Google Releases Android Source Code

Google has announced Android is now Open Source. Google and their Open Handset Alliance partners have released the full source code for Android. There's a huge amount of code and content, too much in fact to repost here, so head over to http://source.android.com/ for all the details.

The Android Open Source Project site includes a project list, a feature description, guides to the roles people can have in the project and how to contribute, and of course the Android source code itself.

"We've all put a lot of effort into the first Android device, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out," said Google software engineer Dave Bort in an online post. "But one device is just the beginning. Android is not a single piece of hardware; it's a complete, end-to-end software platform that can be adapted to work on any number of hardware configurations. Everything is there, from the bootloader all the way up to the applications. And with an Android device already on the market, it has proven that it has what it takes to truly compete in the mobile arena."




The release of the Android comes on the heels of the release of a few new Android smart phones. Mainly the T-Mobile G-1. Google that releasing the code they will draw upon the collective energy of outside contributors to the project to build a bigger following.

Now that Android is open-source software other manufacturers may use it, and Rich Miner, vice president of Google's mobile platforms business is confident they will. Companies such as Kyocera and Motorola are reportedly building their own Android based phones and there are likely many more companies out there looking towards the platform.

"Think what happened to PC clones in the 1980s and 1990s timeframe. We're starting to see coming out of Taiwan the equivalent of a Micron motherboard," inexpensive mobile phone hardware that now can be made useful with Android, Miner said.

Just a few hours after the release of the code, the Open Source Team announced the First Android patches were accepted