Google's open-source Android now actually open

Less than a year after announcing Android, the open-source phone operating system intended to jump-start the mobile Internet, Google began sharing the project's underlying source code.

Google opened the doors on its Android Open Source Project on Tuesday. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: CNET News)

The Android Open Source Project site includes a project list, a feature description, guides to the roles people can have in the project and how to contribute, and of course the Android source code itself.

Google has one team of programmers building the software and another professional services group to help support phone makers building Android phones. Now, though, as T-Mobile's G1 arrives on the market, Google hopes to multiply that by drawing upon the collective energy of outside contributors to the project.

"Our plan is a launching point for a much more vibrant open-source community," said Rich Miner, manager of Google's mobile platforms group. "For the past almost four years, this has been a large effort between Google and our partners. There have been a lot of people working on the code, but that's going to be multiplied by several orders of magnitude."

Open-source software can be freely used, modified, and redistributed by anyone, freedoms that make it a daunting competitor to proprietary software companies that charge for the code. Although open-source software rarely has been the sole basis for a thriving company, it can be a powerful tool to aid a broader agenda. Sophisticated technology companies such as IBM, Oracle, and even Apple often subsidize open-source projects for that reason, and Android fits into that category.

Android beyond the T-Mobile G1
Four members of the Open Handset Alliance, which co-developed the Android software, build mobile phones: HTC, which build the T-Mobile G1, as well as Motorola, LG Electronics, and Samsung. And another alliance member, Wind River Systems, believes Android will power consumer electronics devices including set-top boxes and in-car computing systems.

Now that Android is open-source software, though, other manufacturers may use it, and Miner said they will. Indeed, Wind River said Kyocera is building an Android phone.

"Think what happed to PC clones in the 1980s and 1990s timeframe. We're starting to see coming out of Taiwan the equivalent of a Micron motherboard," inexpensive mobile phone hardware that now can be made useful with Android, Miner said.

The HTC-built T-Mobile G1 is the first Android-powered phone.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)

This time, though, Microsoft Windows isn't going to be the operating system that spreads like wildfire, if Google has anything to do with it. "There are a billion mobile phones sold every year that don't have a good, highly connected mobile operating system," Miner said. Android is intended as an answer to that issue, and one that sidesteps the controls over software by rival operating systems such as Windows Mobile and Nokia's Symbian, he said.

"We feel fairly strongly, and it's resonating loudly through the industry, that innovation is maximized when no one entity controls a platform," Miner said.

Adding open to open source
It's a maxim among open-source fans that projects that begin as open source fare better as such than those that begin as proprietary projects and are retrofitted with an open-source governance. For example, the Linux kernel project has thrived as an open-source project since its earliest days, with various different ways people or companies can involve themselves, but it took several painful years before the Mozilla open-source Netscape project finally became relevant in the form of Firefox.

And some open-source fans have criticized Google for being too closed with Android in its early stages. But Miner insists that Android, while initially developed in-house, is indeed a true open-source project.

"It was built with intention of open-sourcing it," Miner said, pointing specifically to project details such as its architecture, comments in the code, and the code's structure. "We decided we didn't need to build release 1.0 as open source...We engineered 1.0 as a best-in-class, fully staffed, engineered product. Having delivered that, we think it's time to start leveraging the benefits of what open source can bring.

The code is managed by the Android Open Source Project, and anyone contributing code to the project must sign a Contributor's License Agreement, Google said. The project is separate from Google, the company said, but it's not immediately clear just how independent.

Android ingredients
Android is big--with 11 million lines of code, about 8.6 million of them open-source according to an earlier interview with project leader Andy Rubin. But what's in Android exactly?

At the foundation is a stripped-down Linux kernel that communicates with a phone's hardware, and Android supports multiple phone processors. Much of the Android work, though, takes place one level above that.

On conventional computers, software runs directly on that operating system kernel. Android, though, includes a "virtual machine" software layer called Dalvik that runs applications written in the Java programming language. Dalvik isn't a part of the mainstream Java community built by Sun Microsystems, but it's very close from a programming perspective.

A host of built-in applications are available to run on Dalvik, including software for dialing the phone, using online maps, browsing the Web, using e-mail and Gmail, and managing contacts. In addition, Open Handset Alliance partners contributed software, including a speech-recognition engine from Nuance and audio and video decoder software from Packet Video.

With this flexibility, though, can comes chaos. Google said it will offer a compatibility test suite to ensure various versions of Android remain compatible.

One advantage of using this virtual machine technology is that Android programmers don't have to worry about what underlying hardware a phone uses. That's an important factor when it comes to sharing software, most notably through Google's Android Market download service, because programmers won't have build different versions of software for one phone processor or another, and people won't have to know this obscure information either.

However, Dalvik doesn't get around all the complexities of the computing world. For example, a game might require a touch screen, but not all Android phones necessarily will have that higher-end feature. For that reason, Google plans to build a profiling feature into the Android Market so users will be able to download only software appropriate for their model. With only one Android phone on the market until 2009, that complication is a moot point for now.

Updated 4 p.m. PDT to correct Miner's title.

[brettpweb]

this product is not cool...and if I was a betting man....which I am not(unless I am on the golf course) this product will have the same success as the Zune.

remember first impressions are important and if you have a crappy design, who is going to want it...come on google, if you are going to license your product at least make sure you guys sign with a company that can actually make good looking products or just don't make them at all.



we shall see.

[storm14k]

From scouring the web it appears that not everyone thinks the phone is all that ugly. I have seen hands on reviews that claim they were much better looking in person than they expected. Personally the phone looks fine to me and T-mobile has sold more than they expected so far. Other phone makers are already ramping up their Android offerings so apparently the form factor of this one didn't do much to harm the platform.

[maverick_nick]

Unfortunately asthetics is more subjective than objective, so referencing the opinions of others doesn't add much weight to an argument. Frankly, I think that the G1 is an unattractive phone, especially when compared to the iPhone, but my opion shouldn't matter to you. Will Android succeed? I wouldn't bet on it. The fact that the iPhone is selling so well is further proof that consumers value style and quality over price. Cheap isn't desirable, and I'm not just talking monetory.

[professionaladventurer]

Which phone maker is going to devote resources to an open source phone? Carriers want contracts, an open OS phone is the opposite of carrier stability,

[storm14k]

"Which phone maker is going to devote resources to an open source phone?"

HTC already has. Motorola is supposed to be releasing an Android phone in early 09. Samsung and LG are scheduled to release some in later 09. Theres nothing about this platform that stops a carrier from having an contract. However the cat is out of the bag thanks to T-mobile and HTC so carriers and phone makers are going to have to get with Android or present something equivalent or better to the consumer to keep up. Consumers so far seem to have taken interest in the phone.

[businesscontacts]

Sorry brettpweb and professionaladventurer, but the USA carrier lockdown does not apply all over the world. Most of the world can buy and HTC phone, a PALM phone, a SAMSUNG phone and not a Verizon, Sprint or ATT phone.

Android is the operating system, not the phone. If HTC made an ugly phone, it's just the outside. You will have the chance to choose from a zillion models soon.

[Kreuzer33]

Should be interesting to see. I'm not very excited about the product but so many others are.

http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/google-android-invasion/

[Seaspray0]

Open source has done better in nitches compared to mainstream computing. No, it's not the year of the linux desktop, but the linux kernel and the open source model has thrived when it comes to specific functionality (i.e. network appliances, virtual hosting, web servers). I can see this as one of those specific uses where it has a good potential to thrive and prosper. Perhaps it can become the year of the android phone. BTW, I would like to see the ability to sync email with a corporate email server as one of the apps.

[lokanadam]

why isn't google search engine algorithm open source ?

[maverick_nick]

I don't think much of Android, and I don't see open-source as a threat to proprietary software. Android is new but Linux based mobile operating systems have been around for a while. Proprietary software continues to prosper and in Apple's case, increasingly so. Phone manufacturers will build Android devices, but at the end of the day it comes down to how the marketplace receives it.

When it comes to mobile devices it seems like the consumer and business market is merging, and both will still look at Apple, Microsoft, and BlackBerry first. Symbian is now open-source as well, but remember that open source doesn't make much of a difference to the end user.