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RMS: 'Is Android Really Free Software?'
An anonymous reader points out an article by Richard Stallman in The Guardian which questions whether Android should be described as 'free' or 'open.' Quoting:
"Google has complied with the requirements of the GNU General Public License for Linux, but the Apache license on the rest of Android does not require source release. Google has said it will never publish the source code of Android 3.0 (aside from Linux), even though executables have been released to the public. Android 3.1 source code is also being withheld. Thus, Android 3, apart from Linux, is non-free software, pure and simple. ... Android is a major step towards an ethical, user-controlled, free-software portable phone, but there is a long way to go. Hackers are working on Replicant, but it's a big job to support a new phone model, and there remains the problem of the firmware. Even though the Android phones of today are considerably less bad than Apple or Windows smartphones, they cannot be said to respect your freedom."
You're right. Most people aren't ideologues and don't care whether something is open source or not, which is why the walled garden you dislike is so hugely successful compared to Android's approach, which seems to have only served as a platform for malware.
Because not all of us subscribe to the same utterly silly and completely incorrect definitions you and RMS like to use for the words 'free' and 'open'.
The fundamental basis of the whole idea as you put it, is fucking flawed by any normal persons definition. When you're solution to a problem (in this case lack of 'free' and 'open' software) is to do the exact opposite (attach a viral, rather restrictive license like GPL with severe limits built in), and preventing it from being exactly what you're claiming it should be ... well it kind of makes you look stupid.
Before you bother to argue with me, remember, I've already said we've clearly got different definitions for free and open, everything after that is irrelevant.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Wow. It's always sad to be reminded how ready people are to be ripped off for the sake of fashion.
which is totally what she said