[OSM-talk] What phones do OSMers have?

Nick Whitelegg Nick.Whitelegg at solent.ac.uk
Wed Jan 5 10:38:46 GMT 2011


>-If you look at Android from the view point of the end user or the
>hacker, it's quite closed. DRM, binary drivers, and the mobile
>operators occasionally blocking tethering applications.

>However, independent application developers with valid business models
>love Android. Their applications aren't tied to a proprietary
>operating system. There have been reports that it's even possible to
>remove Google from the ecosystem, should they ever become evil.

TBH I think that hackers (as in open-source developers) can do quite a bit with Android too, as is evidenced by the large number of OSM applications available for it - as long as, presumably, they don't have to do anything too low-level. I myself intend to do some hacking with it and it looks like it will allow me to do what I want to do. I don't think a "valid business model" is needed. Compared with the ridiculously closed model of the iPhone, far, far more closed than desktop Windows ever was, Android is very open by comparison.

Nick


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