[SporkLover]

Originally Posted by jethro_static

Ok. I will tell U my point. U are telling people that U can take over an Android device (ex. G1)completely. I said no. Even thou that Android is opensource, U cannot take over it on a device. It is not linux on PC. The carrier have full control of android on ur phone. Android on phones is just as free as WM on ur phone. That's is the point.

No you cannot take over an entire Android device but you can do tweaking patching, modifying to a higher degree than any other device out there. Why... because the CORE OS code is open source. If you want to modify the telephony stacks or network stacks.... you can do it....You can modify any of that. Anything that is proprietary under the Apache License, that isn't open source, obviously you can't modify the code. Does HTC want you to do this? No. But their desire doesn't stop developers from doing so by rooting the device (equivalent of jailbreak).

My point was not that HTC or any phone manufacturer makes it easy for anyone to modify Android.... my point is that Android is open source, and for anyone with the resources you can take control of many points of the OS you can't with other mobile OS's. Again... there are those proprietary code pieces that aren't released... but then again I am talking about what Google made open source.

SDK is used by developers to create apps for the OS. SO when they release the Android SDK, ANybody that know how to program and understand the Android code can make an App and intall it. That's as far freedom that U can get.

Not sure what you are getting at...... was this ever in dispute? Thats quite a bit of Freedom still. My only point about the SDK, was that it's code was Close Sourced. Meaning the Open Handset Alliance controls it... you can't modify it.

If U are a company that has hardware. Only then U can completely overhaul Android, Make another version and slap it in ur hardware. Or Make ur own Android and find a company that will take ur new android version.

You don't have to be a company with hardware to overhaul Android. The Open Handset Alliance sells an Android Dev Phone that is unlocked and loaded with all of the open source Android code. $400 is what it takes.

U can still make ur own Android version. However, It will be very difficult to run it on a handset that is released by manufacturer.

No doubt, definitely hard. Part of the downside of the Apache license is that it allows folks to make proprietary code. So in the Open Handset Alliance, with Chip manufacturers, hardware makers, and carriers all in cahoots, they can collude together and build a phone and not make the inner workings of how the OS operates with new chip sets open source.

Are U saying, U can modify android and overhaul it completely and put it on any device that easy?

In short... yes and no. You can modify the open source android to your hearts desire. Put it on any device? No... if there is proprietary code with how the interacts with the hardware (proprietary drivers), then there really isn't anything you can do if you are trying to build a custom Android from the ground up. However.... if you have a phone like the G1.... you can modify the code for the open source pieces of the OS. You can write your own GUI. You can do alot... including installing a full PC distribution of Debian.

How much of all of this is your general user going to do. Probably not a whole lot... but for folks who like to tweak and get into that type of coding... they can do alot for general users.