alt Hacker NewsSo here's what I don't get. What's the point of this? Like, what is the downside to Google releasing the source to a version as they ship it?
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Aren't they legally obligated to release the source code of whatever GPL software they ship? ie the version shipped that is
This is driven by the EU forcing them to allow alternative payment methods in the Play Store.
They are trying to avoid it, but I doubt the EU will let this stand:
https://www.developer-tech.com/news/google-alters-play-store...
Android is open source partly because they can fund it from Play Store profits. Google is thinking that their Play Store profits are going to be cut, and they want to make the profit up elsewhere - and importantly, maintain control of the platform. This is their method.
They've already used this playbook in the past with Google Play Services, and even before that when they abandoned all the built-in open source apps (Email, Calendar, etc.).
I think eventually we will get to ... Ah this is too hard to open source at all... Come at us with GPL requests..
The only thing left as GPL is the Linux kernel.
And since Project Treble you wouldn't even get the drivers, because Android Linux is a pseudo-microkernel now, where drivers run in userspace and talk via Android IPC (Binder) with the kernel, enforced since Android 8.