Thread: Closed Source Packages in Maemo
View Single Post
allnameswereout's Avatar
allnameswereout is offline allnameswereout
2009-10-01 , 19:07
Posts: 3,397 | Thanked: 1,212 times | Joined on Jul 2008 @ Netherlands
#211
Originally Posted by korbé View Post
1 million.

The number of HTC G1 sold in U.S.A by T-Mobile.

Source [In French]

Yet it is equipped with Android, an OS that HTC's competitors can also install on their smartphones.

And this Android, except for some drivers and 4 applications softwares, are FOSS.

These 4 applications softwares proprietary are:
- gMail --> replaceable by a FOSS e-mail client.
- gTalk --> replaceable by a FOSS IM Client.
- Google Map --> require much work, but replaceable by a FOSS Map Software.
- Adroid Market --> replaceable by a package manager (ex: PackageKit) to provide FOSS softwares.

So we can say that the HTC G1 was sold with an OS almost pure FOSS to 1 million copies.

There are exist even "100% FOSS version" of Android.

If HTC can it, Nokia can it.

PS: Some people ask for an example with numbers, it is.
OK, so because you can replace Google Map with something free, you are happy. Now, you can replace Ovi Maps with Maemo Mapper. You can replace the Media Player with one of the many media players from extras/ repository. So what is your problem?

Can you not see Google does not open source these products for a similar reason as Nokia does not, can you actually not see 1) Google is much bigger than Nokia 2) Google earns money on its services and data mining which is much smaller for Nokia whereas Nokia sells end_product / hardware? 3) that the ethical question could be data mining versus closed source software?

The most popular custom Android mod got a cease & desist because it provided these proprietary Google applications while this is not allowed per license since written permission is necessary. If the open source alternatives would be better these proprietary applications would not have been included in the first place.

(Hmm and why does my spell checker accept Google with capital 'G' as word, but Nokia or Maemo with capital 'N' or 'M' not )
__________________
Goosfraba! All text written by allnameswereout is public domain unless stated otherwise. Thank you for sharing your output!
 

The Following User Says Thank You to allnameswereout For This Useful Post: