Linux on the bottom?

[SNESFAN]

^gotcha, that makes sense now. But in essence android (not derived works) is still open source and free (as in beer). Whereas ports of the same software aren't required to remain open. Chromium browser vs Chome browser is another example of foss and a closed source derivative work from a major contributor of the open source project. I can even understand why they do that for companies that want to skin the user experience above and beyond what's stock. The real badguys are the hardware OEMs that take advantage of the fact they don't have to re-release their code aside from the GPL'd kernel. Apache isn't the worse license to have though, especially when dealing with commercial software. But they aren't any worse than hardware vendors that only supply driver blobs. If you don't support the software, then don't support the hardware IMO.... anyway.

I feel that is completely different argument than when people are all up in arms against it, in general, and IMO a extremely weak argument to not support it (not yours, yours was informative and I now understand the difference and your opposition) but when I hear most people losing their mind over it, I don't think they really understand why they're angry, and it's only because part of their software is GPL and the other half is only apache but it's still FOSS.. well IMO anyway.

Not wanting to use software because of it's Apache license is fine, and I respect that, but comparing it to iOS saying it's only "slightly" better is the aggravating part when I'm sure they themselves don't understand what they're saying. If they were to just say "ANDROID? No, fuck Apache!" That would be a more understandable argument IMO than the garbage I'm hearing.

thanks for the clarificiation

 

[Asiyura]

Replicant project aims to build a fully functional and fully free Android.

I don't know if that can be called a "fork" of android, but that may be a good lead for what you have in mind, SNESFAN.

The main problem to make a completely FOSS replicant phone (mostly FOSS computers can be made, but they'll still contain micro-controllers with closed source firmware… like in your USB keyboard ) are the drivers and the bootloader. To use the modem, wifi, bluetooth, nfc, camera, gps, sometimes even the audio out and microphone parts, you'll need some binary blobs…

 

[_wb_]

I would prefer Android over iOS or Windows any day, and I'm perfectly fine with the Apache license. But I don't own a smartphone, I don't use my tablet (probably because it's an iPad), and for my laptops (a category that includes my Pandora), I prefer GNU/Linux OS.

 

[SNESFAN]

That's the first rational conversation I've had against android. I'm personally not in favor nor against specific software because of the type of open source license it holds. I could care less honestly. Ideally everything should be a GPL, software for the good of mankind. But as long as I can build it myself and tweak it myself from the maintainer, I'm happy.

However, in the end usability is what matters most and would take closed source software any day if it's the only thing that's available and works best. I think that's the sad truth about most people as well.

 

[comradekingu]

Ive used replicant for quite some time, and i had to load the firmware blob for my wifi manually since i couldn't get the open counterpart to work. Google, making specifications, owning motorola, deciding license etc, regrettably doesn't care much for me as a user. And with their choices, they made it so that I'm at the liberty of their choices.