If the court ended up forcing Google to sell Android, shouldn’t we worry that its license as an open source project could be removed and then it become proprietary?
A majority of the code would/could be forked and maintained.
What makes you think that? If you’ve ever taken a look at the AOSP source code, you’ll know that it’s insanely huge. This isn’t something a small community of volunteers can reasonably maintain; just like a web browser.
Or a project like GrapheneOS that’s already based on Android code would be expanded to fill the void.
Again, who do you expect to take on that insane task?
GrapheneOS is regular-ass android with some modifications to make it more secure on top. It’s not “based on Android” it is (mostly) Android. It does some important modifications but that’s details, not basic functionality.
If Google were to cut updates to Android, GrapheneOS would (rightly) make a stink but ultimately have to cease because they cannot maintain the entire rest of the Android code to keep it secure. I suspect they’d rather (loudly) end the project than keep limping along without proper security patches.
Again, your specificity is appreciated.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me Android devices are too important to just let them be abandoned if Google goes full-proprietary. It wouldn’t just be volunteers. Many companies have a huge stake in this OS and would continue to contribute.
it seems to me Android devices are too important to just let them be abandoned if Google goes full-proprietary
I wish it’d be that way.
It wouldn’t just be volunteers. Many companies have a huge stake in this OS and would continue to contribute.
If they don’t contribute now, I doubt they would then. They don’t have any incentive in making the AOSP better publicly because that also makes it better for their competitors.
I think all the OEMs would have individual contracts for source code access anyways. It’s not like open source is the only possible model for industry-wide code collaboration.
