No matter the manufacturer, every Android phone has one thing in common: its software base. Manufacturers can heavily customize the look and feel of the Android OS they ship on their Android devices, but under the hood, the core system functionality is derived from the same open-source foundation: the Android Open Source Project. After over 16 years, Google is making big changes to how it develops the open source version of Android in an effort to streamline its development.
Google confirmed to Android Authority that it is committed to publishing Android’s source code, so this change doesn’t mean that Android is becoming closed-source. The company will continue to publish the source code for new Android releases, so when Google releases Android 16 later this year, we’ll get the source code for the update. In addition, Google will continue to publish the source code for Android’s Linux kernel fork, as it is licensed under GPLv2, which mandates source code releases, and is separate from AOSP.
I could only hope this would make a good case for some EU-funded project for a fully open RISC 5 Linux phone.
The problem is software. The ecosystem of android is gigantic. Every business, big or small has an app.
Microsoft tried and failed. No users, no apps. No apps, no users.
Google actively worked against Microsoft and got what they wanted: no competition.
If you have Linux, you have waydroid. There can be a transition time, just like the Steam Deck is making clear the need of a windows computer for gaming is now irrelevant.
