Comments on: Wind River Announces Android Platform

By: ThinkOpenly

ThinkOpenly — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:03:21 +0000

I’m sure it was inevitable, but having the closed Flash platform available on the open Android platform is disappointing. Flash either needs to become open (unlikely), or needs to be replaced. HTML5, anyone? Let’s kill Flash while we still can.

By: chewtoy

chewtoy — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:41:02 +0000

Personally I think that’s a sign that Google isn’t doing the job I think most of us assumed they would take as their primary focus: shepherding packaging of Android with community contributions into an easily consumed, appealing-to-the-ODMs-and-carrier bundle.

But then again, I think we already have ample evidence of that. Every single time I see a phone come out with changes to the OS beyond inclusion of some bookmarks, visual voicemail, and carrier billing, I just want to scream.

This platform is *never* going to surpass iphoneOS with this approach. :-(

By: ari-free

ari-free — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:21:54 +0000

this ‘microsoftizes’ Android so that it is a compelling alternative to WinMo.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:35:49 +0000

I love my Droid, but I actually /am/ starting to get worried about the fragmentation of the platform. Go hang out on android-developers; you’ll see many, many various threads about how x-and-such doesn’t work right on the Cliq, or the Hero, or whatever, and some desperate developer going, ‘Hey, I don’t have Device X, and I’m getting reports that my app crashes on that. Anyone out there know why this is, since I don’t have one to debug on?’

There are /already/ headaches for Android developers in supporting the many different types of hardware and the slight variations in software. (HTC seems to have broken part of the Market on the Hero, for instance.) So while I think Wind River’s going to provide a good platform, this will still be Yet One More new set of variables into Android development. And then handset manufacturers and carriers will STILL want to do customization to differentiate their Android phone from others, and so the fragmentation continues.

While this announcement is cool, I do also find the continuing fragmentation worrisome.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:11:18 +0000

Well Wind River is part of the OHA … so they can’t do anything that causes fragmentation to the ANdroid platform.. all the oha members have signed on the dotted line about that issue..

I want screen shots and vids… how will they port this to devices? Can the end user get it.. or is this an OEM ?

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:16:33 +0000

Pretty interesting. Since Android is open I don’t see any drawback off the bat. They can’t close it up. If it brings more stability and support for the platform then it could push adoption even further (as if its lagging to begin with). I’m thinking enterprise. They’ll probably do alot of integration of components seen as important for enterprise adoption and maybe give it a more professional (read stuffy) interface as well. I see it as a downstream polish type of thing as Ubuntu is to Debian and Mint is to Ubuntu.