Open Android

Marko Gargenta marakana.com

Open Android What it means to be open and why you

would care

Slides, Video, etc.

http://mrkn.co/f/375

About Marko Gargenta

Developer of Android Bootcamp for Marakana.

Instructor for 1,000s of developers on Android at Qualcomm, Cisco, Motorola, DoD and other great orgs.

Author of Learning Android published by O’Reilly.

Speaker at OSCON (3x), ACM, IEEE, SDC, AnDevCon.

Co-Founder of SFAndroid.org

Co-Chair of Android Open conference: AndroidOpen.com

Agenda

•  Android Then & Now •  Android Stack •  The Meaning of Open

•  Open Source •  Open Standards •  Community Leadership

•  What Does This Mean to You? •  Summary

ANDROID THEN & NOW

History and Possible Future

2005 Google buys Android, Inc. Work on Dalvik starts

2007 Open Handset Alliance announced Early SoRware Development Kit

2008-‐2010 Android becomes the dominant mobile plaWorm

2011 Games, Tablets, TVs

Future? Beyond phones

Vision for Android

Our goal is not just a single device. Our vision is a mobile platform that runs on many many different devices.

– Eric Schmidt

ANDROID STACK

The Stack

Linux Kernel

Libraries

Application Framework

Applications

Home Contacts Phone Browser Other

Activity Manager

Window Manager

ContentProviders

View System

PackageManager

TelephonyManager

Resource Manager

LocationManager

NotiicationManager

Surface Manager

OpenGL

SGL

Media Framework

FreeType

SSL

SQLite

WebKit

libc

Android Runtime

Core Libs

Dalvik VM

DisplayDriver

KeypadDriver

CameraDriver

WiFiDriver

FlashDriver

AudioDriver

BinderDriver

PowerMgmt

Linux Kernel

Android runs on top of Linux.

Linux provides: Hardware abstraction layer Memory management Process management Networking

Key reasons for Linux: It’s secure It’s portable It’s open source

Linux Kernel

Libraries


Applications


Activity Manager

Window Manager

ContentProviders

View System

PackageManager

TelephonyManager

Resource Manager

LocationManager

NotiicationManager

Surface Manager

OpenGL

SGL

Media Framework

FreeType

SSL

SQLite

WebKit

libc

Android Runtime

Core Libs

Dalvik VM

DisplayDriver

KeypadDriver

CameraDriver

WiFiDriver

FlashDriver

AudioDriver

BinderDriver

PowerMgmt

Android™ Stack

NaZve Libraries

Pieces borrowed from other open source projects:

Bionic, a super fast and small license-friendly libc library optimized for Android

HAL in userspace

WebKit library for fast HTML rendering

Media codecs offer support for major audio/video codecs

SQLite database

Much more…

Linux Kernel

Libraries


Applications


Activity Manager

Window Manager

ContentProviders

View System

PackageManager

TelephonyManager

Resource Manager

LocationManager

NotiicationManager

Surface Manager

OpenGL

SGL

Media Framework

FreeType

SSL

SQLite

WebKit

libc

Android Runtime

Core Libs

Dalvik VM

DisplayDriver

KeypadDriver

CameraDriver

WiFiDriver

FlashDriver

AudioDriver

BinderDriver

PowerMgmt

Dalvik

Dalvik VM is Android implementation of Java VM

Dalvik is optimized for mobile devices: •  Battery consumption •  CPU capabilities

Key Dalvik differences: •  Register-based versus stack-based VM •  Dalvik runs .dex files •  More efficient and compact implementation •  Different set of Java libraries than JDK

ApplicaZon Framework

The rich set of system services wrapped in an intuitive Java API.

Location, web, telephony, WiFi, Bluetooth, notifications, media, camera, just to name a few.

Application Framework makes it easy to develop for Android.

ApplicaZons Many apps…

… as well as markets.

Android and Java

Based on Apache Harmony Java and Dalvik VM, Android’s Java is as open as it

gets. Although Oracle disagrees.

THE MEANING OF OPEN

Open Source IniZaZve •  Free redistribuZon •  Source code •  Derived works •  Integrity of author’s source code •  No discriminaZon against person or groups •  No discriminaZon against field of endeavor •  DistribuZon of license •  License not specific to product •  License must not restrict other soRware •  License must be technology neutral

Andy Rubin: DefiniZon of Open

Meaning of Open, Jonathan Rosenberg

•  Open Technology – Open standards – Open source

•  Open InformaZon – Valuable to users – Transparent about informaZon

– Control: user is in control •  Open systems win

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/meaning-of-open.html

Open Android, according to Marko

Open means:!

⸰  Open Source!

⸰  Open Standards!

⸰  Community Leadership!

OPEN SOURCE

Open Source Licenses

http://opensource.org/licenses/

Openness of The Stack

Open, Apache 2

Open, Apache 2

Open, various licenses Dalvik is open, Apache 2

Mostly proprietary or (L)GPL

What about Honeycomb?

“Our approach remains unchanged: there are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs. There are not, and never have been, any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture. … As soon as this work is completed, we’ll publish the code. This temporary delay does not represent a change in strategy. We remain firmly committed to providing Android as an open source platform across many device types.”

- Andy Rubin

No source for Honeycomb. But this seems to be an exception.

Android and Linux

Android's kernel is separate fork of Linux Linux community rejected Google's changes

Linux changes still point of contention

OPEN STANDARDS

Android and Open Standards

•  Use open standards where possible •  Leave slots where proprietary is beaer •  Create new standards where needed

Example: Media Support

Audio AAC LC/LTP, HE-‐AACv1 (AAC+), HE-‐AACv2, AMR-‐NB, AMR-‐WB, MP3, MIDI, RTTTL/RTX, Ogg, PCM/WAVE

Video H.263, H.264, MPEG-‐4, VP8

Image JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP

Missing many codecs and native support.

Expansion available via Khronos OpenMax IL

Example: VPN Support

Support for VPN built-in: PPTP, L2TP, L2TP/IPSec PSK VPN, L2TP/IPsec CRT VPN

But missing key enterprise VPNs, such as Cisco and Juniper.

Solution via Raccoon “expansion slot”.

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

Open Handset Alliance

From 34 to 80+ members

Includes OEMs, chip vendors, operators, software companies.

Still learning to work together.

Private Roadmap

Not a public roadmap. Community input is observed, but no promises are made.

This represents a problem for OEMs planning future device releases.

Bear Hugging

Favorite OEM for each release.

For G1/Dev1, Nexus One: HTC For Nexus S: Samsung For Xoom: Motorola

Different terms for different OEMs?

“We’re more like Apple than Microsoft” – Andy Rubin

CompaZbility Test Suite

Android Compatibility Test Suite:

Defines “Android Compatible” Prevents incompatible releases Provides self testing

Good for users. Good for developers. For Google, a leverage over OEMs. But also a crystal ball into Android’s roadmap.

Google’s MoZvaZon Google makes money in advertising and wants a level playing field for the mobile market.

“Android money comes from mobile ads” - Google

Additional revenue (or leverage) from Market, Maps, Phone, Music, Backup, and other services.

Castles and Moats

“In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable ‘moats’” - Warren Buffet

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU?

As User

I can extensively customize the device.!I can make it “all about me”.!I can even change the flavor of Android.!

As Developer

My app will run on any Android device, regardless of manufacturer.!I can see ins and outs of the platform source code and learn from studying the default apps.!My market is huge.!

As Manufacturer

I get a fully featured OS for free and can innovate at a higher level.

I may not get the latest code. Nor know what’s coming out next. I may be months behind competitors. Ugh!

As Carrier Users love Android!!It’s an alternative to iPhone.!Got many OEMs and devices to choose from.

Who exactly is to support it?!Can’t lock down the device – and my enterprise customers what that!

As Enterprise Many productivity apps.!Users have their own phones already.

How do we lock it down?!How do I create custom ROM?!Personals phones inside the company??

Overall •  Open Source: ★★★

•  Most of code is open sourced, but not all

•  OEMs sZll keep drivers and extensions private

•  Open Standards: ★★★★ • Whenever license permits, open standards are used

•  Community Leadership: ★★ •  Lack of public roadmap •  No early access to code for all

References & AaribuZons •  The meaning of open by Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior VP, Product Management, Google

hap://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/meaning-‐of-‐open.html

•  Android May Be The Greatest Legal DestrucZon Of Wealth In History by Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital hap://www.cadabrapress.com/?p=3904

•  Warren Buffea on castles and moats hap://37signals.com/svn/posts/333-‐warren-‐buffea-‐on-‐castles-‐and-‐moats

•  The Freight Train That Is Android by Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital hap://abovethecrowd.com/2011/03/24/freight-‐train-‐that-‐is-‐android/

•  Less Than Free by Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital hap://bit.ly/pgyubk

•  Is Android Open? by Scoa Gilbertson, Wired hap://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/is-‐android-‐open/

•  The Open Source DefiniZon hap://www.opensource.org/docs/osd

•  How "Open" is Android Really? hap://www.tequilabomb.com/shotglass/2010/05/07/how-‐open-‐is-‐android-‐really/

•  Open Source Licenses hap://digiZzor.com/2011/05/04/free-‐soRware-‐licenses/

•  Android (operaZng system) at Wikipedia hap://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operaZng_system)

•  How Google controls Android: digging deep into the Skyhook filings hap://thisismynext.com/2011/05/12/google-‐android-‐skyhook-‐lawsuit-‐motorola-‐samsung/

Summary Big parts of Android stack are open, but not everything is for a developer wanting to release new version of Android OS an an actual device.

Android is not a typical open source project due to lack of community leadership.

Marko Gargenta, Marakana.com @MarkoGargenta [email protected] +1-415-647-7000

Slides/video/etc: http://mrkn.co/f/375