Google is defragging Android
arstechnica.com
Google is defragging Android
1–10 of 221 posts
Re: Google is defragging Android
#2I think this is great for Android as a whole, users will be better served.
It does cut into the openness of Android though. Unless Amazon bends to Google's way of doing things a little bit their platform will stay even further behind, for instance.
Re: Google is defragging Android
#3[deleted]
Re: Google is defragging Android
#4[deleted]
Play Store Compatibility Lib has been around for a long time brah.
edit: since I'm rate limited, I'll reply to engrenage's other troll comment (where he's already whining about downvotes) after deleting this reply where he was also trolling.
"So you deleted one troll comment to write another? Wowow.
Google is still building out all of the OS components of Android as open source. The Play Service lib is about Android API backward compatibility and doing things, for example, that Apple already does, like aggregate location data for the whole system and then provide it to apps, saves on battery, etc. It really doesn't matter that much for anyone who wants to take Android and build on top of it's important pieces"
Re: Google is defragging Android
#5 defragmenting
defragging
Re: Google is defragging Android
#6Notably, Play services is totally closed. So Google has abandoned the open source part of Android and is now developing the operating system as a completely closed product.
Edit: downvotes don't change the truth of the observation. Android is no longer meaningfully open, other than a years old core of basic functions. Just like OSX and Darwin.
Re: Google is defragging Android
#7It'd be interesting to see how it pans out for OEMs that don't, for various reasons, bundle Play Framework/Services with their phones. This could be fixed by having the user install a GApps zip through recovery, but it'd be a pain to the average user. Also, are there, or will there be, any manufacturers forbidden to use the Play Store and its framework? It seems for the vast majority of people, this move is great, but for a tiny minority, i'm not so sure.
Re: Google is defragging Android
#8defragmenting defragging It's just 3 letters saved. Vote me down if you must.
Three letters, a syllable, and sounding better to the technical crowd who understands the jargon (and, if you're outside that technical crowd, you won't understand "defragmenting" any better).
Re: Google is defragging Android
#9It's worth noting how closely Android's apparent path going forward mirror's Apple's strategy with both OS X and iOS: closed end-user components built on top of an open source core. I guess Google's realized that "openness" isn't a meaningful market differentiator for the average consumer.
Re: Google is defragging Android
#10I think this is great for Android as a whole, users will be better served. It does cut into the openness of Android though. Unless Amazon bends to Google's way of doing things a little bit their platform will stay even further behind, for instance.
Indeed it makes an increasingly important part of Android closed. It would have been better to make all of the parts of Android OS that run in a Dalvik instance updatable - or something like that. Unfortunately that part of Android is effectively held hostage by OEM modifications.
It would be nice that if an OEM commits to limiting their modifications to, say, at worst, some privileged apps, that there would be a workflow from Google's OS development to the SoC makers' chipset support engineering, to the OEMs so that new versions could be continuously integrated and therefore delivered to each product shortly after release. That plus some kind of community support model for EOL'ed products would harness openness in the cause of timely updates and long-term support.