Android Gathers Steam Among Open Source Developers

svonkie writes "Despite launching on the T-Mobile G1 with little mainstream fanfare, Google Inc.'s Android OS appears to have gained strong interest in the open source development community. According to a survey of Black Duck Software's Knowledge Base, Apple Inc.'s iPhone led the industry with 266 open source project releases during 2008, while Android followed in second place with 191 releases. Black Duck compiled the data after scouring through over 185,000 of open source projects across 4,000 Internet sites."

Comments

Android X Now Runnnig

[Doc Ruby]

As reported this week on Slashdot, some hackers have got X desktops (Gnome, KDE, LXDE, IceWM), "All Working On Android".

If I can have an Android "phone" and seamlessly use "Android" apps alongside Linux apps (and use a Debian-style APT for installation/maintenance), I've got the first real 21st Century platform.

If someone hooks up Android with X features that let me "grab" my session from a desktop (or other PC with a big display), keep using it (but scaled/arranged for Android) as I leave with my "phone", then pop it over to a nearby PC (scaled back up) intact, I've finally got "mobile computing". If my VoIP phonecalls remain intact throughout the transfer, the "computer" will eventually disappear unnoticed, with only me and my "computing" session really mattering. We're going to have to come up with new words for these things, once they're just our constant virtualized telecoms companion.

Re:Android X Now Runnnig

[StikyPad]

What he's saying isn't far fetched, it's just not well thought out. Why would I want a miniature version of my word processor or video editor open on my phone? I don't want a "session" that follows me around everywhere I go. I want my work computer to be my work computer, my phone to be my phone, and my laptop to be my laptop. I want a bike OR a motorcycle, not a bloody moped.

Granted, for people who do a small set of things (e-mail, web browsing, and IM) the "session" paradigm is fine. But those people are already well served by existing devices, especially for email and IM. There are already online bookmarking services, so you can bookmark a page from one browser and open it from another. No, the crazy talk about using "sessions" that they were typing into the post box of Slashdot won't follow them when they have to suddenly go to the store to get some more crazy pills, but is the solution to that really a portable session for *everything*? It would be easy enough for websites to implement a GMail-like procedure of autosaving drafts.

For everyone else.. "I want my terminal windows and browser to follow me, but not gimp or my VM. Unless I have a bank or intranet webpage open, then I don't want those pages to follow me, but I don't want to lose them when I bring my session "back" to the desktop either. I want documents and pictures to transfer automatically, unless they were pictures of my boyfriend plowing me or documents that are confidential." Do you blacklist apps and whitelist data? What apps should be processed locally, and which should just be displayed locally? By the time you get done sorting out all the exceptions, you're basically back to the existing model: software is local, and data is portable. The "session paradigm" is just doing it the hard way.

Little mainstream fanfare?

[M-RES]

"Despite launching on the T-Mobile G1 with little mainstream fanfare..."

Waddyamean little mainstream fanfare? Big coverage by the BBC on TV and Radio news (and news website) on it's launch as the 'iPhone killer'

Developer-friendly Verizon phone?

[RevWaldo]

(USA-centric post)

I've been using my trusty StarTAC on Verizon for many a year now (motto: if it's still working, keep using it) but now I want to take the plunge into mobile development. Does Verizon support any platforms that have geek cred i.e. open source, large developer base, few restrictions, decent tools, goddamn-this-is-a-great-phone etc. etc. Verizon's network has been 5x5 in my experience so I'm reluctant to switch. ("Perhaps the other networks are just as good, we don't know. Frankly, we don't want to know.") But it seems its reluctant to let any of the cool kids hang out there.

Re:Google needs more US Providers

[gad_zuki!]

Thats great, but when? Im very hesistant to switch to t-mobile. Years ago I had the original sidekick and found their coverage to be lacking, at least here in Chicago. I also have a minute/data deal with Sprint that no other carrier can come close to. Its incredible what AT&T and TMobile want for data nowadays.

Im probably just going to wait it out and get the G2 on Sprint, but its a real shame the industry has moved so slowly on android. I understand that the product was released prematurely. Hopefully the G2 will be full featured and stable.

Re:No mainstream fanfare because the G1 is not goo

[Synn]

I owned the iPhone for a year and now the G1 for a couple of months, the G1 is comparable to the iPhone as far as being "good".

The battery life is worse, but the battery life doesn't drain in 7 hours of standby either.

The GUI is fine. Very intuitive, doesn't crash. I like the visual front phone LED that flashes on notifications as well as the notification top bar in the GUI interface. Works very well.

PF Voicemail is a great visual voicemail app.

The Marketplace lets you return apps within 24 hours for a full refund if you don't like them.

Google Apps integration is heads above what's available on the iPhone. I update my calendar and contacts on the web, it pushes to my phone. I never need to sync with a desktop.

The SD card is upgradeable. 16 gig ones cost, what, 50 bucks?

And the mini-USB slot looks like is going to be the standard on phones now for everything.

That doesn't mean the phone doesn't need some polish. I really think the new ones coming out will be more to be excited about. But the G1 is a solid product.

The other problem with Nokias is...

[jonwil]

That the US carriers often seem to cripple the phones. Nokia have phones that are available in Europe and elsewhere but when they come to the US, the carriers have made them remove/disable features (front facing cameras for video calls since the US carriers seem to hate video calls for some reason, GPS functionality because US carriers want to charge thru the nose for navigation, WiFi etc) either because the carriers dont like those features or possibly (as in the case of removing actual hardware) because removing the feature lowers the cost of the phone.