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29 September 2009, 12:32

Open Android Alliance formed

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Android Only days after Google took action against the CyanogenMod project for offering customised Android firmware (which copied portions of proprietary code), a group of Android developers formed the Open Android Alliance. According to the project's site, the group is "pro-Android" rather than "anti-Google". Their aim is to replace all of the closed source, proprietary applications included in OEM Android installations with open source alternatives that can be freely distributed.

In addition to the operating system itself and various open source components, default installations of Android include several proprietary Google applications, such as Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps, which are not open source and, as such, are not included in the Android source code repository. Provided that customised ROMs don't include its closed source applications, Google welcomes "custom Android builds" from developers.

The Open Android Alliance, which is currently using the Google Code platform, plans to release its source code under version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3), meaning that all code based on the project will remain open forever. It's currently not clear if Google will endorse the initiative's name or fight it under trademark law.

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