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Google Delays General Release of Honeycomb Source 262

iluvcapra writes "BusinessWeek reports that Google will not be releasing the source code for Android Honeycomb 'for the foreseeable future.' Android lead Andy Rubin is quoted, stating that if Google were to release the source for Honeycomb, Google would be unable to prevent it from being installed on mobile phones and 'creating a really bad user experience.'"
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Google Delays General Release of Honeycomb Source

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  • iOS their reason? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mlts ( 1038732 ) * on Thursday March 24, 2011 @06:40PM (#35605782)

    I can see two reasons for Google being leery of a source release:

    1: The patent drama going on in the cellphone world, with almost everyone suing each other. It is like watching The Departed, except with lawyers.

    2: iOS. Google is nervous about the June iPhone release, so is hedging bets to see which way to go after the iPhone 5 comes out.

  • by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Thursday March 24, 2011 @07:07PM (#35606126)

    The real answer is the code sucks. They rushed Honeycomb and want to be able to clean it up with the ice cream sandwich release.

  • Re:Easy fix? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Haedrian ( 1676506 ) on Thursday March 24, 2011 @07:08PM (#35606142)

    I'm pretty sure the 'someone wants to remove it from code' would be some cheap chinese company, and the people who would complain would be the consumers...

    Its not much of a solution is it...

  • by Daneurysm ( 732825 ) on Thursday March 24, 2011 @08:02PM (#35606736)
    It's almost comical seeing the conspiracy theories in some of these comments.

    While on one hand they are totally stretching their good will with the open source community which they benefit from, the most obvious reason is detailed in the submitters comments. Occam's razor, etc etc etc.

    As someone who spends much time hanging out on the XDA developer forums I can promise that the second that source gets released within hours every popular Android handset out there will have a ROM ready for flashing...There are rips from different model/brand/language/era/device type/etc available for deconstruction and flashing for nearly every Android device out there. Being the curious geek that I am I try nearly all of them (before going back to CM every time)...and most of them have just as wonky a user experience as can be expected.

    Seeing as how Honeycomb is intended primarily (or even exclusively) for tablets I'd imagine it's UI elements (among other things) are absolutely not going to be the best implementation available for 3-4" screens.

    While this is clearly not the best sign of good will towards the open source community, I'm sure the source will be out once something newer is out for the modders and developers to play with...Having the absolutely latest version (no matter how many points are in the version number) is like crack to some of these people. They forget all about Honeycomb with Ice Cream available...

    Seems more like a whole lot of people at Google never considered this until it was too late...hopefully this lights a fire under their asses to get Ice Cream out quicker to unify the platform.
  • by duranaki ( 776224 ) on Thursday March 24, 2011 @08:16PM (#35606854)
    I have it on my Nook Color and have been anxiously waiting for google to make good on the source release so it can actually get better. I'm very disappointed by this. You can't control the what people do with open source releases.. that's just how it is. I can't decide which is more annoying, them delaying the gingerbread release to my Nexus One for months so the Nexus S could look extra shiny, or them delaying honeycomb source so the Xoom and other pending tablets look extra shiny. I'm losing faith in google here. I can't decide if they are just too afraid manufacturers will jump ship if they don't get easier sales channels or if they are taking Apples rants against android a little too close to heart.
  • by exomondo ( 1725132 ) on Thursday March 24, 2011 @09:20PM (#35607280)

    I thought Android was supposed to be flexible? is this not the case?

    Clearly it is, they have been able to build different experience for a different device on that one OS.

    I thought Android was resolution independent, is this also not the case?

    Really are you just trolling or do you know nothing about the market? Have you seen how many android phones with different resolutions there are?

    if it's not and the UI API aren't up to snuff, then what's the change between 2.3 and 3.0 that's so different at the kernel and API level?

    No, the difference is that Google are taking a different approach to Apple. Apple are essentially using the same OS and the same experience on their phone and tablet so the only real difference is the size, Google are looking at the phone and tablet as separate experiences.

UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

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