Don't Be Evil

By Timothy R Butler | Posted at 1:32 AM

Over on Engadget, Vlad Savov writes:

Dump the X10s and 2Xs from the portfolio of real Android devices — and Google can do that by denying them access to its non-open source products like Gmail, Maps, and the all-important Android Market — and give us some respite from having to worry if the next Android will be a rampant robot or a dithering dud. Custom skins can still live on, but it's high time Google lived up to its responsibility of ensuring they're up to scratch before associating its mobile brand with their final product. Such a move may dent the company's valuable reputation as a do-gooder, but if it helps the even more valuable Android OS keep its course toward world domination, surely it'd qualify to be called a good thing in and of itself?

I think Savov's only mistake is that such a move would necessarily dent Google's reputation. Early on, Google basically promised just such a tact: for phones to receive the full “Google Experience” of Maps, Market, etc., they had to meet certain standards. That was reasonable: the base OS was truly Free Software, but Google did not need to worry about tarnishing its name with “Google phones” that were garbage. Somewhere along the line, however, Google lost its resolve and we ended up with such unfortunate choices as otherwise excellent Galaxy S phones held back by buggy Bing apps in lieu of Google's suite.

Refusing to provide the proprietary bits of Android for substandard phones strikes me as a much better solution than Google's new choice of holding back the core, allegedly Open Source system from everyone. Google now looks like it is playing a bait-and-switch game; if it went back to its original policy, it could instead relate its actions to similar, generally accepted tactics of restrictions on trademarks and binaries used by Free Software giants such as Red Hat and Mozilla.


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