On Monday Google will announce Android, their mobile phone platform *UPDATE*
By Stefan Constantinescu on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 12:52 PM PST In Linux
If this blog post over at C|Net is to be believed then on Monday Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will announce to the public their plans for creating a mobile phone operating system platform. Partners in what Google is calling the “Open Handset Alliance” include KDDI and NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) and 30 others. The platform will supposedly be open source falling under the Apache License, Version 2.0. The flavor of Linux that Android will be built on top of looks to be that from Wind River.
We will have to wait, very impatiently, until Monday to find out if any of this is true. All signs are pointing to yes.
UPDATE: 11:00 EST is when the announcement is expected to take place according to Computer World. That is 16:00 for you UK readers and 18:00 for you Nokia (NYSE: NOK) people in Finland.
An important question is why did Google bring Wind River into the deal? The Alameda-based firm is a relative newcomer to Linux, especially to mobile applications. Their only announced mobile design win has been with Palm, for the Foleo and other devices presumably in the pipeline.
The most likely answer is for tools – Wind’s Workbench presents an attractive and very usable Eclipse CDT integration. While there is a real need for a professional tool set to support a program of this presumed scope, will Google also provide a non-commercial SDK?
You’re right about them wanting Wind River for their SDK, but as far as the idea to monetize the SDK … unsure about that. I’m going to say doubtful.
Can you enlighten us as to what this open source lisence means versus others?
Good question, Stefan. Google’s choice of the Apache license for the user-space portion of the Android stack would give Google, its partners, and future application writers more flexibility (meaning less reciprocity) when licensing their code. Such code would reside above the Linux kernel and base libraries, which are GPLv2 (modified by the COPYING) and LGPL respectively. That would mean that applications and application enabler m/w could be released to run on Android with either compatible FLOSS or commercial licensing terms, in line with Apache 2.0 terms.
The Apache license, like the GPLv2/3, does require unfettered (re)distribution of derived works, ensuring availability of Android code to a community of developers.
The FSF characterizes the Apache 2.0 license as “a free software license, compatible with version 3 of the GPL,” but “…not compatible with GPL version 2, because it has some requirements that are not in the older version. These include certain patent termination and indemnification provisions.”
Given that most components of the Android stack (I suppose) would not directly co-mingle with GPLv2 code, the FSF objections are probably not an issue.
You can read the Apache 2.0 license at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Wow this is very good news.
Yes this is great news. !