Google's Android work far from finished"Open" is relativeFor example, what basic applications will handset makers be required to include to call it an Android phone? "(We'll do) what worked well in the early days of PC cloning, we'll all pick a subset of applications that are good challenging applications" as requirements for shipping an Android phone, Miner said. But, the final decisions have not been made on which applications will make the cut.Different handset makers, carriers, and chipmakers have different ideas about how Android phones should look, feel, and work. Everyone wants something that's easy to implement, but that lets them develop their own identity. Few companies in this industry really wants to be another HP/Dell/Acer clone maker, beholden to Google for incremental advances in features, capabilities, and presentation. That's part of the reason why Android's open-source plans have attracted attention. AT&T, previously an Android holdout, is now showing signs that it might be interested in Android because the carrier can tweak Android to favor its services, according to AT&T Wireless President Ralph de la Vega. It's not clear exactly how AT&T might do that, but his comments raise some questions. If, say, a music player running on an Android AT&T phone can only access AT&T's cellular network, or an AT&T-only music service, that application might not work with a Sprint phone. So, might Google then decide to include a standard media player with Android that prohibits that kind of exclusion? In a way, that's open, since it's preventing AT&T from using its position as the largest carrier in the US from locking developers into its network. But in another way, it's not open, since Google would be placing limits on what its partners could do with Android. There are other questions about the level of Google's participation in the open-source community. The company will release Android under the Apache 2.0 software license after the first phone is released to the public, Miner said. 
Google will open-source just about all of Android's components under the Apache 2.0 license. (Credit: Open Handset Alliance) That means that Google-developed pieces, like its Dalvik virtual machine, will be free for use by any developer. But Google has also made changes to dozens of existing open-source projects. And all of those changes might not be appropriate for those projects, creating "forks" that Google will have to maintain. In the same discussion thread, Jean-Baptiste Queru, another Google engineer, acknowledges that a lot of the pieces of Android might not be useful for the rest of the community. "I fully expect some of our changes to be fundamentally specific to Android, and fully expect that we will decide that we prefer Android to have those changes while the code maintainers upstream would rather not have those changes in their code," Queru wrote. This isn't unusual, but it will be harder for Google to create a vibrant open-source community around Android if developers aren't interested in Google's code. Google also seems to be leaving the exact details of its open-source strategy until later, which is a bit unusual. "Our plan is that once we reach version 1.0, we will turn our attention to the squishier issues of releasing source," Morill wrote. It's getting close to crunch time for Google's Android. To borrow a sports analogy, they're in the third quarter; plenty of time left, but it's time to develop a sense of urgency and figure out a plan for the current situation. Google wants Android to be an open-source project so that it can marshall the open-source community's ideas and let its partners put their own stamp on the software. But it must also prevent Android from turning into a "25 operating systems for 25 carriers" mess of incompatible fiefdoms that defeats the very purpose behind Android's creation. Its trump card might be that Android, and the Open Handset Alliance, are not the U.N. This is not a democratic process; Google is the final authority on anything discussed within the OHA, Miner said. "That's the difference between a standards body and an engineering team." After all, it's Google first mobile operating system. You always remember your first one. Via "One More Thing" blog on CNET News.com
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