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A comment on Android AOSP maintainer quits. Parent comment

Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by ajross on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @02:46PM (#6174783)
Sure. And the community projects use them, often via complicated scripting to pull them off of existing devices, or just a "gray market" where people share blobs directly or just throw them up on servers without worrying about it.

But what Google needs is a license to redistribute this software in a form where it can be used by an AOSP build, not just as part of a finished device. Apparently the couldn't get it.

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Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by wmf on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @02:59PM (#6174874)
So it's a repeat of the OLPC Marvell issue, starting negotiations after the deal is done.
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Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by cjbprime on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @04:20PM (#6175342)
Do you mean the redistributable Marvell wifi firmware? That permission came through pretty quickly, unrelated to Theo deRaadt's weird flame. It just took time, but still happened before production of the laptop started. As I recall, there was never any disagreement between Marvell and OLPC about whether it ought to happen.

(I was working at OLPC at the time.)

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Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by wmf on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @04:53PM (#6175545)
IIRC there was some documentation or firmware source that OLPC only asked for after they committed to use the Marvell chip and thus had no leverage.
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Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by voltagex_ on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @06:54PM (#6176224)
The various libertas blobs, right? These affected development for the Guruplug/Dreamplug (maybe the Tonido), too.
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Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by speeder on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @03:26PM (#6175038)
Can you tell me the story or provide links for that?

I make apps for children and I would very much appreciate information on the subject of OLPC and Marvell

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Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits by noonat on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @03:37PM (#6175089)
I am not familiar with this issue myself, but this appears to be a decent summary of it: http://www.cmosnetworks.com/OLPC-MarvellIssue-MyWriteUpOfThe...
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