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A comment on Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes Honeycomb too. Parent comment

Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by pingswept on Monday November 14, 2011 @09:31PM (#3236707)
Yeah, I see your point. But I think it would be lame for me to make fun of them for a year (or however long Honeycomb has existed in closed-source form) and then not at least acknowledge that they did finally release the source. I said "well done," but maybe "at least you're in compliance with the GPL" would be more appropriate.
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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by ubernostrum on Monday November 14, 2011 @09:32PM (#3236711)
"Well done, you've put in the bare minimum amount of effort required to still get away with the open-source moniker" is not particularly flattering...
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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by pingswept on Monday November 14, 2011 @09:40PM (#3236731)
You are correct. That is approximately my feeling about the situation, but, like giving a dog a treat when it behaves well, I think it's good to praise companies for behaving adequately because I think it increases the chances that they will keep doing it.

You hear that, diBona? Keep releasing the code!

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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by orangecat on Monday November 14, 2011 @09:38PM (#3236728)
They've always been in compliance with the GPL; the Honeycomb kernel sources were always available.
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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by pingswept on Monday November 14, 2011 @09:43PM (#3236737)
I hadn't heard that. Is that verifiable by any means at this point?

It still doesn't justify the "open source" moniker, but it's still good.

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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by wmf on Monday November 14, 2011 @10:14PM (#3236843)
The kernel source was at http://android.git.kernel.org/ but that server was subsequently destroyed in an unrelated incident and at this point you'd need a time machine to verify that it was really there and hasn't just been backdated, but yeah, it was available.
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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by dtparr on Monday November 14, 2011 @11:53PM (#3237087)
I suppose they could have backdated google groups, but here is JBQ's announcement of the 3.2 GPL's parts being released in July. http://groups.google.com/group/android-building/msg/6410b447...

And here's a thread discussing building the 3.1 GPL'd code in May. http://groups.google.com/group/android-building/browse_threa...

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Re:Google releases full Android 4.0.1 source code, includes ... by pingswept on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @07:37AM (#3238013)
Thanks for the links; they're convincing. I'm surprised that Google hasn't made their GPL compliance here more prominent. It's something I've heard criticized, but it sounds like the criticisms are illegitimate.
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