The Debian For Android Maru Project Is Being Open-Sourced

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Debian For Android Maru Project Is Being Open-Sourced

Last week we wrote about MaruOS as the project that provides an independent Debian desktop for your smartphone. Since then there has been an overwhelming response to the project and the lone developer working on this "Debian For Android" project has decided to open-source the code for accelerating the project...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Maru-OS-Being-Opened

[kaidenshi]

Interesting...but why would something like this not be open source from the start? Debian is one of the champions of the GPL in the Linux world, and while Android isn't truly open source, it has its roots in Linux.

[droidhacker]

Interesting...but why would something like this not be open source from the start? Debian is one of the champions of the GPL in the Linux world, and while Android isn't truly open source, it has its roots in Linux.

I'm really getting tired of this kind of bullshit.

ANDROID IS 100% OPEN SOURCE.

While your crappy HARDWARE may not offer any driver source FOR THEIR HARDWARE, that is not in ANY WAY different from desktop linux. I'm looking at YOU NVIDIA.

[kaidenshi]

I'm really getting tired of this kind of bullshit.

ANDROID IS 100% OPEN SOURCE.

While your crappy HARDWARE may not offer any driver source FOR THEIR HARDWARE, that is not in ANY WAY different from desktop linux. I'm looking at YOU NVIDIA.

And I'm tired of Google fanboys defending a company that is FOSS hostile. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

"Only the base Android operating system (including some applications) is open-source software, whereas most Android devices ship with a substantial amount of proprietary software, such as Google Mobile Services, which includes applications such as Google Play Store, Google Search, and Google Play Services – a software layer that provides APIs for the integration with Google-provided services, among others. These applications must be licensed from Google by device makers, and can only be shipped on devices which meet its compatibility guidelines and other requirements.^[65][107] Custom, certified distributions of Android produced by manufacturers (such asTouchWiz and HTC Sense) may also replace certain stock Android apps with their own proprietary variants and add additional software not included in the stock Android operating system.^[3] There may also be "binary blob"drivers required for certain hardware components in the device.^[3][98] Some stock applications in AOSP code that were formerly used by earlier versions of Android, such as Search, Music and Calendar, have been abandoned by Google in favor of non-free replacements distributed through Play Store (Google Search, Google Play Music, and Google Calendar) that are no longer open-source. Moreover, open-source variants of some applications also exclude functions that are present in their non-free versions, such as Photosphere panoramas in Camera, and a Google Now page on the default home screen (exclusive to the proprietary version "Google Now Launcher", whose code is embedded within that of the main Google application).^{[3][191][192][193]} "

In short, only the kernel and a few userspace apps are open source, and Google is steadily converting formerly open source userspace apps into closed source components, even on builds for Nexus devices. Unless you're running Replicant and F-Droid on four year old hardware, your Android device has more closed source than open source software on it.

But hey, keep drinking the Google flavored Kool-Aid.

[artivision]

Android is a pile of shit, like all closed source and usually pre-installed open source by certain corporations (Google, Samsung, Sony and others). Should be replaced by standard Linux with all the known free apps and HTML5 for all the other extra apps and games.

[slacka]

And I'm tired of Google fanboys defending a company that is FOSS hostile. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

...Some stock applications in AOSP code that were formerly used by earlier versions of Android, such as Search, Music and Calendar, have been abandoned by Google in favor of non-free replacements...


But hey, keep drinking the Google flavored Kool-Aid.

And I'm tired of all these ungrateful fools attacking a company that is very friendly to open source software. You want to go after someone, go after a company like Apple or Nvidia. Just about every company that doesn't support Linux directly is worse that Google. I can and have built all of the software on my phone from source, thanks to Google AOSP and CyanogenMod.

If it wasn't for Google, I wouldn't have the freedom to hack my own phone. If Google never existed and Blackberry, Apple, and Microsoft dominated the Smartphone market today, you can be sure there is no way I would have this kind of freedom. Thank you Google!

And no I don't care that Google doesn't release the source Code to Google Music any more than I'm angry at my bank for not releasing the source code to my online banking software. I've tried Google Music and it's crap compared to the CyanogenMod current music player I currently use. My player supports ID3 lyrics, has a great EQ, and is 100% Open Source.

Go back to your iPhone and shut up about Google's treatment of Android. As long as Google AOSP and CyanogenMod are around, I'll perfectly happy with my Kool-Aid.

[kaidenshi]

And I'm tired of all these ungrateful fools attacking a company that is very friendly to open source software.

Facebook is friendlier to open source than Google. Let that sink in for a minute.

[starshipeleven]

"Only the base Android operating system (including some applications) is open-source software

FYI, all firmwares made by OEMs use the code from AOSP, which is the way Google releases Android. So yes, the base OS is opensource because Google said so.

FYI2: the base OS is all that is needed, you don't need Gapps in any way to run a smartphone. A lone guy made a Glocation-services-replacement opensource app to run apps that need Play Services for location without Play Services.

whereas most Android devices ship with a substantial amount of proprietary software

The same can be said for the average PC, and the same as for the average PC, the crapware isn't critical for it just like it isn't for Android (I can load another launcher, another music app, another keyboard, another whatever, it's just an app, it's not the core OS.

Of course there is unavoidable closed-source like firmwares and blobs due to non-open-hardware, but that's kinda normal.

In short...

you have no idea of what you are talking about. You're claiming Android is closed only because a bunch of non-critical apps usually shipped with it are.

It's like claiming Ubuntu is closed-source because it does contain closed-source stuff and shenanigans (like say codecs and drivers/firmwares, also Flash player).

Facebook is friendlier to open source than Google. Let that sink in for a minute.

[citation needed]

[kaidenshi]

"Facebook is friendlier to open source than Google. Let that sink in for a minute."

[citation needed]

http://readwrite.com/2013/10/17/is-facebook-the-worlds-largest-open-source-company

[starshipeleven]

http://readwrite.com/2013/10/17/is-facebook-the-worlds-largest-open-source-company

Huh?

Chromium, ChromiumOS, Android (AOSP), TesseractOCR (best FOSS OCR engine around), Coreboot (main sponsor currently), half of the Vulkan dev team (the ones working for mobile), they are opensourcing stuff of their datacenters too http://readwrite.com/2014/08/18/goog...craig-mcluckie , they are still fighting Oracle for the right to use Java APIs in Android (a retarded copyright issue about the API's names, if Google wins it's a win for everyone as it becomes a precedent) and they are now migrating Android to OpenJDK APIs to avoid future issues http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/29/go...ary-java-apis/


I mean... I'm not in the mood for making an accurate calculation to see who contributes more to FOSS between G and FB, but... I think you aren't seeing the whole picture. Both contribute A LOT, and neither is stopping nor becoming MS-style Teh Evulz.