It may not be 100% freedom, but they allow me to load apps from wherever I like, unlike Apple or Microsoft, and so I will continue to use them.<p>If there was a popular phone platform that was even more open, while providing the same levels of functionality, I'd be very tempted to give it a go.
More and more Anti-Android propaganda pops up since iOS' market share is nosediving.<p>If Android is not freedom what is iOS then? No inter app communication, no exchangeable launcher/lock screen/ keyboard, real multitasking came just since this fall, no real resolution independency, no nothing.
Whats the difference between Android/AOSP and RedHat/Linux, or nginx.com/nginx.org, or DataStax/Cassandra? I believe the Android platform itself is free, however the many components that Google provides that run on Google's backend aren't, and understandably so.
> but the idea that Android as we know it is open-source and the ultimate freedom is absurd.<p>Nobody claimed that Android was the ultimate freedom, but it's the most free mobile operating system that is successful in the market place.<p>Free software extremists like the author of that article can simply never be satisfied.
I don't know how someone types up the 1000th iteration of this article with no acknowledgement of the 999 times people have written it before now or of any of the responses or counterarguments anyone has made in response.
<a href="http://replicant.us/about/" rel="nofollow">http://replicant.us/about/</a><p>"Replicant is a fully free Android distribution running on several devices."
<i>"In the real world, if you want the best customer support, you're not likely to find it in the Android ecosystem. If you're looking for specific productivity apps like OmniFocus, you're not going to find it on Android. If you're looking for the best integration of Microsoft services, you won't find it on Android. So, how exactly is Android the "ultimate freedom"?"</i><p>Who needs RMS when this guy is on the case.
Android isn't the problem, Google is.<p>The problem begins with the installation of every android device when you're asked to register a Google account (same process with the Apple ID in iOS). [Sure enough you can use the phone without a Google account or an iOS account but your excluded from each ecosystem]. For me - as an iOS user - I got a much worse feeling using the Google ecosystem than Apple ones because of one simple fact:<p>Google can get much more value out of the data you're generating than Apple does using it to later 'enhance' your experience for all other Google services (Google Search, Gmail, etc.) showing ads. Knowing everything about my daily behavior ('When is the user active? Was does he do? Where is he? ...') will lead to a perfect profile to sell the right ads.<p>At Apple you at least got the change to opt-out even using the ecosystem of the unique ad identifier. Correct me if this is possible using a Google account on android as well.
one thing i like about Apple, despite being closed, old devices get software support, for example iPhone 4 released in 2010 and get the newest version of iOS.<p>i bought my Android device 2.5 years ago it has only get 2.3.5 , initially it was 2.3.3.
Google needs to start treating Android and Google Edition Android like Chromium and Chrome.<p>GE Android is Google's and they do whatever they want with it, and they control and update it just like they do with Chrome, but Android needs to become a little more open than it is (more like Chromium), and they need to actually keep develop it, just like they do with Chromium.<p>I'd actually prefer a more Google-dominated Android <i>ecosystem</i> than a Samsung or some other Android OEM one, and I'd prefer to see more <i>standardization</i> in the Android ecosystem for both hardware and software.<p>My only concern is NSA or the US government starting to demand of Google to spy all Android users through Play Services, or to be able to shut down their phones at will during protests. I just hope Google will not be that stupid to allow them without a fierce fight.<p>But I guess we'll deal with that when the day comes. Until then, yes, I want Google to get more control of Android and fix fragmentation.