>-If you look at Android from the view point of the end user or the >hacker, it's quite closed. DRM, binary drivers, and the mobile >operators occasionally blocking tethering applications.
>However, independent application developers with valid business models >love Android. Their applications aren't tied to a proprietary >operating system. There have been reports that it's even possible to >remove Google from the ecosystem, should they ever become evil. TBH I think that hackers (as in open-source developers) can do quite a bit with Android too, as is evidenced by the large number of OSM applications available for it - as long as, presumably, they don't have to do anything too low-level. I myself intend to do some hacking with it and it looks like it will allow me to do what I want to do. I don't think a "valid business model" is needed. Compared with the ridiculously closed model of the iPhone, far, far more closed than desktop Windows ever was, Android is very open by comparison. Nick _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
