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AOSP Maintainer Quits
In a post on Google+, Jean-Baptiste Quéru, long-time maintainer of the Android Open Source Project, has said he'll no longer be working on it. "There's no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can't boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support, especially when I'm getting the blame for something that I don't have authority to fix myself and that I had anticipated and escalated more than 6 months ahead." Quéru is referring to the recently-released Nexus 7 revision, for which Google has not provided factory images of Android 4.3. This seems to be because GPU maker Qualcomm is refusing to release the blobs necessary to boot the device.
The best way to solve this problem is for Google to announce that they will not to use any parts that don't include open source drivers. The blobs will be released real quick.
Lest anyone forget, or for lack of never knowing, that this reason is likely only the tip of the iceberg.
It's not to discount it as a significant factor, but anyone who's quit from a position knows it's not just one thing, usually, there are several - lack of pay/low pay, poor work structure, poor work environment, demeaning personalities, etc.
Getting endless gripes and complaints about lack of support for something as popular and 'open' as the Nexus 7 when they've got no ability to fix the situation - but should, by Google's own marketing claims - has got to be pretty disheartening on its own, but I'm certain it's not the only thing.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Up until this news, I was seriously considering buying one.
From AOSP's own site:
"Android is about freedom and choice. The purpose of Android is promote openness in the mobile world, and we don't believe it's possible to predict or dictate all the uses to which people will want to put our software. So, while we encourage everyone to make devices that are open and modifiable, we don't believe it is our place to force them to do so."
So why cry so hard when Qualcomm went with one of the choices you gave them?
Quitting AOSP doesn't solve the problem. It makes it worse.
What we can do, is start a campaign of "name and shame", that starts asking key questions of Qualcomm spokesdrones, why?
And here is the real bits that should concern people, I rather doubt there is anything all that special about the blobs of code needed, or even the underlying hardware. Further, given the Copyright and Patents that SHOULD be protecting the "intellectual property" of Qualcomm, there is NOT A SINGLE REASON to release the code.
Even if the Lawyers want to be involved, how about writing a waver for AOSP so they can include the blobs needed, or the APIs to code themselves what is needed (probably showing up the crappy programmers at Qualcomm) etc etc etc.
There are plenty of ways around this issue, but if Qualcomm won't play nice, then it is time to start playing hardball. Believe me, a very loud "name and shame" Campaign would work. Here is just a one suggestion.
1) Android Apps detect if the device is running a Qualcomm chip (of any kind) and simply puts a blurb up that says "Your device is using Qualcomm Chips. Qualcomm doesn't fully support Android Open Source Projects, so please consider as part of your next Android Phone/Device one that doesn't use Qualcomm chips. Thank you.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Just a reminder that the Replicant project is trying to make a completely free and open source version of the Android software stack, including the parts that interface with the hardware.
I've been in that whole situation myself. A developer anticipates and escalates problems many months in advance and is just ignored and dismissed of, but then when it all goes wrong as predicted, they still get blamed. Sucks, but it happens.
The GPU in Intel's upcoming Baytrail tablet SoC already has 100% GPL mainline Linux drivers in at least the 3.10 kernel... just sayin'
Interesting...so you assume that NSA's tracking software is part of the phone OS? I assumed that it would be easier to grab the traffic from the towers (or better yet, on the backbones that the towers tie in to. Either way, I think your best bet to not be monitored is to get rid of your phone(s) entirely. That's the direction that I'm going in...as soon as I have a job that doesn't require one, that is...
and realize that your geeky wet dream of fully open source OS on mobile phones is just that -- a dream.
Samsung, practically the only true major player behind Android, sells more phones to the dumb sheep than Apple does. They don't care about geeks a bit.
I'm not surprised that Qualcomm are being dicks about driver source(though I would assume that they have some haha-nominally-GPL-compliant shim for interacting with the Linux kernel, like Nvidia does); but the lack of a factory image seems very weird indeed.
Do they somehow think that anybody who wants to steal their precious secrets (and has the resources to actually be a threat), is going to be stopped by the need to buy a $200 consumer electronics widget and crack it open? If the device is shipping, the driver binaries and firmware blobs are shipping with it, in millions of units. They aren't going to stay secret long against anybody who cares.
And you think those are open sourced...? Have you even tried to install a rom on one of them? How do you even find which rom to use...?
Is there an upper limit to the number of times we can sarcastically quote "Open Always Wins!" after news articles like this one, before it stops being funny?
I know we haven't reached it yet, I'm just asking for information.
I guess it's time for the old piracy groups to step up and steal the factory images that the production house is flashing onto those devices.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Read between the lines.
Queru is gone. Rubin is gone. The Chromecast, whose original and main purpose was to get Android devices connected to external displays, ran Android in prototype builds but was released with Chrome OS. Look who runs the Android group now... The head of the Chrome OS group, who is still the head of the Chrome OS group.
I'd give it no more than 2 years before the Nexus & Motorola products are released with Chrome OS and Android is 3rd-party device only with all Google services removed.
Face it, Google just isn't getting what they wanted out of the platform.
Stop spreading that FUD. Companies were *forced* to provide data, with the possible exception of Microsoft from what I've read. If you want to stay out of PRISM, don't use any US services, including your ISPs.
And what alternatives can you suggest for sourcing phones and phone-like tablets that are more open.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Then you have a completely open stack, save the phone firmware (not a problem for tablets).
Without cellular data firmware, which I assume to be as closed as phone firmware, how does a tablet connect to the Internet while its user is riding a bus? The only workaround I can think of is an external hotspot device such as a MiFi.
...I like Android but not the Google pack on it (it tries to grab my data too often for Google and in the process grabs it for the NSA)
Fair enough. In which case, you can broaden your choice a bit by picking any device you like the look of and flashing it with CyanogenMod.
Or alternatively, you could root any other phone and replace/modify the hosts file to exclude all Google servers, just like you can on any other Linux box.
But personally, I'm not going to lose any sleep over Google's relationship with the NSA (ignoring for the moment the fact that I don't live in the US). Sure, the NSA's spying is obnoxious and unacceptable for heaps of reasons, but there's nothing you can do about it. The NSA doesn't *need* Google to track you. It has access to your pipes. You could (I suppose) run your own VPN and rent a terminating server in some country that doesn't take part in the intelligence network (if you can find and trust one) if you're that paranoid, but even that isn't bombproof.
I think the best way to neutralise the NSA would be for *everybody* to drop keywords into *every single* email, SMS, forum post, and crapflood their system:
Jihad, kill infidel, bomb Satan America, martyr for holy Islam, 72 virgins...
You get the picture. Now excuse me, I seem to have a couple of guys in suits banging on the do
NO CARRIER
a lot of apps in the Market rely on native ARM code
That's a problem only if A. these applications are written in assembly language (highly unlikely), or B. the publishers of major NDK applications have announced their refusal to build fat (ARM/x86) binaries.
Android is 3rd-party device only with all Google services removed
OH GOD, that would be sooo awesome. You actually got me exited with this thought.
Then perhaps you can "exit" the Google ecosystem by buying a Kindle Fire tablet.
Looking at the submissions lately for AOSP and finding out just how pissed off I am about recent events including this one, which just made my day.
Something to consider while you dine this evening:
1) Increasingly Handsets and anything that shows video is being locked out.
2) This post is just one example, but I can cite others if you can't google about the whole sickening GPU/DSP issues in the industry which just keep getting worse with everything that is LINUX.
3) The convergence in my mind, that it just so happens that governments are ape shit over knowing everything you do. Further, if I may point out, the huge contracts cellular providers are getting behind the scenes to make this happen from DARPA.
Which to me, makes me wonder if the idea of knowing exactly how the video and camera hardware work is something by design, is not something your local friendly cellular provider wants you to know.
Think of the hardware GPU/DSP on your phone as partitioned as sorta "that room" you never go into while working at your local friendly Time Warner NOC for example.
I mean, wouldn't it just be dandy if the DSP/GPU hardware is BLOB'ed and secret so that the NSA/CIA can turn it on any time, preferable in a manner other software on the phone knows nothing about.
Think about that next time you AOSP a compile and include those nice little BLOB's.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
I wouldn't say he assumes it. But we all KNOW it is possible. And that knowledge is bad enough. We all end up making decisions in life without knowing everything we need to know. But there are some things we do know. You know? At the moment, things which have been compromsed by the US government can't be fully trusted. It's just that simple.
"Would rate ZERO STARS if that was an option! App works, but pesters constantly about koala communist chippies or something. Super SUPER duper annoying. Use SomeOtherApp+ Free instead."
0 1 - just my two bits
I'm glad I still have my V3. Had it since 2003 and not once have I had any complaint to make about it!
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
piss the NSA off: use Huawei.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
You need to expand it a bit.
If you want to stay out of PRISM don't use or contact any US services, or services from the Five Eyes (FVEY - USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), or services provided by companies with US parents, or comms links routed through any of the FVEY allies.
Or, you can accept you're going to end up in PRISM somewhere and carry on using those companies and services feeding the data in, but with the knowledge that they will be passing on the info.