Slashdot Mirror
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."
That is funny. I'm in the Midwest and I use T-Mobile. There service works for me wherever I go in the Midwest. There service is as good or better than AT&T or Verizon in my experience. Although cellular companies much like cable companies and telcoms all seem to suffer from group mediocrity.
Honestly, I thought T-mobile was a plus. They seem to be a little less prone to some of the anti-consumer schemes common among providers. They'll even unlock your phone after 90 days if your account remains in good standing. The G1 data plan cost was about what I otherwise saved switching over all my lines from Verizon. They also don't try to hit you with per-MB fees if you go over some cap and you don't need some expensive plan to do this.
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.
--
make install -not war
Sprint has Android phones on the way. http://phandroid.com/2009/02/20/sprint-android-coming-ceo-reassures/
There still seems to be a serious lack of Blackberry love from Android.
Android hasn't gotten its emotion chip yet.
Now, why it would need an old CPU from a Playstation 2 to understand love is beyond me, but I guess that's just how it works...
Bow-ties are cool.
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.