator for them to introduce these technologies on their devices. If a vendor gets a return from a user who’s device won’t boot they can immediately know if it was because of tampering. This will have drastic effects on their bottom line, so I don’t blame them for making such a decision.
There is only one part of the Android system that is truly free; the kernel since it was a Linux derivative which is released under the GPL. Aside from that, the rest of the source code is under an Apache license. As such, vendors only really need to release the source code for any modifications or extensions to the kernel they have made.
I believe Google chose to develop Android with such a system on purpose. The kernel is honestly a minor part of the system when compared to everything else, and vendors want to own the code that is running on their devices. We don’t know what their source contains, but it could have “trade secrets” or whatever that they want to keep to themselves with an advantage over the competition. If you want a truly free device, then an Android device by manufacturers such as Motorola, HTC, or Samsung isn’t for you.
I feel that the terms free and open often get mixed up by people, which is unfortunately very misleading. In my references I have included an article by Richard Stallman who (biasedly) describes the difference between free and open.
Consumers have the Power
This really comes down to us as consumers to show that we will not allow vendors and telcos to sell us devices that have such mechanisms built into them. It is very simple, don’t buy the device. Instead go with one from a more forgiving vendor or if you want to be absolutely sure you have a device you can mod go with an Android Developer Phone that you can get from with a developer account from the Android market.
Now I know the cyanogenmod guys will get around these issues, but sometimes we have to ask ourselves is this necessary? It negatively reinforces the decisions made by the brass at these companies into believing consumers are fine with what they are doing because the hardware is flying off the shelves. Personally, I would prefer to see a device like the G2 do horribly. This would perhaps convince those responsible for such decisions to not include such hardware mechanisms.
The market will have the ability to change this trend of caging the Android OS, we just need to learn when to say no those shiny pieces of technology.
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