Detailed description of features of the Android mobile phone service

Android includes a core library, which provides the majority of functions of the core library of JAVA programming language. Android mobile service is a brand new system, which is far from Linux, it is far away from Mac OS and Linux.

I have always looked forward to it, but the subsequent developments have changed my views. A few days ago, I wrote my concerns on wangzhi: "First, Android applications can only be developed in java. Secondly, Google adopts a comprehensive and overlord management method for Android, which is not the development method of other open-source software. Everything is decided by Google. Many of them are black boxes, which are unknown to the outside world ."

I did not think that after just two days, worries become a reality. Greg Kroah-Harman, the maintainer of Linux Kernel, announced that the Android code will be deleted from the Linux kernel code base. This means that the development team of Linux Kernel does not recognize the contribution of Android, and there is a conflict between the two.

After the announcement, the outside world was generally surprised and pity. It's hard to have such a popular open-source mobile phone system. We should work together and develop it together. Why do we need to fight in the dark? What are the contradictions that cause the Linux Kernel team to remove Android code?

Greg Kroah-Harman wrote a detailed article explaining this decision. Let's take a look at what he said and what kind of system Android is. Before that, you 'd better know who Greg Kroah-Harman is. He is the core developer of Linux Kernel.

Releases the stable software package. That is to say, every new version of Linux Kernel passes through his hands. In addition, he is responsible for the deployment of hardware drivers. His mobile phone Is HTC G1, Which is used every day. Therefore, he is absolutely qualified to discuss this issue. His views represent the Linux community's views on Android.

First, he pointed out that Android is different from other Linux distributions: Google only uses kernel, and nothing else is used ." This means that, compared with traditional Linux releases such as Ubuntu, Debian, and Redhat, only the underlying structure of the system is the same.

Other things are different in Android, especially the programming interfaces of programmers. Therefore, all Android applications must be rewritten, and existing Linux programs cannot be transplanted. Therefore, in a strict sense, Android is a brand new system, which is far away from Linux than Mac OS and Linux.

The key lies in the difference between the Kernel and Android licenses. The former is the GPL License, and the latter is the Apache Software License (ASL) License. The GPL license stipulates that any modification to the source code must be open-source, so Android is open-source because it modifies the Kernel.

The ASL license stipulates that the source code can be used at will without open source. Therefore, hardware drivers and applications built on Android can be kept closed. To get support from more vendors, Google intentionally chooses to do so and specifically modifies the Kernel so that some functions originally included in the kernel are transferred to the userspace, therefore, we can avoid open source.

People have the right to question whether the philosophy of Android is correct? Does it comply with Google's "Do not do evil" slogan? If Android continues to be closed like this, why should the open-source community make software for it for free? Because I am not serving the open-source community, but Google. In this case, it would be better to support the iPhone, at least to sell a little more money in the software store, and Steve Jobs looks cool.