I'm not sure I see the point of opening an Android release after it's developed. It defeats a primary benefit of open source software. And even then, on most models (HTC, Motorola), unless I'm willing to violate my warranty and root it or unlock the bootloader, I'm not able to actually use the source.
This whole "Android is open!" thing seems largely for marketing, not to actually promote any openness (unless you buy a Nexus phone, which is what I own, FWIW)
I'm not sure I see the point of opening an Android release after it's developed. It defeats a primary benefit of open source software.
Well, having the code released at all, is always better than not having it. The more code released to the world under a reasonable F/OSS license, the better, as far as I'm concerned. That said, you make a good point... Android isn't necessarily developed in the most open of fashions, despite the fact that the source itself is, technically, open source. :-(
And even then, on most models (HTC, Motorola), unless I'm willing to violate my warranty and root it or unlock the bootloader, I'm not able to actually use the source.
Nonetheless, you do have that choice. That's a fundamentally different scenario than with, say, a win7 phone or whatever, where you don't have access to the source at all. Plenty of people are willing to take the chance with the warranty situation in order to load custom versions of Android, so clearly this matters to some people.
> I'm not sure I see the point of opening an Android release after it's developed.
Why? I certainly see a point in having the source to the software running on devices being sold.
> It defeats a primary benefit of open source software.
The primary benefit is having the source, being able to modify it and to build upon it. No OSI compliant license grants you the right to immediate access to the latest commits by all developers.
> And even then, on most models (HTC, Motorola), unless I'm willing to violate my warranty and root it or unlock the bootloader, I'm not able to actually use the source.
The decision is yours. I voided my warranty and I am very happy with 2.3.4 on my phone.
> This whole "Android is open!" thing seems largely for marketing
Things like Cyanogen Mod wouldn't be possible without this "Android is open!" thing. If that's marketing, then I love it.
This whole "Android is open!" thing seems largely for marketing, not to actually promote any openness (unless you buy a Nexus phone, which is what I own, FWIW)