Google Delays Android Honeycomb Source Code Drop

  Google is delaying the release of the sweet Honeycomb source code until more work is done. Before all the conspiracy theorist or elitist open source purists begin  to cast their eternal judgement on the "Evil technology machine which is Google", lets analyze the said reasons behind the delay:

  Since the new version of Android has been pretty much re-written from the ground up, the team still needs more time. A spokeswoman for Google said in an emailed statement: "While we're excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones. We're committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it's ready," reported reuters.com earlier today.


  This defiantly seems very vague to me. A better clarification comes later from Andy Rubin: "To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design trade offs," the Vice President of Engineering says: "We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut." Fair Enough no? I am not too familiar with Android's release agreement so I decided to see exactly what Google agreed to when the Open Handset Alliance was first formed. In my research I found this in the Android FAQ. It says in a nutshell that some parts of Android are private, such as the included Google apps that ship with most devices. It also states that some parts are released right away or in some cases early. Sure enough, right their in the document it also clearly states that some parts of the code will be released "when it's ready".


  Doesn't sound like they are holding out on people, or backtracking from a previous agreement. I am right there with you when I say I want to dig into that monster and see just what they changed. I want to see the source be made into custom ROMs for my phone as well as other phones and tablets. But if the Android team is still writing the damn thing to run on phones I say let them write. I understand a working version has been released on a production device, so shouldn't Google drop the source? Maybe that is not a typical open source way to do things. Maybe Android is not your typical open source project. I truly believe given the nature of mobile and the world of telecommunications It's as open as it can be.

 For those who know me well already know I take nothing at face value and am usually very skeptical when a large corporation has an excuse for this or that. I want you to know that while there have been times I have questioned Google's actions, like the Google/Verizon net neutrality issue for example, I happen to know that of the world's corporations there is none who's business model ensures the wealth, prosperity and well being of the everybody like Google's. I also happen to be of the opinion that the unwritten motto of Google's: "Don't be Evil", is probably felt and upheld by most of it's employees. That being said, sure I would love to get my hands on some custom software built of the Honeycomb source. I also trust the Android team to release the source when it's ready. which is just what they promised to do.