And then there was Android, and the world was opened

[Jedakiah]

Android will actually be 100% open.

That is good news indeed.  Since my current celly works but blows chunks I'm debating waiting for a CDMA Android before upgrading.  Have you heard any news of when manufacturers will release them?

[Latro]

My guess is "always next Tuesday"

These Open projects often go on for years before the reach the "commercial" world.

I mean what.. it's only taken Wine like 15 years to get to version 1.0

[Mongoose]

Yeah, but everybody knows you gotta let wine age just right.  But with androids what's the worst that could happen from skipping a few of the testing phases.

[Jedakiah]

Yeah, but everybody knows you gotta let wine age just right.  But with androids what's the worst that could happen from skipping a few of the testing phases.

The answer

[Jedakiah]

My guess is "always next Tuesday"

These Open projects often go on for years before the reach the "commercial" world.

I mean what.. it's only taken Wine like 15 years to get to version 1.0

Android has been going on for years.  It existed before Google bought it. 

Open source should take less time to develop than closed because more people can work on it and bug testing is a shorter phase.  However a hobby venture (like wine) takes longer than a commercial venture (like Adobe or Android). 

Wine's time line is pretty sad.  But even still Wine has been a useful and far superior product to most commercial releases. 

[Labyrinthine]

My guess is "always next Tuesday"

These Open projects often go on for years before the reach the "commercial" world.

I mean what.. it's only taken Wine like 15 years to get to version 1.0

Android has been going on for years.  It existed before Google bought it. 

Open source should take less time to develop than closed because more people can work on it and bug testing is a shorter phase.  However a hobby venture (like wine) takes longer than a commercial venture (like Adobe or Android). 

Wine's time line is pretty sad.  But even still Wine has been a useful and far superior product to most commercial releases. 

Neither are apple products, though.

[Latro]

The problem here is going to be support.

If anyone can develop applications for it... Say one of them cause the OS to crash consistently... Is the cell phone provider going to pay for the support?   Maybe.  Of course, if they implemented some kind of control over application distribution they may be more inclined to support the product. 

I'm all for Android.  I hope it works great and causes increase competition in the cell phone market.  Since Google is backing it with their money I'm sure it will develop to a usable point.  The question is how are they going to decide who is responsible for supporting it.

[jake]

The same people who are responsible for supporting all other open source products...

The community.  Everyone who uses it.

There does, however, need to be some foolproof way to reset it back to a complete default in the event of a big problem.  Much like a reformat.

[Mongoose]

I agree with jake, the support for linux is actually quite good and being ascurred that some 3rd party app is not a good reason to lock your platform down *cough iPhone*.  I'd buy this phone and if I crashed it I'd hit the net and find lots of people smarter than me willing to help, even if I'm not paying for some extended support plan.

[Jedakiah]

The question is how are they going to decide who is responsible for supporting it.

Truth.  I'm all for community support.  But, even a well asked question will sometimes go unanswered, and that is annoying. 

I was just excited that Google announced the platform will be 100% open.  Up until now a small part was not that had everybody worried.  But it's probable Google was still developing that part.